From ultra-processed foods towards healthy eating for CKD patients: a proposal of educational infographics

Ultraprocessed food (UPF) is defined as industrialized, packaged and ready-to-eat food produced on a large scale, using sophisticated industrial machinery.

Examples of UPFs include salty and sweet snacks, industrialized biscuits and packaged meals, processed meats and sugary drinks.

Ultraprocessed food has a long-shelf life, is highly palatable, microbiologically safe, affordable and most of all, easy to consume.

For these reasons, its consumption has been increasing worldwide, and is replacing healthy homemade meals.

The main concern of this dietary shift is that UPFs come with the addition of salt, sugar, unhealthy fats, and several additives and taste enhancers that contain, among other substances, relevant quantities of potassium, phosphate and sodium.

A large proportion of UPF in the diet may carry risks for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) since it can worsen blood pressure and glycemic control, and lead to constipation, hyperkalemia and hyperphosphatemia.

Acknowledging the importance of UPF in kidney health implies integrating nutritional counseling with information on UPFs, and specific educational material can be helpful for patients, caregivers, and also for health care providers.

We developed a set of 3 infographics dedicated to CKD patients, with information on how to identify UPFs, reasons for decreasing consumption, how to compose a healthy CKD plate and tips for reading food labels in supermarkets and grocery shops.

We hope that this material can be useful in CKD outpatient clinics and dialysis centers as well as in general practitioners’ offices, caring for early stage CKD.