Healthy Eating Tips for Managing Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Nutrition

Chronic kidney disease, also known as chronic renal disease or CKD, is a condition characterized by gradual loss of kidney function over time.

Chronic kidney disease includes conditions that damage kidneys and decrease their ability to keep healthy by filtering wastes from the blood. If kidney disease worsens, wastes can build to high levels in the blood and make the patient sicker.

Here are some nutrition tips that you can follow :

1- Water and liquid food intake– Fluid intake should be restricted according to the condition. Daily weight charts must be recorded. Any improper gain in weight may indicate increased fluid intake.

2- Carbohydrate– To ensure that the body gets adequate calories, the CKD patient can take sugar or glucose containing food along with cereals provided, the patient should not be diabetic.

3- Protein– Lean meat, milk, cereals, legumes, eggs and chicken are the main source of protein. CKD patients who are not on dialysis are advised to limit dietary protein to less than 0.8 grams/ kg body weight/ day. Once dialysis is started, dietary intake can be increased to 1- 1.2 grams/ kg body weight per day. If patients are going through peritoneal dialysis they may need dietary proteins as high as 1.5 grams/ kg body weight per day. While animal proteins contain all essential amino acids and would be ideal, they should be limited especially in patients not yet on dialysis because they may accelerate the progression of CKD.

4- Fat– Fats may be taken in as an energy source; they are a good source of calories. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats in the  form of olive oil, sunflower oil, canola oil or soybean oil may be taken in limited quantities. Restrict saturated fats such as those found in animal lards.

5- Salt– Most of the patients are guided to take a low salt diet. It is good to remark on a “no added salt’ diet. Always look at the food labels and go for low sodium foods but make sure that salt substitutes containing high amounts of potassium are also avoided. Check food labels for other foods containing sodium such as sodium bicarbonate and avoid them.

6- Cereals– Rice or rice products like flattened rice can have. To avoid monotony to taste one can rotate intake of various cereals like wheat, rice, sago, semolina, all purpose flour, and cornflakes. Small quantities of corn and barley can be recommended.

7- Vegetables – Vegetables with low potassium can be liberally added, but make sure to leach out the potassium from the vegetables which are high in potassium.

8- Fruits– Fruits with low potassium content like apples, grapes and berries can be taken but once a day. On the day of dialysis, patients can have any one allowed fruit. Fruit juices and coconut water must be avoided.

9- Milk and milk products– Milk and milk products such as milk, yogurt and cheese contain large amounts of phosphorus and need to be restricted. Other dairy foods that have lower amounts of phosphorus include butter, cream cheese, ricotta cheese, sherbets and non-dairy whipped toppings may be taken instead.

10- Cold drinks– Avoid dark coloured sodas as they have a high phosphorus content. Avoid taking fruit juice or coconut water because of the potentially high potassium content.

11- Dry fruits– Dry fruits, ground nuts, sesame seeds, fresh or dry coconut must be avoided.

Prakriti Analysis Individual

It is very useful to do the prakriti analysis as it tells us about the mental, physical and functional aspects of our body. The Prakriti-based guidelines for diet, lifestyle and usage of herbs results in healthy tissue and balance of doshas. If we take out some time to do our Prakriti Analysis, it will help us to know about our body condition.

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