Sodium, also known as salt, affects the amount of water in your body. Too much sodium can lead to too much water in your body, which can lead to high blood pressure, swelling in your body, shortness of breath, and headaches. Since damaged kidneys are less able to remove extra water from your body, you may need to limit the amount of salt in your diet to control the amount of water in your body. Try cooking without adding salt, and try to avoid foods that are high in sodium (such as olives, pickles, hot dogs, salty potato chips, and hard cheese). Eating at restaurants will make it difficult to avoid salt, due to the high amount of salt used for flavouring, so try cooking meals at home so you can monitor exactly what you are putting into your food.
Above image by Nate Steiner. Licensed under CC BY 2.0