Claim Verification: "High-protein diets above 1.6 g/kg body weight damage kidneys in healthy people." — Disproved

Automated fact-verification of the claim: "High-protein diets above 1.6 g/kg body weight damage kidneys in healthy people." Verdict: DISPROVED Key Findings Three independent systematic reviews and meta-analyses — covering 28 RCTs with 1,358 participants plus a 148,051-person cohort meta-analysis — consistently find no kidney damage from high-protein diets in healthy adults (B1, B2, B3). A 2018 meta-analysis of 28 randomized controlled trials (the highest evidence level) concluded that higher-protein intakes "do not adversely influence kidney function on GFR in healthy adults" (B1). A 2024 meta-analysis of 148,051 participants found that higher protein intake is actually associated with lower CKD risk, not higher (B3). The 1.6 g/kg threshold in the claim is a sports-nutrition figure for muscle protein synthesis, not a clinically established kidney-safety limit; no nephrology guideline identifies it as a kidney-damage threshold for healthy people. Files proof.py — Re-runnable Python verification script proof.md — Structured proof report proof_audit.md — Full verification audit trail proof_narrative.md — Plain-language summary proof.json — Machine-readable structured data Generated by Proof Engine v1.3.1.