In my clinical practice I get some diet related queries from CKD patients. Today I will discuss about these FAQs.
Potassium rich foods and CKD: Many patients ask about dangers of elevated potassium levels in blood and the reasons for not eating potassium rich food.
The elevated levels of potassium in blood leads to problems of nerves, muscles and ultimately heart also gets affected.
Therefore, it is important for CKD and dialysis patients to follow their doctor and dietitian properly.
Eating out for CKD patients: Many patients ask that they have an amazing social life; now what can I eat when socializing?
According to me CKD patients can eat outside food and enjoy their social life if they take care of following points:
They should avoid gravies, sauces, and soups to control fluid intake.
While eating outside CKD patients should consume less vegetables and should choose low potassium food items. For example: rice, pasta, bread, and noodles are low potassium food items.
Kidney patients should not use additional salt in already cooked food and if possible, one should order low salt food.
CKD patients should avoid starters or snacks which are generally given along with drinks and cocktails.
Kidney patients should avoid fruit and vegetable juices.
They can take whisky and vodka, but wine and beer should be avoided.
CKD and Keeping Ideal Body Weight
CKD patients frequently ask why it is important to maintain ideal body weight. According to me it is important to maintain ideal body weight.
If you are too fat you will have problems with heart and cholesterol.
If you are thin, it means your diet is not proper and due to this, you tend to catch frequent infections.
How much a CKD patient should weigh; this only a dietitian can tell you. I can tell you general things:
- A patient should take proper three meals.
- A regular physical activity of 30-40 minutes should be done.
- One should be careful about what to eat. Avoid fatty, sugary, and salty food.
- Patient should add starchy food in his diet like bread, potato, rice, and pasta.
Weight Gain During CKD
There are two main reasons of weight gain during CKD:
The first reason is the diet you are taking is excess in fluid or you are drinking more water. You need to take care that the liquid content of your diet should be less.
The second reason of weight gain is that your kidneys are excreting less urine which means kidney function has reduced than before.
How to control my thirst: In my practice patients ask me how to reduce intake of water. Let me give some tips:
- Drink small quantity of water at frequent intervals.
- Reduce consumption of salty food and never add salt in cooked food as this will increase thirst.
- Tea and coffee increase the thirst; one should decrease the intake of tea and coffee.
- Take less sauce, gravy, and soup in food.