Confused About Diet for Stage 3 or 4 Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)

Just FYI for everyone struggling with a renal diet, as soon as I'm allowed I'd like to share a couple of excellent nutrient-information websites. For now, I can say I've discovered dozens of low-potassium, low-phosphorus food items and several good combinations of them. I'm willing to share those as well but with the caveat that anyone trying them absolutely must clear doing so with his or her medical care providers whether a primary care doctor or a nephrologist or other specialist and/or a renal dietitian. One of my favorites is tortilla pizza which calls for a "strict smidgen" of tomato paste, a little diced onion, a spoonful of pimientos, a (VERY) few slices of canned, no-sodium mushrooms,and non-dairy mozarella-flavored shreds; preheat oven to 350, smear an eensy bit of tomato paste on a flour tortilla, sprinkle with onion and pimiento, arrange mushroom slices then sprinkle "cheese" & bake about 6 minutes or until tortilla edges start to turn golden. 504.6 mg K (24 % DV for renal patients, lower than regular DV) 222.5 mg P (22 % DV for renal patients, lower than regular DV) Yummy! If you like this, feel free to share it. I made it up but you can experiment with your own ingredients.

Hi, bugsowen, While I regret you have joined us because of your new stage 3a diagnosis, I and many others here can certainly understand your initial concern and dismay at the lack of instruction from your physician. At my 1st visit to nephrologist, she told me to stop NSAIDS, use Tylenol for otc pain as needed, reduce vitamin C from 1,000 to 500 and come back in 6 mos following a lab test.

I also went on internet searches for more information. In addition to Mayo's info. on kidney disease, I found very helpful information at kidneyschool.org. Davita.org has renal diet suggestions and our Connect member, kamama94 has also compiled and shared specific foods and their values as well as kidney friendly recipes.

Each person is different and depending on the various lab results, I determine what I need to limit or avoid based on the individual readings. Seeing a dietitian helped me greatly in providing a combined diabetes/kidney meal plan to follow. Before finally getting a referral to the dietitian, I had printed out scores lists of kidney friendy and to avoid foods and other lists for diabetes.

The dietitian helped simplify a plan and included sample breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks examples. Some members follow a few "go-to" menus each week that also simplifies the initial overwhelm of the diagnosis. What I will tell you is that the effort put into learning more about your condition and learning how to understand your lab reports will help calm the initial shock and bring confidence too.

Making changes to my diet has improved both my diabetes and kidney egfr values. My last two lab reports raised my initial stage 3 gfr report to stage 2. Dietary changes and charting the lab values get the credit for improvement. While my focus is primarily plant based now, I do eat some chicken, fish and seafood. Giving up red meat almost entirely was difficult at first but it was a good choice for me. There are some very long experienced and knowledgeable members in this forum who are wonderful about sharing and responding to us newer members. Welcome aboard.

I am encouraged that diet had moved you back up (down) to stage 2. I am pre-diabetic and used to take a lot of NSAIDS for migraines and joint pain, but I also have hypertension. I would very much like to know what are the big no no's in foods. I cant see a nephrologist until December.

I love all your very well researched and thought out information. Newly diagnosed CKD here.

@csage1010 Welcome!

Many if not most kidney disease experts say to avoid or limit tomatoes, potatoes, bananas, avocados, oranges, red meats, etc., primarily because of high potassium and/or high phosphorus content, both of which weakening kidneys filter less effectively.

Based ONLY on my own PERSONAL experience, I can safely eat even most of the "No-Nos" in HALF or FOURTH servings (just for taste) and most of those only OCCASIONALLY.

Individuals are different! Stage 4 or no Stage 4, with a high dose of Lasix my kidneys filter out a lot of potassium and my lab work usually shows my potassium levels below normal so I can get away with consuming certain higher-potassium foods in small portions on a very limited basis. There's one exception and so far my labs are stable, especially in regard to potassium: I even eat potassium-leached, phosphorus-leached potatoes nearly every day.

I am NOT - I repeat, NOT - telling anyone else to do this.

I will tell you that I put myself on a renal diet before my primary even referred me to a Neph and when I finally did see Neph, she suggested a vegetarian diet which I began that same day.

Medical science now admits that a plant-based diet is healthier for more than just the kidneys so you might consider starting to limit or eliminate red meat from your diet and substitute certain kidney-friendly veggies. You can find lists of the latter on many kidney sites, including Davita.

Good luck and let us know how you're doing! We care!

Do you know of an app for people with CKD?

I am following this too. My husband has stage 3 kidney disease and was told to watch potassium amounts. It’s in almost every food. He’s still going through testing to hopefully get on a liver transplant list and has type 2 diabetes so
I am trying to figure out some healthy choices. We have a referral to a dietitian but haven’t secured an appointment yet.