What foods are good for kidney disease?

White rice, pasta, white bread, egg whites, chicken, white fish, apples, pears, berries, cabbage, green beans and bell peppers are low in potassium and phosphorus. Leached potatoes and carrots also work. The key is portion size and preparation, not a fixed list of allowed foods.

What foods should be avoided with kidney disease?

Processed foods with phosphate additives, deli meats, canned soups, cola drinks, salt substitutes containing potassium chloride, bananas, oranges, potatoes cooked without leaching, nuts and whole grains in large amounts.

Renal diet food list: what to eat and what to limit

Most food lists tell you what to avoid and stop there. This one gives you the numbers, so you can decide with your own limits in hand.

How to read this list

Nothing here is banned outright. What matters is the amount, how often, and how you prepare it. A potato is high in potassium raw and manageable after leaching, same food, two different results.

All values are per 100 g. K = potassium, P = phosphorus, Na = sodium, in milligrams.

Grains and starches

White rice — K 76, P 33. One of the safest staples there is.
Pasta — K 170, P 150. Boil in plenty of water.
White bread — K 115, P 105, but Na 450. The sodium is the issue, not the minerals.
Whole wheat bread — nearly double the phosphorus. In kidney disease the usual "whole grain is better" rule reverses: the bran is where phosphorus and potassium concentrate.

Protein

Egg white — almost no phosphorus or potassium. The single best protein source in a renal diet.
Chicken breast — K 256, P 228. Fresh, not deli.
White fish — K 256-290, P 185-190.
Shrimp — K 260, P 205. Lower in potassium than most fish. Watch frozen shrimp treated with phosphates.
Deli meats — avoid. Sodium plus added phosphates, which are absorbed almost completely.

Fruit

Pineapple — K 109. The lowest of all.
Apple — K 113
Pear — K 119
Strawberries — K 153
Mandarin — K 166. A better citrus choice than orange.
Papaya — K 182
Melon — K 267, and 90% water. Counts toward a fluid restriction.
Banana, orange, dried fruit — the highest. Dried fruit concentrates potassium about five times.

Vegetables

Leaching changes everything here. Peel, cut small, soak, boil and discard the water twice: potassium drops by around 70%.

Potato — K 420 raw, around 126 after double cooking
Sweet potato — K 335 raw, lower than white potato
Carrot, chayote, zucchini, cabbage, green beans, bell pepper — all workable, leached when needed
Tomato — K 237 peeled and seeded. Canned sauce is the real problem: it concentrates as it reduces.

Every recipe, already calculated

In NefroChef you enter your kidney stage and the app shows only recipes that fit your limits, with potassium, phosphorus and sodium worked out per serving. Reviewed by a nephrologist.

See the recipes →

What to avoid, and why

Anything with "phosphate" in the ingredients. Added phosphorus is absorbed at almost 100%, natural phosphorus from meat or dairy only 40-60%. It never appears in the nutrition table, only in the ingredient list.
Salt substitutes. Most replace sodium with potassium chloride. A single teaspoon can exceed a full day's potassium allowance.
Canned soups and bouillon cubes. Among the highest sodium products in any supermarket.
Cola drinks. Phosphoric acid, fully absorbed.

Your exact limits depend on your stage, your weight and your lab results. This list is a starting point for a conversation with your nephrologist, not a replacement for one.