Short answer, no – diet soda is not bad for your kidneys in moderation. However, water is always the preferred choice of beverage.
When you dig deeper it gets a bit more complicated: Many times, people living with kidney disease need to be on a fluid restriction. Diet soda is fluid and thus counted towards your daily total. Water is is also counted, but is necessary for essential body functions. So when on a fluid restriction it is important to choose your fluids wisely.
Also, diet colas, some root beers and orange sodas have phosphoric acid which could increase your phosphorus and require taking more binders. So, treating yourself occasionally to a diet soda is fine, but it’s beneficial to make water your drink of choice.
Kidney Kitchen is not designed to diagnose disease or prescribe an eating plan for your stage of kidney disease. The information shared on Kidney Kitchen is developed by experts in renal nutrition and is provided for informational purposes only. The American Kidney Fund, its staff, agents and Trustees are not able to provide medical advice. Please consult with a medical professional or registered dietitian for specific questions you may have about your diet. Learn more
Learn more about healthy eating for your
specific stage of kidney disease
The Kidney Kitchen Pro meal plan features makes it easy to collect and share a week-long meal plan featuring Kidney Kitchen recipes and other kidney-friendly foods. You can customize the meal plans based on a patient’s eating habits, preferences and any restrictions. You can even include both shared notes that are visible on the meal plan or private notes that only you have the ability to access. The meal plans you create can be saved, shared via email and printed.
How to Create a Meal Plan
From Kidney Kitchen Pro, click “Create a meal plan.” From here, take the following steps:
Meal plan name: Give your custom meal plan a name so you remember who or what it is for. Make sure your meal plan is descriptive as you’ll have the ability to add the custom meal plans to toolkits that you can access later or share directly with others.
Select recipes or food: For each meal/snack each day, you can add a Kidney Kitchen recipe(s) from the dropdown menus. If you are not familiar with the recipes, you can learn more about each recipe “Find recipes” from the Kidney Kitchen Pro dashboard. You can add a recipe to an existing meal plan by clicking “Add to meal plan” to add them to a specific meal plan.
Share notes: If you plan on sending this meal plan to another person, you can add a special note in this section.
Private notes: If you want to note something that should only be visible to you, this is where you add it.
Once you’ve created your meal plan, click “Create meal plan” to save it. If you are logged in to Kidney Kitchen Pro, you can access your custom meal plans at any time. Click on the meal plan to access the content and to share and print it for others.
How Toolkits Work
Toolkits offer an easy way to collect and share Kidney Kitchen resources with those you serve and their families. You can build toolkits that include customized meal plans, resources, guides, lists, videos, webinars and personalized notes. You can even include private notes on the toolkit that only you have the ability to access. Toolkits can be customized for each patient or you can create toolkits based on topic (example: dialysis vs. non-dialysis nutrition). The toolkits you create can be saved, shared via email and printed.
How to Create a Toolkit
From Kidney Kitchen Pro, click “Create a toolkit.” From there, take the following steps:
Toolkit name: Give your custom toolkit a name so you remember who or what it is for.
Meal plans: If you’ve created custom meals plans previously in Kidney Kitchen Pro, you can add those custom meals plans to the toolkits.
Resources: From the dropdown menu, you can select any of Kidney Kitchen’s resource guides, videos or webinar. You can select more than 1 at a time.
Share notes: If you plan on sending this toolkit to another person, you can add a special note in this section.
Private notes: If you want to note something that should only be visible to you, this is where you add it.
Once you’ve created your toolkit, click “Create toolkit” to save it. If you are logged in to Kidney Kitchen Pro, you can access your custom toolkits at any time. Click on the toolkit to access the content and to share and print it for others.
