The Measured Plate
Stage 3 Kidney Disease Food Guide for Seniors
What to eat, limit and check, based on your own lab results. By Rafiq Khan, MD, PhD.
You have stage 3 kidney disease. What can you eat?
The lists you found disagree. One bans bananas, another says they are fine. This guide follows the current kidney guidelines, which tie potassium and phosphorus limits to your own blood results, and it shows you what to do with them.
- 319 everyday foods, each with its sodium, potassium, phosphorus, protein and carbohydrate for an ordinary portion
- Three simple lanes: sodium for everyone; potassium and phosphorus only if your blood levels are high
- Two weeks of sample days with shopping lists, every total calculated
- A grocery guide by aisle and a 30-second way to read a label
- Eating out, convenience foods, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease
- Medicines, supplements and foods to ask your doctor about
- A food index that shows each food’s lanes at a glance
A food guide, not a cookbook. Large print. Illustrated, no photos.
This book is for you if
- you have stage 3 chronic kidney disease (3a or 3b)
- you are not on dialysis
- you want clear guidance on everyday food and shopping
- or you shop and cook for someone who does
It is not the right book if
- you are on dialysis, or have had a kidney transplant
- your doctor has put you on a very-low-protein diet with special supplements
- you are caring for a child with kidney disease
Where the numbers come from
The advice follows two clinical guidelines, KDOQI 2020 and KDIGO 2024. Where they differ, the book gives both figures and tells you to ask your doctor which applies to you.
Every food figure was calculated by computer from United States Department of Agriculture data. Figures for packaged and restaurant foods are typical values; brands differ, and the label on the product in your hand is more accurate.
The book is medically reviewed and edited by the author, a physician. It was not reviewed by a dietitian. It does not promise to cure kidney disease or to restore kidney function.