If young men eat a lot of phosphate for five days, their body makes less of a special hormone called Klotho that helps keep bones and kidneys healthy — so too much phosphate might quiet down this helpful hormone.

If healthy young men eat more phosphate-rich food for just five days, their blood phosphate levels go up—and so does a hormone called iFGF23 that helps control phosphate in the body.

When there's not enough of a protein called Klotho, cells age faster—and eating too much phosphate (a mineral found in processed foods) lowers Klotho in animals, which might be why phosphate makes aging worse.

When healthy young men eat a lot of phosphate for five days, their body doesn’t change the levels of several key hormones — so scientists think a different hormone called FGF23 is the main one responding to the extra phosphate.

If young men eat a lot of phosphate for five days, their bodies start peeing out less calcium—probably because the phosphate and calcium stick together in the gut before they can be absorbed.