The 7 Biggest Kidney Diet Mistakes I See as a Kidney Doctor

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]One of the hardest parts about kidney disease is that the diagnosis is frightening and isolating. And when someone gets that diagnosis, they start searching for dietary advice all over the internet. And while there are some brilliant and educated dietitians out there, unfortunately, a lot of the advice that you see is outdated. It's extreme. It's not related to their specific situation or it's just plain wrong. So, let's talk about some of the biggest food mistakes people make with kidney disease. And while we're talking, I'm going to be making a Mediterranean salad for my lunch. I'm Dr. Blake Schustman. I'm a boardcertified kidney doctor and a cooking doc. And everything we talk about here is just for information. This is not medical advice.

[00:00:41]Make sure you like, subscribe, and share so you never miss a new recipe or a new health tip. Mistake number one is when people with kidney disease cut out fruits and vegetables even though they don't have to. Every week I see a patient or a person in the office who read about kidney disease in a kidney diet and limiting potassium and suddenly bananas, potatoes, tomatoes, greens and half the produce aisle, it all gets treated like toxic waste. They give up all of that good stuff. Now there are times where potassium needs to be limited but not everybody and in fact most people with kidney disease don't need a very strict potassium restriction. And even among people who do, and there are some people with kidney disease who do need that, the answer is not never eat produce again or to completely cut out some of your favorite foods. I say this as I'm cutting tomatoes. That kind of advice that can make the overall diet worse and actually contribute to making kidney disease worse. That's why it's not a good idea to just start cutting out fruits and vegetables altogether.

[00:01:42]Mistake number two is when people focus on what to avoid and they don't focus on what to enjoy. A lot of people get handed a list of don'ts. Don't eat this, don't eat that. And their diet gets built around fear instead of promoting their health. You know, their their doctors, they they take away food, but they don't help them create a balanced eating pattern, which is so important.

[00:02:05]So now, you know, they end up eating bland kind of joyless meals that they're low in fiber, they're low in uh nutrients, they're low in variety, and they're really hard to sustain. And that's not a good long-term plan. And that's kind of why I started the cooking doc in general. There's no reason to eat a really bland diet with a list of don'ts. We're focus on the dos here.

[00:02:27]Mistake number three is when we talk about a low sodium diet and people start buying things that are quote unquote healthy or they say they don't use the salt shaker and so they think they're eating a low sodium diet and that's typically not the case. There's sodium buried everywhere. And this gets people all the time. Even if you think you're educated, soups, sauces, frozen meals, breads, dressing, deli meats, eating out in a restaurant, you can't do that without being high sodium. All that in the natural snacks, they're often labeled as quote unquote healthy. But they contain a lot of hidden sodium often. If you really want to eat a low sodium diet, you have to learn to flavor with low sodium things like I'm using some lemon here, and we'll use some sumac and lots of fresh stuff. But higher sodium in the diet leads to higher blood pressure and increases the risk of kidney disease and heart attack and stroke. So real important to know that healthy doesn't necessarily mean low sodium. Mistake number four is when we see people overreact to protein. Now we've talked a lot if you've watched my videos before. Excess protein can cause some some kidney issues. It leads to this thing called hyperiltration. And in certain kidney conditions have to be real careful about things. But often times my patients and people who are looking all over the internet for kidney disease diet, they hear this information and they decide they need to limit all their protein and that's not a good way to go. And and believe it or not, but I see people swing the other direction, especially in this day and age of protein, protein everywhere. They start eating a lot of protein, animal protein, protein powders, all this stuff to either help them lose weight or build muscle or manage their diabetes. And honestly, neither is ideal. Neither extreme is is right. So protein should be individualized. You shouldn't see a kidney diet and get rid of all your protein. And you shouldn't try to manage your diabetes and obesity if you have kidney disease by eating a really high protein diet.

[00:04:21]Oh, this is fresh parsley. It smells so good. Mistake number five, and I do still see this a lot, is when people follow an old school kidney diet that does not fit their medical situation.

[00:04:34]The old school kidney diet, what is the one I see, and it's been debunked over and over again, but I still see people who come in my office and they've read about kind of the old school kidney diet and it's all white, white bread, white rice, no produce, no whole grains, no beans, and no flavor. Some of that advice came from, you know, older dialysis center nutrition. In the old days, we did want people to eat like that, but only if they were on dialysis.

[00:04:57]But it's gotten applied too broadly to too many people with kidney disease. So, that is a mistake that I see being made all the time. And if you really start eating that diet, you're not benefiting your health. A person with mild to moderate kidney disease and even somebody on dialysis needs a much more balanced conversation and diet than one that is just kind of focused on uh limiting things in an all white set of foods. And you can see today this Mediterranean salad is all kinds of fruits and herbs. It's delicious. I'm going to start making the dressing here in a minute. Mistake number six, believing there is a single kidney food or supplement or cleanse that will fix everything. If you watch Tik Tok, it's not easy to uh avoid those things.

[00:05:41]They're everywhere. You Google kidney diet once and your feed is full of them.

[00:05:44]There is not one thing. It's not real.

[00:05:47]The real work that you do daytoday is much less glamorous but much more effective.

[00:05:53]Mistake number seven, limiting your whole grains instead of trying to incorporate them into a balanced diet.

[00:05:59]And you know the reason I care so much about this is that a bad kidney diet, not a bad kidney diet, but a kidney diet that's not focused on the important things. It does three things. It makes people more anxious. Anxiety is not good because we actually have tools that can help you combat some of that anxiety.

[00:06:18]But if you focus on this old stuff and fear, it it creates anxiety and it can make you eat worse and then it can actually lead to worsening kidney disease. Those are not the things that we want a diet to do. We want a diet to be flavorful and delicious and colorful, not bland. So, what do you do instead?

[00:06:36]Talk to your doctor. Talk to your dietitian. Ask them some specific questions. You ready? What do you want to ask? You want to ask, do I need a potassium restriction or not? How much sodium should I aim for in a day? What protein target makes sense for me? High protein, low protein, middle protein?

[00:06:54]What kind of eating pattern will support my high blood pressure and help me control my blood sugars? This is sumac, by the way. What restrictions are evidence-based and related to my specific conditions? Those are the things that are really important. That's a better starting point than copying some generic list on the internet. So, those are the biggest mistakes I see as a kidney doctor. And as you can see, this lunch that we made here is totally different than those old school kidney diets. If you have to limit potassium, you can leave out some of the tomatoes, but talk to your doctor before you do that. I'm Dr. Blake Schustman. I'm a board-certified kidney doctor and the cooking doc. Thanks so much for watching today. Check out my website, cookingdoc.com.

[00:07:37]Check out my book, The Cooking Docs, Kidney Healthy Cooking, a modern 10-step guide to preventing and managing kidney disease. And I will see you next time.

[00:07:47]Oh my god.