Using Linear Programming to Design a Diet for Patients with Renal Diseases: A Case Study on Two Iranian Mixed Dishes

Linear programming (LP) is an easy way to optimize diet cost in which nutritional requirements are also met. Although LP was used for children, it has not been run to design a diet for patients with renal diseases. The aim of this study was to design a cost-optimized meal by LP for patients with kidney disease in which essential nutritional requirements are met.
For this cross-sectional study, two combinatorial meals were considered, and their ingredients were chosen from the restaurant recipes. Minimum and maximum amounts for each ingredient were determined. The price of ingredients was gathered from authentic stores selling foods with approved price. The requirements for energy, protein, sodium, potassium and phosphorus expected to meet by this meal were also determined. The LP was run by Microsoft Excel. Optimized cost was calculated in while essential nutritional requirements were also met.
The amounts determined by LP were between the min and max, and all needs were met by the designed meals. Diet cost was also optimized.
LP could be used to design low-cost meals for patients with kidney disease.