Renal Diets Need Low Potassium Foods

Potassium is an important mineral, and especially significant when you’re counting your milligrams for a renal diet. Potassium can affect your kidneys, and as you progress in kidney disease, many are people required to follow a low potassium diet.

A lot of people find this very difficult. They find it hard to understand what foods are okay, and what foods to avoid. And some people even go overboard and avoid every bit of potassium, when managing the amount that you consume is the most important thing. Your body still needs some potassium, as it’s used in many muscle contractions and nerve endings. Sometimes it seems like it’s easier just to cut out the source of the problem, but that’s not always the best choice.

Eating Low Potassium Foods Includes Fruits

Low potassium foods in a diet are fees that you should eat more often than other foods that are high in potassium to add variety in your diet and allow you to have a plate full of food.  There are actually a large amount of allowed foods on a renal diet that are low potassium. You also want to be concerned about the amount of sodium that is in foods but when it comes to fruits and vegetables, it’s fairly easy to get low sodium because you can buy them fresh or frozen. That means there hasn’t been a lot of sodium added to them during the canning process.

Some high potassium fruits, such as citrus fruits and dried fruits, are not the best choices for a renal diet. Lighter colored fruits and berries are among the better choices for low potassium fruits. Apples, blackberries, cranberries, grapes, peaches and strawberries are some of the best low potassium feeds that you can eat.

Healthy Vegetables Are Low Potassium Foods

With vegetables, more of the green and yellow vegetables are going to be low potassium foods. Well that’s not completely true of every green food, because broccoli and brussels sprouts are both high potassium foods, many times green does win out as a low potassium food.

Beans, cabbage, celery, corn, cucumbers and radishes are all low potassium vegetables that can be placed on a fruit and vegetable plate for a party. You want to avoid broccoli, raw carrots, tomatoes, and beans. Again you want to make sure that you’re using fresh or frozen products, instead of canned, to reduce the sodium. If you want to use canned vegetables, rinse them first multiple times to reduce the amount of sodium they contain.

Put It All Together For Your Snack Food Tray

Now let’s talk about a recipe to add together to make a good snack food tray that you can take to your next party.

As far as fruit you can add:

sliced apples
cherries
cranberries
grapes
peaches
pineapple
pears
strawberries

As far as vegetables you can add:

wax beans, rinsed
cauliflower
celery
cucumber
mushrooms
peppers
yellow squash
zucchini squash

When you’re creating your plate choose three or four from each category of fruit and vegetables and assemble your tray.  Remember to add a dressing in the center that is an oil/vinegar mixture to lower the sodium and potassium of the tray.

Hope you have a great party, and you’ll provide a healthy snack for everyone not just the person you need to renal low potassium foods diet.