Budget Grocery Guide: Cheap Kidney-Friendly Staples
20 foods rated from this table
What to know about CKD on a budget
The kidney-friendly diet has a reputation for being expensive, and the reputation is wrong in an encouraging way: the cheapest shelf in the grocery store — rice, dried and canned beans, oats, eggs, bananas, cabbage, carrots, onions, peanut butter — overlaps almost perfectly with the friendly end of the database. Cooked white rice carries 35 mg potassium and 1 mg sodium per 100 g; the no-salt canned beans open the protein slot at friendly ratings; and the produce that keeps longest (cabbage, carrots, onions) is the produce that rates friendly.
The budget basket, assembled
The staples that do the work: rice and pasta as the base layers, oats for breakfast, eggs and canned tuna in water (237 mg potassium, 163 mg phosphorus, 50 mg sodium — moderate) for the protein slots, no-salt beans for the plant-protein days, and the cabbage-carrot-onion trio that outlives every lettuce in the fridge. The expensive end of the store — the processed snack aisle and the boxed meals — is also the high-sodium end, which makes the budget version and the kidney version the same shopping list.
Ratings for budget grocery shopping
Kidney-friendlyRice, white, glutinous, unenriched, cookedK 10 · P 8 · Na 5 mgKidney-friendlyBabyfood, cereal, rice, with applesauce and bananas, strainedK 28 · P 12 · Na 4 mgKidney-friendlyCandies, jellybeansK 37 · P 4 · Na 50 mgKidney-friendlyRice, white, long-grain, precooked or instant, enriched, preparedK 9 · P 37 · Na 4 mgKidney-friendlyRice, white, steamed, Chinese restaurantK 20 · P 33 · Na 5 mgKidney-friendlyRice, white, short-grain, enriched, cookedK 26 · P 33 · Na 0 mgKidney-friendlyRice, white, short-grain, cooked, unenrichedK 26 · P 33 · Na 0 mgKidney-friendlyBeans, mung, mature seeds, sprouted, canned, drained solidsK 27 · P 32 · Na 42 mgKidney-friendlyRice, white, medium-grain, enriched, cookedK 29 · P 37 · Na 0 mgKidney-friendlyRice, white, medium-grain, cooked, unenrichedK 29 · P 37 · Na 0 mgKidney-friendlyBabyfood, fruit, bananas and pineapple with tapioca, strainedK 68 · P 5 · Na 0 mgKidney-friendlyRice, white, long-grain, regular, enriched, cookedK 35 · P 43 · Na 1 mgKidney-friendlyRice, white, long-grain, regular, unenriched, cooked without saltK 35 · P 43 · Na 1 mgKidney-friendlyBabyfood, fruit, bananas and pineapple with tapioca, juniorK 78 · P 5 · Na 0 mgKidney-friendlyYokan, prepared from adzuki beans and sugarK 45 · P 40 · Na 83 mgKidney-friendlyBabyfood, cereal, with eggs, strainedK 44 · P 46 · Na 38 mgKidney-friendlyBabyfood, fruit, bananas with tapioca, strainedK 88 · P 7 · Na 0 mgKidney-friendlyPasta, cooked, unenriched, without added saltK 44 · P 58 · Na 1 mgKidney-friendlyPasta, cooked, enriched, without added saltK 44 · P 58 · Na 1 mgKidney-friendlyPasta, cooked, enriched, with added saltK 44 · P 58 · Na 131 mgPractical tips
- Build the week on rice, oats and pasta — the cheapest calories in the store are also the friendliest columns in the database.
- Buy the no-salt-added cans when they cost the same; the salted version is a sodium bill paid later.
- Cabbage, carrots and onions outlast every bagged salad and rate friendly — the produce that keeps is the produce you eat.