Inorganic phosphate: a link between processed food and exercise intolerance in the modern world
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Overview
Review finds high dietary inorganic phosphate impairs muscle energetics and exercise capacity in humans and animal models, highlighting a metabolic risk of ultra-processed foods.
Key Points
- Synthesize experimental and clinical evidence linking dietary inorganic phosphate excess from ultra-processed foods to impaired skeletal muscle energetics and exercise intolerance.
- Reviewed population-based cohort studies evaluating serum phosphate, sedentary time, and physical activity levels.
- Evaluated physiological studies using 7-Tesla phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy alongside cellular and animal models of phosphate overload.
- Higher dietary and serum inorganic phosphate correlates with decreased physical activity, lower resting muscle ATP synthesis, and accelerated phosphocreatine depletion during exercise.
- High-phosphate diets reduce maximal oxygen uptake, treadmill endurance, and fat oxidation while downregulating skeletal muscle fatty acid metabolism genes.
- Phosphate overload promotes muscle atrophy through oxidative stress, autophagy, mitochondrial membrane depolarization, elevated fibroblast growth factor 23, and suppressed Klotho expression.
Cite This Study
Giacona et al. (2026) studied this question.