The diet for early-stage kidney disease often requires a number of changes. In this article, you'll learn exactly what these are and how you can easily keep track of them with the help of a few little tricks and the Mizu app.
After a diagnosis of early-stage kidney disease, a number of changes often come your way. Changes in your diet play an important role in protecting your kidneys. Adjustments to your diet can help maintain kidney function, prevent progression of kidney disease, and keep your kidneys fit and functioning well. For many, however, recommendations on diet for kidney disease are contradictory and confusing. Therefore, in this article we have compiled an overview of the most important recommendations for nutrition with early-stage kidney disease for you.
With the help of these tips and tricks, you can easily navigate your diet in the context of your early-stage kidney disease. However, you should keep in mind that many of these recommendations only apply if you have significantly impaired kidney function with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (=eGFR) of less than 60 mL/min.
Why is nutrition so important with early-stage kidney disease?
You probably already know that your diet plays an extremely important role in your overall health and fitness. So it's no wonder that changing your diet with kidney failure can help slow the progression of kidney failure. Your overall health can also be significantly affected and improved through diet alone.
The reason your diet is especially important in kidney failure is because of how your kidneys work. Your kidneys take over the task of a janitor in your body. In a healthy state, they cleanse your blood of harmful substances, waste products and breakdown products that accumulate in your body. In the case of early-stage kidney disease, this filtering function of your kidneys continuously decreases. As this filtering function decreases, so does the ability to keep important substances in your blood in balance.
Adjustments to your diet may therefore be necessary to restore this balance if your kidneys are no longer able to do this sufficiently on their own. Let's take a look at what the exact recommendations are for a diet with early-stage kidney disease.
Proteins & early-stage kidney disease
Proteins are a basic component of your diet and serve as building blocks for your cells and organs. In your body, protein is later converted into urea, which is excreted in your urine. If you have early-stage kidney disease, these breakdown products from protein metabolism can no longer be adequately excreted.
Adjusting and limiting your protein intake can therefore help to relieve your kidneys. There are different recommendations. The German Society for General and Family Medicine (DEGAM) recommends a protein intake of 0.8 - 1 g per kilogram of body weight per day in its guideline. Even stricter limits are often discouraged, since too low a protein intake can lead to malnutrition and the loss of important muscle mass.
Potassium, Phosphate & early-stage kidney disease
If your kidney function is impaired to an advanced degree, your kidneys are no longer sufficiently capable of keeping important minerals in your blood in equilibrium. In particular, these include potassium and phosphate. The eGFR indicates how much blood your kidneys clean per minute. The higher this value, the better your kidneys work.
- With an eGFR of less than 30 mL/min, you may be advised to reduce your daily phosphate intake to less than 800 mg.
- At an eGFR of less than 30 mL/min, you may be advised to consume no more than 3,000 mg of potassium per day.
In any case, you should regularly check the limits for phosphate, potassium, and protein with your medical team. Always remember that a high protein, phosphate, or potassium level does not mean that you can no longer eat a food. You should place much more emphasis on eating certain foods in moderation. This will ensure that you don't exceed your daily recommendations for potassium and phosphate, while still maintaining a balanced diet.
Table salt & early-stage kidney disease
The World Health Organization (= WHO), the German Nutrition Society (= DGE) and other institutions recommend limiting the daily intake of common salt to a maximum of 5 g per day - regardless of kidney function. This is mainly due to sodium, which is contained in table salt. Sodium binds water in your blood vessels and can thus drive up your blood pressure. This becomes a problem especially when your kidneys are no longer able to keep the sodium and water balance.
Restricting your salt intake if you have a known kidney deficiency will not only keep your kidneys fit and healthy, but also your cardiovascular system.
Water & early-stage kidney disease
1. Early stages of kidney disease
Especially in the early stages of stage kidney disease, it is important that you drink enough fluids. This fluid supports your kidneys in their work and thus prevents dehydration (= too little water in the body), which can lead to dangerous damage to your kidneys, especially on hot summer days.
2. Advanced stages of kidney disease & kidney failure
In advanced stages of early-stage kidney disease and the beginning stages of kidney failure, your urine output may continue to decrease. This is because the filtering function of your kidneys no longer works properly, allowing less water and waste products to leave your body through urine. The excess water then tends to collect in your legs (=edema) or even in your lungs (= pulmonary edema). In order to prevent this, it may be necessary to restrict the amount of water you drink. However, you should always discuss such a restriction of your drinking quantity with your medical team.
The following is a summary of the most important recommendations mentioned above for adjusting your diet with kidney failure:
What diets can you follow with early-stage kidney disease?
Currently, there is no specific diet explicitly designed for people with chronic kidney disease. Therefore, you can best follow dietary recommendations that have a positive effect on your cardiovascular system and thus on your general health. These include the Mediterranean diet and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, which was originally developed to optimize blood pressure. Both diets emphasize a balanced, varied diet with a focus on fresh foods. Processed foods, sugar and unhealthy fats are to be cut down in both the DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet.
1. The Mediterranean diet
As the name suggests, the Mediterranean diet is based on the traditional diet of the countries around the Mediterranean Sea (Italy, Spain, etc.). It includes large amounts of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. At least twice a week you should eat fish or seafood.
On the other hand, you should avoid red meat, sugar, and industrially processed foods. This means that natural, fresh, and unprocessed foods should be the main ingredients in your shopping basket. It is also common to use olive oil as the main source of fat.
Scientists have shown that the Mediterranean diet could reduce the risk of development and progression of many chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension or chronic kidney failure. So the Mediterranean diet is ideal for keeping your kidneys fit and healthy.
2. The DASH diet
The DASH diet was originally developed to lower blood pressure. Core elements of the DASH diet include increased consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, legumes, nuts, and seeds - much like the Mediterranean diet.
It is also recommended to reduce the consumption of red meat and sugar. It is also particularly important to avoid salty foods in order to limit the intake of table salt and thus sodium.
The DASH diet has also been shown to lead to a reduction in blood pressure and a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. The improved blood pressure control and reduced salt consumption can also positively affect your kidneys.
The Mizu App Food Diary
Are you ready to put what you've learned into practice? The Mizu app can support you in the best possible way. You can easily use the food diary for this purpose. In your food diary, you can set your personal target corridors for the various nutrients mentioned, view them, and adjust them if necessary. This applies to proteins, phosphate, potassium, sodium, or water. If you have questions about your personal target corridors for nutrition with CKD, you can always contact your medical team.
