31/07/2025
If you have chronic kidney disease (CKD), your diet plays a crucial role in managing the condition and potentially delaying or avoiding dialysis. It's important to understand that a "kidney-friendly" diet needs to be personalized and monitored by a healthcare professional, especially a registered dietitian specializing in renal nutrition.
Here's a general overview of dietary strategies to consider:
1. Limiting Key Nutrients:
Sodium: Excess sodium can lead to fluid retention, swelling, and high blood pressure, which further strains the kidneys.
What to avoid/limit: Processed and packaged foods (canned soups, frozen dinners, chips, crackers, processed meats like bacon and deli turkey), restaurant meals, added salt, sauces, and salad dressings.
What to do: Choose fresh or frozen vegetables over canned, eyeball nutrition labels for low sodium content, cook at home, and flavor your food with herbs, spices, lemon, or vinegar instead of salt.
Potassium: When kidneys aren't functioning well, potassium can build up in the blood, leading to dangerous heart rhythms.
What to avoid/limit: High-potassium foods include bananas, oranges, potatoes, tomatoes, avocados, prunes, raisins, melons, milk, yogurt, beans (baked, black, pinto), nuts, and some whole-grain breads. Salt substitutes often contain high levels of potassium, so avoid them.
What to do: Opt for lower-potassium fruits and vegetables like apples, cranberries, grapes, pineapples, blueberries, cauliflower, onions, peppers, radishes, and lettuce. Drain canned fruits and vegetables to reduce potassium. Your dietitian can guide you on specific portion sizes.
Phosphorus: High phosphorus levels can pull calcium from your bones, weakening them, and also impact heart health.
What to avoid/limit: Dark colas, processed cheese and dairy, beans, nuts, whole grain breads, and many processed foods with "phos-" on the ingredient list (like disodium phosphate). Animal-based foods tend to have higher phosphorus absorption
Nurse Ugom 🥰
