Fish and Egg white Diet In Non-Dialyzing In-Patients with Moderate Chronic Renal Failure

Dietary management of chronic renal failure (CRF) is effective in delaying the progression to end stage renal failure and the need for dialysis. However, a full agreement on the type and optimal protein intake for patients with CRF has not been reached. This study compared the efficacy of low-protein diets obtained from a mixture of fish and egg white diet (experimental diet=diet A) and a mixture of smoked cat fish, cowpea pudding (moinmoin) and egg white diet (control diet=diet B) on sixteen in patients (11 males and 5 females) aged 23 to 56 years with moderately severe CRF. The patients were randomly distributed into experimental and control groups of eight patients each. Each group was fed on iso caloric and 0.55g protein/ kgBW /day diets for 28 days. A semi - structured - interviewer- administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on the socio-economic characteristics and the clinical history of the subjects. The initial and final energy intake, anthropometric and biochemical indices of the subjects were compared using student t- test. The mean age of the patients was 47(11.3) years. Hypertensive sclerosis was the major cause of their CRF. The mean difference of the subjects’ energy intake, body weight and packed cell volume ( 194.19± 107.10 kcal/day, 2.06 ±5.2 kg, and 1.50 ±0.70%) for patients on diet A were significantly higher than the corresponding values of the subjects on diet B (101.42± 36.8 kcal/day, 0.44 ±0.53kg, 0.91±0.04%) respectively (p<0.05). The blood urea and serum creatinine (-47.35±5.77mg/dl and –0.81± 0.84 mg/dl) decreased significantly in the patients placed on diet A when compared with (-27.24 ±5.72mg/dl and -0.41±0.13mg/dl) in the patients placed on diet B (p< 0.05). The combination of smoked catfish and egg white diet was found to be more efficacious while the mixture of smoked catfish, cowpea pudding (moinmoin) and egg white diet, performed below expectation in the patients with moderately severe CRF. It is recommended that cowpea protein should be the major protein sources in the diet of patients with CRF.