Do you ever find yourself wondering, “What’s for dinner?” If so, you’re not alone. With PKD, meal planning can help answer your questions about what to eat, and may help manage symptoms, improve quality of life, and slow the progression of kidney disease.

Understanding Nutrition Needs for PKD
Before we get started with meal planning, let’s look at the basics of nutrition with PKD. Your individual needs may vary, and it’s important to speak with your healthcare team for personalized recommendations, but some general guidelines include:

• Hydration: Drinking plenty of water helps reduce cyst formation and manage the thirst associated with some medications. Aim for 2-3 L of fluid per day (or more, depending on your healthcare team’s recommendations).
• Low sodium: Cooking at home and planning your meals ahead of time is a great way to follow a low-sodium diet. Aim for 2300 mg sodium per day (or less, depending on your healthcare team’s recommendations) from all foods, beverages, sauces, and seasonings.
• Moderate protein: Too much or too little protein is not good for the kidneys. Having a balanced diet is important. The type of protein you choose – animal or plant-based – can also impact kidney health.
• Lots of fibre from vegetables and fruit: Including vegetables and fruit in your diet adds fibre, as well as important nutrients that help reduce inflammation, improve urine pH, reduce blood pressure, and keep you feeling full.

Meal Planning with PKD
Meal planning is a tool for mapping out your meals for a set period, typically a few days or a week. With meal planning, you get to decide in advance what you would like to eat. And meal planning also helps to address variables such as your schedule, preferences, foods on hand, and what’s on sale or in season, before you purchase the food.

Meal planning, meal plans, and meal prepping are different. Meal planning helps to create meal plans, which are templates that suggest what to eat. Meal prepping is when you prepare the foods in advance for a few days. Starting with meal planning can set you up for healthy meals to manage your PKD, save time and frustration in the kitchen, and save money on food.

Tips for Effective Meal Planning with PKD

1. Assess Your Needs

• Health Goals: Understanding your specific nutritional needs, especially if you have a condition like PKD, is important. This might mean reducing sodium, controlling protein intake, or monitoring phosphorus and potassium levels, depending on your kidney function and bloodwork values.
• Other Goals: Perhaps you have other goals, like reducing food waste or being more environmentally friendly; these can also be included in your meal planning.

2. Decide What to Eat

• Weekly Meal Plan: Create a meal plan for the week, outlining what you will eat for each meal and snack. Choose recipes that can become part of your repertoire, like those in the Love Your Kidneys Cookbook. Having some ‘go-to’ favorites helps you plan your grocery list to ensure you have all the necessary ingredients on hand, and reduces the temptation to opt for unhealthy options at restaurants or fast food spots.
• Prep in Advance: If you are able, spend some time each week prepping ingredients. Chop vegetables, cook grains, and portion out snacks so that healthy options are readily available. This meal prepping can help save you time later in the week, but is not necessary with meal planning.

3. Balanced Meals

• Variety: Include a variety of foods to ensure you get a wide range of nutrients in your diet. Aim for different colours of vegetables, types of proteins, and whole grains.
• Portion Control: Aim for half of your meal to be vegetables, one quarter of your meal to be protein, and one quarter grains. Be mindful of portion sizes; use your hands to measure your portion sizes (example: animal-protein portion should be about palm-sized).

4. Healthy Cooking Methods

• Grilling, Baking, and Steaming: These heart- and kidney-healthy methods for cooking use less added fat, and can help retain more nutrients.
• Herbs and Spices: Use herbs and spices instead of salt to flavour your food. This can help manage sodium intake.

5. Smart Shopping

• Make a List: Based on your meal plan, create a shopping list to ensure you buy only what you need, reducing waste and impulse buys. Check your fridge to see what you already have, and need to use up.
• Read Labels: Check food labels for sodium, added sugars, and other ingredients that may not align with your dietary goals.

6. Flexibility

• Adjust as Needed: Be prepared to adjust your meal plan if something unexpected comes up. Flexibility can help you stay on track without feeling restricted.
• Leftovers: Plan for leftovers by cooking larger portions of healthy meals that can be enjoyed over a couple of days, or frozen for future use.

Stocking a PKD-Friendly Pantry
Part of meal planning is having the right foods available. Here are some go-to items to stock in your pantry so that mealtime can be easier.

Bottom Line with Meal Planning
Meal planning is a learned skill, and staying consistent is important to build confidence to continue planning. Start with one mealtime per week, such as dinner, to help you cook more at home, reduce food waste, and save time; then increase the meals you plan. Planning and eating nutritious meals can help to manage PKD.

About the author: Emily Campbell, RD CDE MScFN is a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator with a Master’s Degree in Foods and Nutrition. Emily specializes in helping those with kidney disease overcome the confusing world of nutrition to promote health. Emily and her team of dietitians can be found at kidneynutrition.ca.

More

• Looking for more information about what to eat with PKD? Check out Love Your Kidneys, a PKD cookbook and nutrition guide written especially for people with PKD.
• Watch one of Emily's webinar or PKD Summit recordings on the topic of Nutrition and PKD, here or here.
• Browse through Emily's Kidney Nutrition blogs on our website, here.