Patient/caregiver was educated on choice of foods for consideration on a renal diet as follows:
- Rely on other seasonings and spices, such as, onions, garlic, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, green chilies, saffron, coriander, fennel, turmeric, and lemon to add flavor to the food. This can help avoid eating too bland and reduce craving for the salt. Herbs such as, parsley, mint, basil, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, cilantro, curry leaves, lemongrass, oregano, dried fenugreek leaves, and sage could also add flavor to the food and contribute to reducing craving for salt.
- While picking spreads and salad dressings, such as, butter, margarine, mayonnaise, and peanut butter, look for unsalted versions to help compliance with the low salt recommendation. You can also rely more on lemon juice, vinegar, or vinaigrette for dressing and flavoring, which can reduce the need for adding salt. While picking sauces for seasoning and dressings, select from the list of sauces low on salt content, such as, tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, chili sauce, and lemon caper sauce.
- Many sauces, breakfast cereals, and bakery products, bought ready to eat, contain extra added salt to enhance the flavor. Check on the labels before doing the purchase and choose low salt or no salt added versions of these food items, in order to be consistent with low sodium intake recommendation.
- Rich vegetable/vegan sources for protein include beans, such as, baked beans, kidney beans, lima beans, pinto beans, fava beans, and garbanzo beans. Various pulses, lentils, nuts, and seeds such as, green peas, chickpeas, beans, walnuts, cashew, brazil nuts, peanuts, pecans, almonds, macadamia nuts, pistachios, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, and chia seeds are good vegetable sources for protein. Observe moderation with intake of these rich protein sources, to exercise compliance with daily allowance of protein intake on renal diet.
