Table 8 Examples of quotes from qualitative interview scripts that illustrate the restrictiveness of the prescribed diets. The information in brackets ( ) represents the respondent’s gender, whether patient or caregiver, age, and home county

“So they make food separately for me, they don’t mix with that for other people because them they may want tomatoes but for me I want plain. I don’t want tomatoes; I want plain with very little oil that is what I take.” (Male Patient, 60, Bomet, Secondary, Retired).

“You cannot cook for everyone else like that. So I have to have his own cooking pan, I cook his things and put them aside before I begin cooking for the others.” (Female Caregiver, 58 Nakuru, Unemployed).

“It’s a bit stressful because you know now you’ll have to prepare two meals—different meals and that’s a budget above what we used to have. For example if we used to buy two tomatoes and cook for the whole family, you’d use the two tomatoes and an extra tomato and tomatoes used to go for KES 5 .00 and now it’s KES 10.00. You see as life becomes more costly and then you’re given an extra burden, life becomes a bit difficult.” (Female, Caregiver, 21).