Can Renal Failure Patients Eat Watermelon

Can the patients in Renal Failure eat watermelon? They are suggested to eat it sparingly.
High potassium
Healthy kidneys keep serum potassium levels between 3.5 and 5 mmol/L. The normal potassium level can conduct nerve impulse. If the serum potassium level is too high in Renal Failure, it can cause abnormal nerve impulse, giving rise to irregular heartbeats.
Rich in fluid
In Renal Failure, the impaired kidneys can not excrete fluid adequately, thus resulting in fluid building up in body. Therefore, most of the patients often experience serious swelling. In severe case, even lung, abdominal cavity and everywhere is flooded with fluid, which can cause difficult breath, gastrointestinal problems etc. As watermelon is abundant of fluid, it can aggravate swelling. Therefore, Renal Failure patients with Renal Failure should reduce and even avoid eating it.
Besides foods high in fluid and potassium, the following foods are also forbidden to the patients with Renal Failure.
1. They should limit the amount of salt in what they drink and eat. This is the most important thing to reduce swelling. Restrict salt intake to less than 2 grams a day.
2. They should restrict the protein intake. In Renal Failure, many patients are accompanied by heavy protein in urine. High protein foods can do much damage to filtering system in kidney, thus aggravating proteinuria.
3. The diseased kidneys fail to excrete minerals from body adequately, thus resulting in high phosphorus in body. Too high phosphorus in serum can stimulate parathyroid glands to produce more parathyroid hormone, finally leading to renal osteopathia and hyperparathyroidism.
The above are the general dietary principles for the patients in Renal Failure. As the mineral levels and kidney damage degrees vary in different stages, it is important for the patients to make different diet regimes based on their medical results.