Diabetic Nephropathy Patients should Pay Attention to Daily Diet

To maintain human growth and health, we need at least seven nutrients that are protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamin, mineral, water, dietary fiber as well as many others. However for diabetic nephropathy patients, they need to pay more attention to their daily diet or even have restrictions on certain foods because of their unstable blood sugar.

1. Protein. Long term high-protein diet will aggravate the high filtration state in the kidneys and at the same time increase the production and retention of toxic nitrogen metabolites in the body and further aggravate renal functions, therefore the protein intake should be limited so as to reduce kidneys’ burden.

2. Calorie. In case of low protein diet, adequate calories should be supplied to maintain normal life activities and physiological needs. The daily intake of calorie can be 30-35 kilocalorie/kg. Foods that are rich in calorie but low in protein should be preferred like potato, lotus root starch, taro, sweet potato, yam, pumpkin, water chestnut, etc.

3. Water. End stage diabetic nephropathy patients may have oliguria or even anuria and the water intake is very important for them. Too much water will increase the kidneys’ burden and worsen the illness, therefore proper amount of water is the former day’s urine output plus 500ml. However if patients have symptoms of fever, vomiting, diarrhea, etc, more water is needed.

4. Fat. In the end stage diabetic nephropathy patients often have lipid metabolism disorder and therefore they should have low-fat diet. Olive oil and peanut oil contain rich single unsaturated fatty acid and they can be sources of energy.

5. Salt. Patients usually will have hypertension, edema or reduction of urine output and the limitation of salt can effectively prevent complications. However if vomiting and diarrhea are accompanied, salt should not be strictly restricted.

Besides, patients should avoid alcohol because over-drinking of alcohol can cause hyperlipidemia or metabolic disorders and increase liver’s burden. Fruits should not be eaten too much because fruits contain more fructose and glucose which can be easily absorbed by the body and further increase the blood sugar. Especially those that are rich in sugar like banana, grape, and persimmon, orange should be avoided.