Struggling with what to eat on CKD stage 3? You may be doing it all wrong
Why Eating Right With CKD Stage 3 Is About Personalization — Not Restriction
If you have Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) stage 3 and feel lost about what you should or shouldn’t eat — you're not alone. And if you believe you need to be on an extremely strict diet, you might actually be hurting your health more than helping it.
Over the past two years, I’ve been deeply immersed in conversations with people living with CKD, nephrologists, researchers, dietitians, health coaches, and other professionals in the field. What I’ve seen again and again is this: people are struggling.
Many tell me they feel like they can’t eat anything anymore, often based on what they’ve read on the internet or received from generalized AI advice.
Here’s the reality:
Only a small fraction of people with CKD stage 3 actually need a very strict diet.
Most people with stage 3 CKD are not eating properly — not because they're eating too much of the wrong things, but because they are unnecessarily restricting important foods.
This is a big problem.
When you avoid too many foods without personalized guidance, you can easily end up deficient in essential vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other nutrients that are crucial for your overall health and even your kidney function.
Why this happens
When you search for advice online, or even use AI tools, the information you get is very general.
Because it’s trying to be safe, it often recommends avoiding almost everything: "Don’t eat potassium," "Don’t eat phosphorus," "Be careful with protein," etc.
Here’s the problem:
If your potassium levels are normal, and you don't have other conditions that require potassium restriction, you don’t need to avoid potassium!
Potassium is essential for many critical functions in your body — muscle health, heart rhythm, and even helping to regulate blood pressure.
By cutting out important nutrients unnecessarily, you could be making yourself weaker and increasing your risk for other problems like malnutrition, weakness, cardiovascular issues, and more.
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The right way to eat with CKD stage 3
You shouldn't build your diet based on fear or generalized lists.
You need a plan based on your personal lab results.
That means:
Getting advice from your nephrologist
Working with a renal dietitian
Or using a specialized app that recommends what to eat based on your current labs — not general assumptions
If you don’t eat properly, you’re not just risking CKD progression — you’re risking your whole-body health.
Together, we can spread better information and stop living in fear.
Please share this post with someone you know who feels trapped and confused about what to eat with CKD.
And I’d love to hear from you:
Have you had support from a dietitian, nephrologist, or an app?
How has that helped you?
Leave a comment and share your experience!
A New Tool for CKD: MetaSano
This post is sponsored by MetaSano, a mobile app created specifically for people with Chronic Kidney Disease — especially those of us in stage 3.
MetaSano helps you:
Receive ingredient-level prescriptions based on your lab values
Log your meals and see how close you’re eating to your personalized kidney-friendly diet
Track your water intake
Check if an ingredient is good for your kidneys based on your personal labs
And much more
MetaSano has been built by working hand-in-hand with scientists, universities, and with support from government programs in Canada. Our mission is to empower you with better tools, better knowledge, and better chances — because we believe that food is medicine, and that kidney health isn’t just about slowing down, but also about moving forward.
Start your journey with MetaSano at www.metasano.com — enjoy 7 days free to explore the app and see what’s possible. After that it's less than 10 cents a day.