Is It Possible to Include Potato in the Diet of Chronic Kidney Disease Patients? New Culinary Alternatives for Limiting Potassium Content.

OBJECTIVE(S): Despite the nutritional benefits of potato tuber, patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) should limit the consumption because of its high potassium content. Some culinary treatments have previously been suggested to reduce the final content of this mineral; however, these are either not effective enough or involve very long procedures that affect the final flavor of the food. The aim of this work was to analyze the effect of culinary treatments on the reduction in potassium content in potatoes, offering new alternatives for minimizing the final content of this mineral to allow the increase of potato intake by patients with CKD.

DESIGN AND METHODS

Fresh potatoes, canned potatoes, and frozen french fried potatoes were submitted to three different culinary treatments: soaking, normal cooking, and frying. Two types of cut were studied: strips and dice. Initial and final potassium content and % humidity in each cooking treatment applied on the three types of potatoes were analyzed. Potassium content was analyzed using flame photometry.

RESULTS

Results show that potato soaking was ineffective for fresh raw potato, while normal cooking achieved insufficient reduction of potassium. However, when a soaking procedure was applied after normal cooking, it was found to be possible to leach up to 70% of the potassium, to final values of under 130 mg/100 g edible portion in both cut types studied. Subsequent frying did not leach potassium but rather increased potassium content; however, without reaching the 150 mg/100 g edible portion threshold. Similar results were observed for canned potatoes and frozen french fries.

CONCLUSIONS

With this new proposed culinary method, the potassium content of potatoes is reduced to an acceptable limit. Additionally, the technique maintains a low-potassium content even after frying potatoes, thus allowing potatoes to be incorporated into the CKD dietary pattern.