Consuming at least two soft drinks per day is linked with increased excretion of protein in the urine. (Reuters)

A diet including soft drinks and sugar could negatively affect your kidneys, new research has found.

Two new studies highlight the potential negative effects that soft drinks and sugar can have on kidney health.

In one study, researchers led by Ryohei Yamamoto from Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, in Japan, found that consuming at least two soft drinks per day is linked with proteinuria - or increased excretion of protein in the urine, which is a hallmark of kidney dysfunction.

Among 3579, 3055, and 1342 university employees with normal kidney function at the start of the study who reported that they drink zero, one, and two or more soft drinks per day, 301 (8.4 per cent), 272 (8.9 per cent) and 144 (10.7 per cent) employees developed proteinuria during a median of 2.9 years of follow-up, respectively.

Another study led by Agustin Gonzalez-Vicente, from the Case Western Reserve University in US, conducted in rats found that moderate fructose intake increases the kidney's sensitivity to angiotensin II, a protein that regulates salt balance.

This leads to increased salt re-absorption by cells in the kidneys, a finding that might help explain why consumption of high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener may contribute to the epidemic of diabetes, obesity, kidney failure, and hypertension, researchers said.

Results of these studies were presented during ASN Kidney Week 2013 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, US.

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