Today’s Kidney Diet Cookbooks
Get free kidney-friendly recipe collections from DaVita dietitians.
Today’s Kidney Diet Cookbooks
Get free kidney-friendly recipe collections from DaVita dietitians.
Join the myDaVita community to connect with others, get kidney diet tools and more.
Register for FreeYou may walk into a bakery and see foods that look inviting, smell great and taste delicious. Unfortunately, some foods from bakeries are off limits when you are on the kidney diet. This doesn’t mean you can’t have any baked goods. By baking food in your own kitchen, you can control the ingredients and still satisfy your desire to eat something fresh out the oven.
There are a variety of kidney-friendly recipes that you can bake. They range from foods for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and dessert:
Your dietitian will talk to you about which baking ingredients are kidney-friendly for your diet. Here is a list of regular baking ingredients and a list of kidney-friendly substitutes. Some of the regular baking ingredients may be included in small amounts. Consult with your dietitian.
Regular baking ingredients |
Kidney-friendly baking ingredients |
Whole-wheat flour |
White flour (lower in phosphorus and potassium) |
Self-rising flour |
Plain, all-purpose white flour (lower in sodium and phosphorus) |
Regular butter or margarine |
Unsalted butter or unsalted trans-fat-free margarine (lower in sodium) |
Sugar (for people with diabetes—adds additional carbohydrate) |
Sugar substitutes (lower in carbohydrate) |
Eggs |
Egg whites or egg substitutes (lower in cholesterol and phosphorus) |
Salt |
Reduced amounts of salt in recipes, more use of herbs and low-sodium spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, etc.) |
Milk |
Soy milk, unenriched rice or almond milk (lower in potassium and phosphorus—use brands recommended by your dietitian) |
Ingredient substitutions may require additional recipe changes to keep the right balance of acid, fat, liquids and leavening agents. For best results, look for kidney-friendly recipes to follow or experiment with an altered recipe several times to find the right balance of ingredients.
Breads and cakes need a leavening agent to rise properly during baking. Most leavening agents used to bake breads may contribute large amounts of phosphorus, potassium, sodium or calcium, making the recipe unfriendly for people with kidney disease. Some products substitute calcium and magnesium for sodium or phosphorus.
Yeast is one of the best leavening agents to use because it is lowest in the minerals limited in a kidney diet. To make your own leavening agent at home, try Homemade Phosphorus-Free Baking Powder. It’s phosphate-free, although the sodium and potassium content is similar to other leavening agents.
Measuring out the ingredients properly is essential for successful baking. Here are some tips for measuring kidney-friendly ingredients:
Here are some bakery foods that are kidney-friendly:
Your dietitian can guide you on the best choices from the bakery.
Here are some recipes from DaVita.com/Recipes to help you begin.
Breakfast
Lunch
Snack
Dinner
Dessert