Dialysis patients can not eat peanut butter

Peanut Butter

Dialysis is known as a “martial kidney”, because it helps to remove the wastes and toxins in the blood. If people do not care what they eat or drink, there will be more useless substances accumulate, burdening the kidneys. Can kidney disease patients take peanut butter during dialysis? Let’s see what are the restrictions of dialysis diet.

Diet restrictions in dialysis patients

The dialysis diet will restrict foods that contain high amounts of sodium, phosphorus and potassium.

- Foods rich in sodium: Pickles, bacons, sausages, bread, and processed foods,etc.

- Foods rich in phosphorus: Cheese, fish, shellfish, nuts, pork, beef, and beans, etc.

- Foods rich in potassium: Banana, carrot, mushrooms, white beans, and dried apricots, etc.

As for protein, dialysis patients may be required to take more amounts than before. Fluid intake should be depend on the patients’s urine amount.

Your doctor or dietitian will provide you with a diet guide and food lists that indicate which foods are allowed and which ones you should avoid or limit. You can also consult our online experts.

Now you can see that both potassium and phosphorous are contained in peanut butter with a large amount, which is bad for dialysis patients. People in dialysis are required to take a limited intake of potassium and phosphorous, because their kidneys have trouble in filtering excessive potassium and phosphorous.

A peanut butter and jelly sandwich made from white bread, with two tablespoons each of peanut butter and grape jelly, provides 27% of a person's Recommended Daily Intake of fat and 22% of their calories


While roughly 45% of the calories are from fat, most of them come from monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which have been linked positively with heart health

The high phosphorus level will induce many complications, such as bone disease, heart problem, lung disease etc.

To control the phosphorus in normal range, means a lot for patients to keep an overall health. And the target phosphorus level should be 3.5~5.5mg/dL.

To sum up, peanut butter is not a good choice of dialysis patients. If you are on dialysis and want to get a diet that is based on your own condition, you can contact us.
Email:sjzhospitalrenal@hotmail.com