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

@bugsowen, Welcome! There are some very good resources available online plus three recipe collections I have which I will post to you here. One utilizes Native American foods, the longer one is diabetic and kidney friendly and values may have changed since it was written (read labels,) and another short one consists of recipes using small amounts of ingredients kidney patients once were told to limit or avoid. Give me a few minutes to convert the documents to pdf form for posting here. Good luck!

@bugsowen, be sure to check with your care team before preparing and consuming any recipe. Even though these collections have been vetted by a primary care physician and a nephrologist, each of us is different and may need to make adjustments in amounts and ingredients. Just so you know, love and hope live here! Happy eating!

@bugsowen, always read food labels!

@bugsowen, this is my personal favorite

@wietop, see the pdf recipe collections and diet information uploaded to @bugsowen, they may be helpful. If you can't download them, let me know and I will post them to you separately. Happy eating!

Can you download to my computer. I
I can print from this device. Thank you! This blog is very helpful in communicating with like people. It's great therapy. It's very amazing that CKD is not widely known considering the gravity of this disease.

Hi @bugsowen, you'll notice that I removed your personal email from your message above. Mayo Clinic Connect is a public forum, thus we recommend sharing personal contact information by using the private message function. Learn how here: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/get-started-on-connect/

Attn everyone, in the recipes use caution with cayenne since not everyone likes that much heat! A pinch is plenty for most people.

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.

@kamama94, So many of my friends are adverse to spicey or peppery dishes but I say if a pinch of cayenne is good, a double pinch may be even better. Smiles