Tutorial: Drafting Your First Dietary Counselling Letter

This tutorial walks you through a complete session with an AI tool. The task: draft a dietary guidance letter for a patient with CKD Stage 3b and persistent hyperkalaemia. She is 63 years old, lives alone, and does her own cooking. A dietitian referral has been made but the appointment is two weeks away. You want to give her something practical to work with in the meantime.

From opening the tool to reviewing a finished draft takes around fifteen minutes the first time. Subsequent letters for similar patients take five.

Step 1: Open the tool and start a fresh conversation

Go to claude.ai or chat.openai.com. Sign in. You will see a text box at the bottom of the screen. Start a fresh conversation — this keeps the tool focused on this task only.

Step 2: Set the context before giving clinical content

Type the following instruction first:

You are helping a nephrologist draft a dietary guidance letter for 
a patient with chronic kidney disease (CKD). I will describe the 
patient's situation and the dietary restrictions that apply. 
Draft a practical, plain-language letter that explains why each 
restriction matters and what it means day to day.

Rules:
- Do not give specific quantity limits
- Do not name specific foods as universally safe
- Do not include drug names or doses
- Note that a dietitian will provide more specific individual advice
- Maximum 400 words

Press Enter. The tool will acknowledge.

Step 3: Provide the clinical context

Patient: woman in her early sixties, CKD Stage 3b, 
persistent mildly raised potassium (hyperkalaemia). 
Lives alone and does her own cooking.
Dietitian referral made — appointment in 2 weeks.

Focus on potassium restriction. She has been eating a lot of 
fruit and vegetables, which she increased after being told to 
for her blood pressure. She does not understand why that advice 
seems to conflict with what she is now being told.

Also include general salt reduction advice appropriate for a 
CKD patient with hypertension.

Step 4: Read the first draft

The tool will produce a draft in under thirty seconds. Here is the kind of thing it might return:

Managing Your Diet with Kidney Disease

Thank you for your recent clinic appointment. I am writing with some dietary guidance ahead of your appointment with our renal dietitian, who will provide more detailed and personalised advice.

Why Your Diet Matters with Kidney Disease

As your kidneys are working less efficiently than they should be, some substances that healthy kidneys would filter out can build up in your blood. One of these is potassium.

Potassium

Potassium is a mineral found in many foods. In healthy people, the kidneys remove excess potassium easily. When kidneys are less efficient, potassium can build up to levels that affect your heart rhythm. This is why people with kidney disease are sometimes asked to be careful about potassium, even though potassium is normally healthy.

You have been trying to eat more fruit and vegetables to help your blood pressure — that is good general health advice, and it is understandable that this feels confusing. Kidney disease creates some specific dietary needs that are different from general healthy eating recommendations. Some fruits and vegetables are higher in potassium than others.

The main categories of high-potassium foods to approach with caution include: most fruits (particularly bananas, oranges, melons, and dried fruits), root vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips), leafy greens (spinach, kale), nuts and seeds, chocolate, and coffee in large amounts.

One practical tip: for root vegetables and potatoes, peeling, cutting into small pieces, boiling in a large amount of water, and throwing away the cooking water removes a significant amount of potassium.

Salt

Reducing salt supports blood pressure control, which is particularly important in kidney disease. Avoid adding salt at the table or in cooking where possible. Many processed foods, sauces, and ready meals contain significant amounts of salt.

A Note from the Dietitian

Your dietitian will be able to give you specific advice tailored to your personal diet and lifestyle. Please bring any questions you have about specific foods to that appointment.

Please do not make any major dietary changes without discussing them at your next clinic appointment.

Step 5: Review the draft as a clinician

Read the draft with clinical eyes. In this example, you notice:

• The explanation of why potassium matters is accurate and clear
• The acknowledgement of the apparent conflict with general dietary advice directly addresses the patient's confusion
• The leaching advice for vegetables is accurate in general terms
• The salt section is brief and appropriate

One thing to adjust: the sentence "potassium can build up to levels that affect your heart rhythm" is accurate but slightly alarming. You want to keep the honesty without adding unnecessary anxiety. Ask the tool:

The sentence about heart rhythm is accurate but slightly alarming 
for a patient with only mildly elevated potassium. Rewrite it to 
convey that it is important to manage without implying immediate 
cardiac danger.

The tool will revise the sentence. Read the revision and decide whether it strikes the right balance.

Step 6: Check any specific food claims

The list of high-potassium foods is broadly accurate but worth checking. The tool lists coffee — this is correct, in large quantities. Spinach and kale are listed — both are high in potassium. The statement is reasonable.

One thing to verify: the tool lists "melons" as high-potassium. Watermelon is notably high; other melons vary. If you want precision, either ask the tool to say "some melons, particularly watermelon" or add that qualification yourself after copying the draft.

Step 7: Add the dietitian referral details and contact information

Copy the draft into your clinical letter template. Add:

• The patient's name and address
• Your name and contact details
• The date
• The dietitian's name and contact information, or the appointment date if known
• Any specific instruction you want the patient to follow before the dietitian appointment (for example, to keep a brief food diary for the dietitian)

None of these details went into the AI tool. They come from your clinical system.

Step 8: Read the complete letter once more before sending

Read it from beginning to end as if you are the patient — a 63-year-old woman, living alone, who has been trying to eat well and is now being told something that seems to contradict earlier advice. Does the letter explain the apparent conflict clearly? Does it give her something actionable to do right now? Is the tone calm and respectful?

Make any final adjustments and send.

What the tool does badly

The tool can be imprecise about specific food potassium content. It knows categories well — fruits, root vegetables, nuts — but specific claims about individual foods should be verified. The cooking-method guidance is broadly accurate but simplifies a complex picture. For a patient who eats a very specific diet — a strict vegetarian, someone with significant cultural dietary patterns — the general guidance may need more tailoring than the tool can provide. That tailoring is best done by the dietitian.

What to try next

Apply the same approach to a phosphate restriction letter, or a combined potassium and fluid restriction letter for a patient approaching dialysis. The method is identical. The dietary content changes. The reviewing steps are more critical for phosphate, where the tool is less reliably accurate about specific foods.

Remember: AI is a helpful assistant, not a clinician. You make the call.