Food for kidney patients (and foods they have to avoid)

The team (Poco a Poco and Lakeside Foodbank) would like to begin with growing vegetables that are healthy for kidney patients, since not all of these foods are available in the villages. These are the foods we have been told are recommended for kidney patients - foods that we will be trying to grow in our two new growing locations - one in Mezcala and one in San Nicholas, using Huerto boxes.

May 2022: First we are going to try and grow these vegetables and later fruit, that are recommended for renal patients (to keep sodium, phosphorous and potassium intake as low as possible). Of course, ideally, we would like to get organic seeds, but we will take anything to get started!

Cauliflower

Cabbage

Garlic

Cilantro

Arugula

Radish

Turnips

Onions

Bell peppers (especially red)

Looking ahead, other foods on the food list are:

Blueberries

Pineapples

Red grapes

Skinless chicken and egg whites are on the good list, so we may also consider raising chickens sooner, rather than later.

From past experience, we believe that for this program to be successful, there needs to be a strong education element to the program that includes active follow up with the families about how to prepare the food. In addition to teaching about foods to eat, there also needs to be education about what NOT to eat since some staples like tomatoes, avacados and potatoes are on the "not good" list.

From what we have read indicates that diet is extremely important in managing kidney disease. We are already providing despensas to kidney patients, but we want to augment the despensas with more of the above items - and none of those listed below!

On the other hand, these are foods that should be avoided by kidney patients:

Canned food and any processed food (especially processed meats)

Whole wheat breads

Brown rice

Bananas

Dairy

Oranges

Pickles/olives/relish

Apricots

Potatoes (any kind!)

Tomatoes

Swiss chard/spinach/beet greens

Dates/raisins/prunes

Tilapia unfortunately is on the bad list because it'a high in phosphorus and potassium.

Do you buy pineapples? You can use the top of the pineapple to grow new plants... click here to learn more

If you have seeds you want to purchase or donate, or skills to help with education (in Spanish), please get in touch with us! Thank you!