You can include desserts and snacks on your kidney-friendly food list. Low-sodium crackers, pita chips, tortilla chips, popcorn, and nuts are all great snacks. Homemade dishes are best for dessert, such as fruit-based pies or cobblers, cheesecake, and cookies.
Foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt, such as crisps, chocolate, biscuits and cakes, can be included in your diet. However, because they do not contain good nutrients, they should only be included in small amounts occasionally.
Naturally low in sodium and fat, popcorn is a good kidney diet snack.
Foods low in potassium include most refined fats and oils, grains like cornmeal, white rice, and pasta, cheeses like soft goat cheese, and blueberries, eggs, leeks, Napa cabbage, and chia seeds. Boiling vegetables in water and discarding the water can help reduce their potassium and electrolyte content.
Rice is a great choice for the kidney diet—it provides energy and is low in minerals of concern for people with kidney disease or those on dialysis.
Butter contains saturated fat, which increases your risk for heart disease. The National Kidney Foundation notes that heart disease is a major risk factor for kidney disease and vice versa. Consume less butter, lard and shortening to reduce your intake of saturated fat and lower your risk for heart and kidney disease.
Low-quality chocolate containing high levels of milk, sodium, sugar, and preservatives is far from a healthy option. On the other hand, high-quality dark chocolate containing a high percentage of cocoa (above 85%) offers health benefits if you have kidney disease.
Large amounts of fried foods are not recommended as part of a healthy diet for anyone, whether a person has chronic kidney disease (CKD) or not.
Smart, kidney-friendly choices for dessert are fine when you have CKD. Low-potassium desserts, such as cake and fruit pies, can fit into a kidney diet and be a delicious sweet treat. It's healthier to enjoy goodies that are baked in your own kitchen than to eat the store-bought kind.
Avoid salty items like soy sauce, French fries (also high in potassium), and macaroni and cheese. Instead, order vegetables like carrots, green beans, or corn.
Phosphorus and Dairy Foods
Most dairy foods are very high in phosphorus. People with kidney disease should limit their daily intake of milk, yogurt, and cheese to ½ cup milk, or ½ cup yogurt or 1-ounce cheese.
Sugar is not a problem for the kidneys unless the blood sugar level gets too high. This commonly occurs in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
Individuals with kidney disease should limit their intake of yogurt because it is high in potassium and phosphorus. Yogurt is high in protein, a nutrient that dialysis patients require. It's also high in calcium and vitamin D.
Calcium-fortified soy, oat and coconut-based yogurts have a favorable nutritional composition for patients with kidney conditions.
Choose low-potassium vegetables such as lettuce, green beans, cucumbers, asparagus, carrots, cauliflower, peas, squash, zucchini, and radishes. Choose low-potassium foods such as pasta, noodles, rice, tortillas, and bagels.
Tomatoes are a good way to add extra potassium to your diet and decrease the need to take an additional potassium pill. Eating tomatoes will not have an effect on forming kidney stones.
While oatmeal is higher in potassium and phosphorus than other hot cereals, it can still be part of a healthy kidney diet. A 1/2 cup serving of cooked oatmeal has 80 to 115 mg potassium and 90 to 130 mg phosphorus.
Minimally processed oats can be an essential part of a kidney disease diet due to their rich nutritious content. Oats can aid in improving digestive and heart health. Oats are rich in a soluble fiber known as beta-glucan which signals the liver to remove LDL (bad) cholesterol from the blood.