Eating healthy is tasty: a message of enjoyment for kidney patients and health care providers

Excerpt

Nutritional recommendations to patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have been extensively grounded on dietary restrictions of protein (for patients not on dialysis), sodium, potassium, phosphorus, and liquids (for patients on dialysis) [1, 2]. If not carefully planned, the diet can become monotonous and result in low dietary adherence [3, 4]. Thankfully, in the past decade, practitioners and especially dietitians and nutritionists have been rethinking the need to implement concomitant dietary restrictions [5]. The most recent guideline in Nutrition and CKD recommends assessing the dietary quality as a whole instead of only restricting isolated nutrients [6]. The environmental sustainability of the diet is also an important issue [7]. Finally, individual food preferences, food habits and cultural aspects are more and more often being taken into consideration and negotiated with the patient, since after all, it is the patient who must follow the diet and agree (or not) with the treatment in general [6]. As a dietitian and a researcher, I am among the group of health care providers that prioritize the overall dietary quality while weighing the needs for dietary restrictions according to the clinical conditions and to the evidence-based benefits that it will bring to the patient. This takes time and an individualized approach. Attention to culinary practices, recipes and strategies may be useful to motivate both health care providers and patients to learn how to use “food as medicine”. In January 2023, I had the chance and privilege to interview Chef Rui Paula in his restaurant “Casa de Chá da Boa Nova” (Porto, Portugal) (Fig. 1). The highlights of this interview are reported below.

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