The right diet can have you looking and feeling your best. It’s too bad the mainstream rarely gets it right. Consider…

Researchers at Columbia University looked at the eating habits of 900 subjects. They gave each of them a score based on how closely their food choices lined up with a Mediterranean style diet. The higher their score, the closer to the ideal diet model.

After seven years they found that people with the highest scores had the lowest risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD). In fact, for every one-point score increase, risk dropped an additional 17%.

CKD affects at least 20 million people in the U.S. Your risk increases with age.1 Having it makes you up to five times more likely to die from a heart attack2 and raises your stroke risk by as much as 40%.

That’s where the right diet can do more than optimize your health… It can help actively protect you from disease. And the Mediterranean diet is certainly better than the standard American diet. It places an emphasis on fish, fresh fruits and vegetables…even high intake of healthy fats.

It’s not a bad choice. It’s just not your best choice.

And there’s a simple reason why…

The grains and other processed carbohydrates you’ll find on the Mediterranean diet cause spikes in blood sugar and inflammation. It doesn’t matter if it’s whole wheat or brown rice… True, they may be better than their more conventional counterparts…but they’re still not the best choice for optimizing your health.

Consider the Paleo Diet. It prevents inflammation by removing processed foods—especially grains. And its focus on organic fruits and vegetables means more antioxidant power to help protect your kidneys from aging—and other damage. It takes all the benefits of following a Mediterranean diet and removes the potential pitfalls that can keep you from your best health.

Paleo isn’t so much an official “diet” as it is a way of looking at food in general. The idea is to eliminate processed foods. If you can’t hunt it or eat it as it grows, skip it.

Try swapping out grains—even the “healthy” ones—for leafy green vegetables. That’s the first—and most important—step. Another way to help support your kidneys is to get enough exercise. It’s one of the most effective ways to help take control of your health. And research also shows even moderate exercise—something as simple as walking—makes you 33% less likely to die from CKD over 10 years.

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References:
1http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/284551.php
2http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/kustats/#9