Kidney Diet Tips

Where can I find menus for my dialysis diet?

3195175_thumbnail1.jpg3195175_thumbnail1.jpg   Menus are a helpful tool for learning about what to eat on a kidney diet. Sometimes planning meals is the most difficult step in making diet changes. With pre-planned menus it’s easy to create a grocery list, do a little shopping, then start cooking kidney friendly meals.

A couple of drawback are that menus don’t take into consideration what a person likes or dislikes. Pre-planned menus aren’t designed for an individual’s specific diet, so may not have the amount of protein, calories or minerals that matches a person’s dietary needs.

Here are a couple of resources I have discovered for some pre-planned kidney-friendly menus for a dialysis diet.

Check out DaVita.com’s regional menus–each includes information about traveling to different areas, foods that are produced or served in the region, recipes for some regional favorites and a one day menu.
http://www.davita.com/diet-and-nutrition/c/regional-menus

Another place to find dialysis diet menus is at
http://www.kidneyschool.org/splash/toc.shtml

Kidney school provides 15 modules on kidney disease. One module is on nutrition and it includes 2 weeks of pre-planned menus for hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis diets. Modifications for diabetes or non-diabetes are also included.

A third resource for pre-planned menus is to ask your dietitian to provide menus based on your meal plan. 

After finding pre-planned menus it’s a good idea to ask the dietitian to look over them so they can help individualize the meals to match personal dietary needs. 

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.