Kidney Diet Tips

Tips for keeping a healthy potassium level

fruit and vegetables

Potassium is a mineral that keeps your heart beating at a normal rhythm as well as controlling the body’s other muscles. Therefore, because people with kidney failure can’t effectively eliminate excess potassium, it is usually limited on the dialysis diet. So how does someone on the dialysis diet keep potassium at a healthy level?

Generally, people on peritoneal dialysis are able to eat as they normally would because the peritoneal dialysis treatments are performed daily. People on home hemodialysis usually do dialysis treatments 5-6 times a week, making it easier to keep a normal potassium. People who are on in-center hemodialysis generally have 3 treatments a week, leaving more time for potassium levels to rise between treatments. Instruction on how to better control their potassium through the hemodialysis diet is helpful in keeping normal potassium.

People with chronic kidney disease who are not on dialysis may experience high potassium levels. Learning about which foods in their usual diet have the most potassium and making some adjustments can help keep potassium in the normal range.

 

 

Some tips for managing potassium include: 

Following these tips can help people on dialysis keep their potassium at a healthy level.

Kidney diet resources from DaVita.com

 

Sara Colman, RDN, CDCES

Sara Colman, RDN, CDCES

Sara is a renal dietitian with over 30 years experience working with people with diabetes and kidney disease. She is co-author of the popular kidney cookbook "Cooking for David: A Culinary Dialysis Cookbook". Sara is the Manager of Kidney Care Nutrition for DaVita. She analyzes recipes and creates content, resources and tools for the kidney community. In her spare time Sara loves to spend time with her young grandson, including fun times together in her kitchen.