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Nutritional

Nutritional and Dialysis

An important part of travelling is enjoying and tasting local cuisine and exploring new gastronomic traditions.
If you are careful to remember your own nutritional requirements and make any necessary adjustments to meals, you will still be able to enjoy and share new food experiences.

 

You will need to:

 

  • Eat more high protein foods.
  • Eat less high salt, high potassium, and high phosphorus foods.
  • Learn how much fluid you can safely drink (including coffee, tea, water, and any food that is liquid at room temperature).
Salt & Sodium

Use less salt and eat fewer salty foods: This may help to control blood pressure. It may also help reduce fluid weight gains between dialysis sessions since salt increases thirst and causes the body to retain (or hold on to) fluid.

 

  • Use herbs, spices, and low-salt flavor enhancers in place of salt
  • Avoid salt substitutes made with potassium.
Meat/Protein

People on dialysis need to eat more protein. Protein can help keep healthy blood protein levels and improve health. Protein also helps keep your muscles strong, helps wounds heal faster, strengthens your immune system, and helps improve overall health. Eat a high protein food (meat, fish, poultry, fresh pork, or eggs) at every meal, or about 8-10 ounces of high protein foods every day.

3 ounces = the size of a deck of cards, a medium pork chop, a ¼ pound hamburger patty, ½ chicken breast, a medium fish fillet.
1 ounce = 1 egg or ¼-cup egg substitute, ¼-cup tuna, ¼-cup ricotta cheese, 1 slice of low sodium lunchmeat, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, ½ ounce of nuts or seeds

Note: Even though peanut butter, nuts, seeds, dried beans, peas, and lentils have protein, these foods are generally limited because they are high in both potassium and phosphorus.

Grains/Cereals/Bread

Unless you need to limit your calorie intake for weight loss and/or manage carbohydrate intake for blood sugar control, you may eat, as you desire from this food group. Grains, cereals, and breads are a good source of calories. Most people need 6 -11 servings from this group each day.

Avoid “whole grain” and “high fiber” foods (like whole wheat bread, bran cereal and brown rice) to help you limit your intake of phosphorus. By limiting dairy–based foods you protect your bones and blood vessels.

You should allow yourself to feel excited about eating new, different food when travelling, but remember as well that you will have to keep to some dietary rules to ensure your kidney disease is controlled and that you enjoy your holiday to the full. Here are some tips here to help you plan:

  • keep to your normal eating schedule and do not skip meals: eating regular meals will help you maintain your normal metabolism; ensure you choose suitable meals, and the right portion sizes. When routines are relaxed on holiday, it is easy to skip a meal; and, when hungry, it can be hard to control what you eat, and you may make food choices that are not right for you.

Find out about the typical dishes and food traditions at your destination. You can then assess in advance which foods are best for your clinical situation, enabling you in turn to make the right decisions about what to eat. You can also always ask for help and advice from your home clinic team.
Do not be afraid to ask questions in restaurants about how the dish is cooked, any detail you need about ingredients and information about portion sizes, salt content etc.
As a renal patient, you might need to control thirst, avoid drinking too much and becoming overloaded with fluid. You can make this easier by controlling your salt intake.