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Chronic Kidney Disease
Nutrition Therapy For People on Dialysis - Survival Skills                                                  

Why Was Nutrition Therapy Prescribed?

Your Kidneys are not working well enough for you to stay healthy, so dialysis treatment is needed. You will need to follow a special meal plan when you are on dialysis that will help control levels of certain minerals in your body. They are sodium, potassium, calcium, and phosphorus. Some of the goals for this meal plan are to prevent waste products from building up in your blood, lessen the amount of fluid your body keeps, and prevent bone loss.

Too much sodium (salt) may cause your blood pressure to be high, increase your thirst, and make your body keep fluid that it shouldn’t. This plan limits the amount of salt in your meal.

While you need some potassium to control muscle function, when blood levels of it are too high or too low, your heart will not work well. Therefore, you need to limit the amount of potassium in your meal plan.

Calcium and phosphorus keep your bones and teeth strong. Healthy kidneys remove extra phosphorus from your blood, but dialysis doesn’t remove it as well. A high blood level of phosphorus tells your blood to take calcium form your bones. This will cause them to become weak, brittle lead to bone disease. Calcium may also build up in the arteries and other soft tissues. For these reasons, you need to avoid eating calcium-fortified foods.

Extra fluid is normally removed by the kidneys. Because your kidneys are not working, you must limit how much you drink. If you body keeps fluids, your ankles and feet may swell. Fluid may also build up in your lungs, and cause shortness of breath and other more serious problems.

Protein, found in such foods as meats and eggs, is needed to build and repair muscles, fight infection, and replace the protein that is lost from dialysis. It’s important for you to get protein that is lost from dialysis. It’s important for you to get protein in the foods you eat every day. 

Foods Not Recommended

Avoid eating too much of these foods

• High-protein foods that are high on salt, potassium, and/or phosphorus

• High potassium fruits and vegetables; Note: Eat less of these especially if blood potassium level is high
• High-phosphorus foods

• Whole wheat products

• Salt and salt blends

    Don’t eat vegetables that are canned or processed with salt.
 
    Don’t eat salted snack foods.

   (Based on the National Renal Diet)
 

   Sodium (salt) 

• First, don’t add more salt to your food at the dining table.

• Second, read the food labels and don’t eat foods that have more than 300 milligrams of sodium in each serving. Last, don’t eat the following foods:

• Table salt

• Soy sauce

• Convenience foods (such as TV dinners, canned or dried soups, stews, casseroles, and deli meals)

• Fast foods (commercial hamburgers, pizzas, and tacos)

• Cured or processed meats and chesses

• Salted snack foods

    Fluids
    All drinks including water and foods that are liquid at room temperature fluids, such as   
    Jell-O, ice cream, or ice.

    Potassium
    Don’t eat large amounts of high-potassium foods like oranges, orange juice, prune
    juice, bananas, tomatoes, tomato juice, dried fruit, baked potatoes, nuts, and seeds.   
    Limit fruits, vegetables, and juices to 4-6 half-cup servings each day. Don’t add salt
    substitutes or potassium chloride to your foods.

Dialysis Sample –Day Menu