Dietary Management in Chronic Renal Failure

Chronic renal failure (Chronic Kidney Disease) is a condition resulting from slow progressive destruction of kidneys.

Since kidneys are main organs concerned with elimination of waste products of proteins and Nucleic Acid metabolism, these waste products accumulate in the body in renal failure. Healthy eating plays an important role in helping to manage chronic renal failure. Regardless of how much kidney function you have, what you eat is an essential part of your kidney care plan. Healthy eating can help to do the following:

• Meet your nutritional needs so that you won’t be malnourished
• Cut down the workload on your kidneys to help maintain your kidney function that is left
• Control the build-up of food wastes like urea
• Reduce symptoms like nausea, itching and bad taste in the mouth
• Help maintain a healthy weight and prevent muscle loss
• Prevent infection
• Give you the energy you need to perform your daily tasks
• Help control high blood sugar if you have diabetes

Chronic renal failure could be mild, moderate or severe.

Aims of Diet Therapy:

• To restrict protein intake since end-products of protein metabolism cannot be excreted in renal failure.
• To maintain normal nitrogen balance so that there is no wasting of body tissue.
• To regulate fluid and electrolyte intake.
• To supply necessary vitamins and other nutrients to maintain general nutritional status.

Food tips in chronic renal failure:

• In chronic renal failure diet has to be low in protein depending upon the urea content of the blood.
• Prescribed quantity of low protein should be essentially of good quality for its proper utilization. Milk and its products or egg should be part of the planned diet.
• Cereals, pulses, peas, beans should be taken in prescribed amount only.
• Fats and carbohydrates can compensate the low protein diet to meet the calorific requirements.
• Thus ghee, oil sugar, potatoes and other starchy foods can be used to increase the palatability of the diet.
• Cakes, biscuits and bakery products, jam, squashes and sharbats can be used except in the cases where salt is restricted.
• Make use of fruits and fruit juices to supply vitamins and minerals, Lime, mango, plum, orange, cheeku, tomato, anar can be taken except when potassium is restricted.
• Spices and condiments in a small quantity may be used.