People would need to consumer 87 per cent fat within their diet

The study, published in journal PLoS ONE, found that a diet high in fat a low in carbohydrates could help to repair kidney failure in diabetic mice.

Kidney damage is a common problem for diabetic people, it is estimated that a third of the 2.8m people in the UK with either type 1 or 2 diabetes go on to develop kidney damage.

The diet, called the ketogenic diet, means that people would have to consume 87 per cent fat within their diet.

The study was conducted by putting diabetic mice with kidney problems onto the ketogenic diet for eight weeks.

Professor Charles Mobbs, who led the research, said, ‘I certainly think it has a promise, but I can’t recommend it until we have done clinical trials.’

However, Dr Iain Frame, director of research at Diabetes UK, was not so confident with the studies results. He said, ‘It is too simple to say that kidney failure could be prevented by diet alone and it is also questionable whether the diet used in this model would be suitable for humans, even in the short term.’

By Lauren King