Dr. Ashwini Gadde, MD, DNB, Consultant Nephrologist Fortis Memorial & Research Institute, Gurgaon
Kidneys do one of the important functions of filtering the waste and excess fluid from the body. Irreversible damage to their function is called Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Since the type of food intake has impact on the nature and amount of waste generated, dietary modification is one of the integral part of CKD management with three major goals.
Protein and Calories Requirement
Guidelines recommend a low protein diet (0.5-0.6gm/kg/day in non-diabetic 0.6-0.8 gm/kg /day in diabetic) in CKD who are not on dialysis and calorie intake of 25-35Kcal/kg/day.
Unfortunately, with this recommendation, many patients cut down or forced to cut down by care givers on dal, paneer, milk products, eggs etc. This blind practice can lead to increased frailty, increases susceptibility to infections and even premature death. Before these drastic changes are made, its important to check protein and calory content of one’s normal diet. Most of the Indian diets fail to achieve the basic nutritional needs especially of protein. Further decrease in protein intake can be harmful.
Patients on dialysis need high protein diet (1.2gm/kg/day). So diet plan should change once patient has been initiated on dialysis.