Healthy foods that are not healthy for kidney patients
Kidneys are workhorses that play a crucial role in your body by filtering more than about 200 quarts of blood and nearly 2 quarts of waste products every day. Keeping your kidneys functioning and healthy is therefore, essential for removing and detoxifying wastes.
Unfortunately, a huge number of your favourite healthy foods can actually harm your kidneys and prevent them from operating at optimal levels.
And if you are already suffering from kidney ailments or are at high risk of acquiring renal dysfunction, then you should definitely talk to your renal dietitian or even find a nutrition reference guide to look up for foods. Here are a list of such foods that you need to keep at bay or at least limit them to reduce your kidney’s burden.
What foods should kidney patients should pay close attention to
Generally, fresh fruits and vegetables work wonders for kidney disease patients since most of these food items are high vitamin, high fiber and low protein. However, patients with hyperkalemia, should restrict taking those that are rich in potassium as it may cause heart failure or arrhythmia and even threaten the life of patients.
High potassium fruits include:
- banana
- kiwi
- orange
- nectarines
- dried fruits
- dried prunes
- vegetables
- encompass tomato
- spinach
- avocados
- beets
- potato
Usually kidney problems cause excessive building up of phosphorous in blood stream as your kidneys become incapable of filtering the element that can be highly dangerous for bones and eventually lead to bone fracture and osteoporosis.
High phosphorous foods like:
- nuts,
- chocolate
- soy cheese
- hard cheese
- soy yogurt
- carbonated drinks
should be at least limited or even avoided to keep phosphorous levels in your blood close to normal.
And what foods should kidney patients avoid
Foods like:
- Restaurant foods
- fast foods
- highly processed foods
- canned foods
must be avoided since these are high in sodium that can increase blood pressure and worsen edema.
Your body requires very low amount of sodium for maintaining proper fluid balance that you can easily get from fruits and vegetables.
However, processed foods add a large deal of salt to enhance flavors and when you eat too much of these foods, your kidneys function by retaining water for diluting the electrolyte in your blood stream in order to maintain proper functioning of heart function. Long term intake of salt can cause too much damage to the kidneys along with aorta and heart.
Always avoid GMO foods
Genetically modified ingredients present in a large percentage of processed foods include:
- corn,
- sugar cane
- soy rice
- canola
- sugar beets.
These foods should not be consumed by kidney patients as the seeds are genetically engineered for increasing pest resistance, improving crop yields and making plants immune to herbicides.
Researches claim that these food varieties create a state of hepatorenal toxicity that can severely damage your liver and kidney. Carbonated beverages like energy drinks and soda should be avoided as they are often associated with formation of kidney stones. Also artificial sweeteners that are widely known for being non caloric can significantly decline kidney function. So if you want a little sweet, your best bet would be to skip the sweeteners and stick to stevia.
About the Author
Michaelw Hi, my name is Michael and in this blog I'm gonna share the story of how I got off kidney dialysis for good. Getting off dialysis isn't easy at all, and that's why I'm trying to help people as much as I can.
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