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Draft: not yet reviewed by a clinician

Use this page to prepare questions for your care team. It does not replace their advice. Your own targets and doses come from your nephrologist, diabetes team and renal dietitian.

Eating out

No doses on this page

This handbook never gives insulin or medicine doses and never tells you to change one. Your prescriber sets every dose and every change, and writes down when to pause a medicine and when to restart it. A low blood glucose is always treated straight away: see Treating a low and Get help now.

In short

You can eat out on a kidney diet. Plan the day around the meal (lighter on potassium and sodium at the other meals), look up the menu first, and prefer places that cook to order (NKF: dining out with confidence; AKF). Restaurant plates often carry 1,000–3,000 mg of sodium (Harvard Health) and 2–3 times a kidney-diet portion of meat. Know the carbohydrate before you take insulin, and carry glucose tablets: they treat a low with no potassium, phosphorus or fluid. If a low starts and all you have is juice or a regular (not diet) soda, drink 4 oz of juice or 4–6 oz of soda straight away; treating the low comes first (NIDDK).

Your numbers
Sodium in one restaurant meal often 1,000–3,000 mg (Harvard Health)
Restaurant meat portion 4–8 oz, two to three times the 3-oz kidney portion (NKF)
Restaurant rice or pasta 2 cups of rice is about 89 g carbohydrate; restaurant plates often hold that much or more (FDC)
Written nutrition information US chains with 20 or more locations must provide calories on the menu and written nutrition information on request, including sodium, carbohydrate and protein (not potassium or phosphorus) (FDA menu labeling)

What to say

Requests that work (NKF):

  • "Sauce, dressing or gravy on the side, please."
  • "No salt, please" (on grilled or baked items).
  • "No cheese." "No tomatoes."
  • "Green beans or rice instead of the potato."
  • "No MSG, soy sauce or fish sauce."

What to order

Better Harder to fit
Grilled chicken, fish, steak or a plain burger Anything cured or smoked
Steamed rice, or pasta with oil and garlic or pesto Soups; cheese and cream sauces; nachos
Salad with oil and vinegar Potato skins, fries and baked potatoes; beans
Fruit cup, angel food cake, sherbet Tomato sauces, spinach, avocado, melon
Water with lemon, non-cola soda, iced tea Oranges, bananas, dried fruit, star fruit (never)
Colas, milkshakes, chocolate and nut desserts

(NKF.) On dialysis the larger meat portion may be right; ask your dietitian.

By type of restaurant

  • Regular or junior hamburger, or a grilled chicken sandwich, with no cheese and no bacon.
  • A side salad or coleslaw instead of fries. Limit ketchup to one packet and skip barbecue and soy sauce.
  • Water, lemonade, tea or a non-cola soda instead of a cola or milkshake.
  • Look up the chain's nutrition information first: it lists sodium and carbohydrate (NKF; FDA).
  • Order à la carte: tacos, tostadas or fajitas, with less cheese and no beans.
  • Ask for unsalted chips and a small bowl of pico de gallo, and keep salsa to a tablespoon or two. Guacamole is avocado, which is high in potassium.
  • Corn or homemade flour tortillas are good bread choices; count their carbohydrate.
  • Pasta with garlic and oil or pesto rather than tomato, cheese or Alfredo sauce.
  • Italian bread dipped in olive oil; skip antipasto with salty meats and pickled vegetables, and minestrone soup.
  • Pizza: a light amount of sauce and cheese, chicken or vegetables rather than pepperoni or sausage.
  • Ask for no MSG, soy sauce or fish sauce in the cooking, and do not add soy sauce at the table.
  • Steamed rice rather than fried rice; skip the soup.
  • Lower-potassium vegetables: snow peas, string beans, water chestnuts, bean sprouts and bok choy.
  • Sushi rolls with cucumber or cooked fish are small portions. After a transplant, avoid raw fish (FoodSafety.gov).
  • Ask which vegetables are in a dish and choose lower-potassium ones if your potassium runs high.
  • Yogurt sides and milk-based desserts are high in phosphorus, and lentil and bean dishes are high in potassium: small portions, and take your binders with the meal if you have them.

(NKF dining out; AKF.)

Example: a burger meal, two ways

Order Sodium Potassium Carbohydrate
Cheeseburger + medium fries + 12-oz cola about 1,060 mg about 930 mg about 119 g
Plain hamburger + side salad with oil and vinegar + water with lemon about 260 mg plus dressing about 250 mg about 27 g

Approximate USDA values for fast-food items (FDC); chains differ, so check their nutrition information. The second order leaves room for the rest of the day and is far easier to cover with insulin. Add a side such as a small fruit cup if your plan needs more carbohydrate at that meal.

What to do

  • Look up the menu and its nutrition information before you go.
  • Order a half portion, share, or box half before you start.
  • Ask for the requests above.
  • Find out the carbohydrate before you take insulin; a restaurant plate of rice or pasta can hold about 90 g.
  • Alcohol only with food, and with a plan for delayed lows, which can come hours later (ADA 2026 §5, recommendations 5.18–5.19; DaVita: alcohol and CKD).
  • On a fluid limit: save some of your allowance for the meal, ask for a small glass, and ask the server not to refill it (NKF).
  • Take your phosphate binders with the meal if you have them; keep some in your bag or car (NKF).
  • Eat out a few times a week at most: NKF notes that more than 3 times a week makes it hard to keep sodium down (NKF).
  • Carry glucose tablets, and treat a low at once with whatever fast sugar is to hand.

Ask your care team

  1. On a restaurant day, which numbers should I make room for: sodium, potassium, fluid?
  2. How should I handle insulin for a large or slow meal? Please write it down.
  3. Is alcohol OK for me, and how much?

In the app

Log the closest foods from the app's list, such as "Hamburger, fast food, plain" and "French fries, fast food" (FDC); they include potassium and phosphorus, which chain menus leave out. If you enter a custom food from the chain's own information instead, remember it will under-count those two (Logging food). Plan the rest of the day around the meal with planned entries (Planning and menus).

Get help now if…

Call 911 (or your local emergency number)

Someone has a low they cannot treat themselves (cannot swallow safely, very drowsy or confused): give glucagon if you have it and call (ADA 2026 §6). Also call for chest pain or severe breathlessness (Get help now).

Call your care team

Lows that keep coming back after meals out or after drinking alcohol, or a big weight gain after a salty meal if you are on dialysis.

Sources

Not yet reviewed by a clinician. Facts and sources last checked 2026-10-06.