Questions about diet

[quilter]

I've been educating myself about nutrition for chronic kidney disease...just finished Kidney School and read Dr. Mackenzie Walser's book Coping with Kidney Disease.

I just ordered three other books through my library.

I was wondering how many of you pre-dialysis tried a low protein diet. It sounds like a difficult diet to follow but if it delays the need for dialysis as claimed I would be willing to try it.

How many of you find that preparing meals ie. finding the ingredients that are low in protein, sodium, potassium, phosphorous is doable?

I find even following just a low sodium diet can be challenging. Adding all of these other restrictions sound insurmountable.

The only good thing is I only need to worry about cooking for myself...though I hate to cook...always am looking for short cuts. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance and God bless all of you and keep you.

[pierrat]

Well, Im rather new to Dialysis myself, and at first I also found it quite daunting. Whats worked "so far" for me is at first I set aside about 5 recipes that I know and can make easily, as time goes by I add another recipe so my menu can be more diverse.
That way I can have variety without having the knowledge overload that easily confuses me

[quilter]

recipes

May I ask for you to share your 5 recipes? Are they stand alone meals or do you still need to add to them?

I'm a very "lazy" cook. Don't like to cook and usually don't plan very far ahead for meals. In fact, often it's past meal time when I finally decide I should fix something. I was better when I had to cook for my Dear Mother, but since her passing 3years ago, my cooking and repetoire are practically non-existent.

Thanks in advance.
Jan

[pierrat]

Hi quilter, If your really interested in the recipes I use, please send me an email and Ill let you know. I'm a bit reluctant to give them out because they are rather plain and boring "i think" as most are just entree's with few to no side dishes. As I cook just for myself, i dont like using alot of pans, lol

davita has a nice set of recipe cards that are free if you order them, but there usually too time consuming for me to bother but maybe not for you. Goodluck on your esrd too, hope your feeling better every day

[Ezz]

Hi quilter, If your really interested in the recipes I use, please send me an email and Ill let you know. I'm a bit reluctant to give them out because they are rather plain and boring "i think" as most are just entree's with few to no side dishes. As I cook just for myself, i dont like using alot of pans, lol

davita has a nice set of recipe cards that are free if you order them, but there usually too time consuming for me to bother but maybe not for you. Goodluck on your esrd too, hope your feeling better every day

I know what you mean. I cook for my husband and I just eat the same thing. He is stage 3-4 and it makes it easier on him when we eat the same thing. I use mostly the recipes here or I just do simple one pot dishes. I have to tell you that he does like the slow cooker baked apples

[longtimept]

Renal nutrition diet sources

I've been educating myself about nutrition for chronic kidney disease...just finished Kidney School and read Dr. Mackenzie Walser's book Coping with Kidney Disease.

I just ordered three other books through my library.

I was wondering how many of you pre-dialysis tried a low protein diet. It sounds like a difficult diet to follow but if it delays the need for dialysis as claimed I would be willing to try it.

How many of you find that preparing meals ie. finding the ingredients that are low in protein, sodium, potassium, phosphorous is doable?

I find even following just a low sodium diet can be challenging. Adding all of these other restrictions sound insurmountable.

The only good thing is I only need to worry about cooking for myself...though I hate to cook...always am looking for short cuts. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance and God bless all of you and keep you.

Hi, I am presently at 19%, stage 4, pre-dialysis and have been at 25% for over 30 years. Back then they only worried about sodium. I went to a renal class last week and find out there are a whole list of new ares to watch, potassium, phosphorous, calcium. I have set up an appointment with a renal dietician but she can see me until May 29th and I need help now. Have you been able to find resources which list just good food to eat or has a vast list of foods and the nutrition breakdown. Right now I have bits and pieces and I want to stay off Dialysis for as long as possible, maybe even 30 more years, right. Any suggestions you can give would be appreciated.

[chefnancy]

Cooking for David by Sara Colman and Dorothy Gordon is a good cookbook with some fairly easy, uncomplicated recipes. I understand your problem. I am a professional chef and had trouble at first learning to cook for a low protein, low sodium, low potassium, low phosphorus diet. A consultation with a renal dietitian helped a lot. Just experimenting did even more. My current formula for a meal is 2-3 oz. of lean protein (chicken, fish, beef, eggs); 1/2 - 1 cup of a low potassium vegetable such as lettuce, green beans, carrots, corn, cauliflower or peas; 1/2 cup of rice or pasta, and 1/2 - l cup of low potassium fruit such as apples, berries, pineapple, or peaches. I try to use low-fat preparations as much as possible (steaming, baking or broiling), but not everyone has to watch fats. Most people on this type of diet are supposed to severely limit dairy products such as milk, yogurt, cheese, and ice cream. If you like ice cream, look for all fruit sorbet (not sherbet). The difference is that sorbet has no milk in it, while sherbet does. My dietitian allows me a reasonable amount of bread (1 slice/roll, not whole grain) at each meal. Part of the difficulty in following this diet is that it turns most "healthy diet" recommendations on their heads. I strongly recommend you consult a renal dietitian. That and time worked well for me. Hope this helps you.

[Leafsunbear]

once you go on dialysis you will need to increae your intake of protein, unless you are instructed otherwise. Renal patients need large amounts of protein to help heal, make blood, and many other reasons. As for all the low potassium lists, remember about quantities. Some things can add up fast, but on the other hand if you keep an eye on things you can put some smaller amounts of medium and high potassium things in here and there. Make one or two special meals a month. Dont go over board, but diversity will help you keep your head up. I am only speaking from my opinion on that, I am not a doctor. I have done this with great success for 13 years now is all. Phosphorous is unavoidable for the most part. For instance meat is loaded with it, but you need the protein source. Some opt for a protein supplement just for this reason. Hemo pulls off more phosphorous then PD for your information. Always take your binders and if you can get on Sensipar try it. It was a miracle drug for me. There are a lot of specific cookbooks that are great, but I just use the internet. I look around, usually foodtv.com , for something I would like. Then I adjust the recipe to fit my needs. This has taken years to get a handle on completely, I have made some bad meals in my day. Nothing that would hurt me though cause I have an understanding of how much of what I can and can not have. One thing you could buy that would make things so much easier is a nice kitchen scale for weighing your foods. You can weigh how much carrot and green beans you have. Then you can know exactly how much potassium and phosphorous your are getting for that meal. Quickly you will see how save your special treat days will be..
best wishes;
LSB

[dennis]

Re: Questions about diet

Preparing meals that it all the restrictions isn't easy. But I noticed that after about a couple of weeks or so, if you keep looking at the food tables you'll get used to it and to a certain degree almost know which foods to pair with which on a given day to meet the requirements.

[Raziah]

Re: Questions about diet

Hi Quilter,
I'm new here too, but I'm at about 11% kidney function currently, losing about 1% a month.
I find that I pretty much need to cook from scratch to be able to control the amount of sodium and phosphorus in my diet. At first it's hard to lower sodium, food just tastes bland, especially for me as my favorite foods are spicy, like Indian, Thai, Chinese, Mexican, etc. However, as you lower your sodium, you get used to it and regular food tastes way too salty. My husband has been a trouper, eating what I make, and rarely adding salt to it. I tried making some low sodium Chinese this week and he had to add some soy sauce to it but he now notices how salty food is if we go out to eat or at a friend's house.

I like making vegetable soup for my lunch. It is very easy and you can buy low sodium broth. You can further lessen the sodium by adding water. What makes it taste good is adding onion, tomato and maybe some garlic. I also love pepper, all sorts, black, white, cayenne. Carrots are very nice for adding some sweetness, as some vegetables can be a little bitter. If you use any canned veggies look for the no salt added kind. Some grocery stores carry these. You can always add some white rice or noodles to make it more filling. I also like herbs which have a lot of flavor and of course, no sodium.

I've lost some weight because I'm eating so healthy. An added bonus as I'm about 40 lbs over my ideal weight for my height. I didn't used to like cooking very much either until I had more time and actually went through my cookbooks and tried a bunch of new things. Then I started buying other cook books and before I knew it, people were complimenting me on how well I cook!
Raziah aka Lori

[jeffmoore]

Re: Questions about diet

Hi Quilter,
I have only been on this site since the early summer, and I am still trying to navigate this thread, so bare with me. You are talking about this very complex renal diet. Well I have been living on this diet for almost two decades now. I was first on this diet in the early 90's when I was on hemodialysis, you know low sodium, low potassium, low phosphorus, but when I had to go on peritoneal dialysis (PD) my diet changed drastically, on hemo I had to very much limit the amount of potassium that I was consuming in my renal diet, but on PD I had to eat a lot more potassium, because this way of dialyzing is totally different from hemodialysis. PD tends to drain a lot of your potassium as well as protein from your body, that is why most people on PD can eat way more potassium and protein foods than hemodialysis patients can. Yeah, I know what you are thinking, Yes, like I said previously this is a very complex diet to follow, especially since a lot of us grew up on food from our culture. I am from New Orleans, LA, and I was use to eating a lot of creole/cajun dishes. Well anyway, I got so tired of cooking my food so blaine in following what was needed to maintain good health with this diet, that I began to research renal cookbooks, but there wasn't any at that time. I did the next best thing was to research some nutritional cookbooks, and alter their recipes to accomodate my renal diet. Well I had the upper hand on some of the nutritional facts because I worked in a chemistry lab and quite understand about potassium, phosphorus, sodium, etc. etc., I decided after seeing so many of my family members and friends undergoing some form of dialysis to sustain their lives, they were always asking me questions about how to cook food to accomodate a renal diet. That is why I decided to share my extensive knowledge of the renal diet, and how I finally got a grasp on this diet, I also share my endurances of trials and tribulations coping with life on dialysis. If you are interested my book is online at xlibris.com, just click on the bookstore and search lower right sidebar - my title - My Renal Life - by Gloria Ann Jeff-Moore. You can read an excerpt and my author bio at your leisure. You can also leave me a message at Contact the Author - maybe you could leave your email address in confidence and we can chat a little more extensively about this renal diet and I could share some of my knowledge with you. Remember, I didn't learned this in the beginning, it took me several years to finally get a grasp on this very complex renal diet, and I share some of my easy cooking tips in my book also.
I hope to hear from you real soon. my motto - "Don't Let This Disease Control You, You Control The Disease". I sure wish there was an internet when I started, maybe this great forum would have been created them. Voicing your opinion and concerns is very important for peace of mind when it comes to being a renal/dialysis patient.
I hope to hear from you real soon.
Take Care
Glo

[franniejer]

Re: Questions about diet

I just found out I have CHF in Feb and I still am frustrated with the kidney diet. Mainly with only being allowed so little protein. I have a family to cook for and whern I cook the kidney receipes my daughter will eat them, but my husband is another story. So I have to make an entire dinner for him. It sucks, esp. when I am not feeling well. Anyone else have this problem? Fran

[OkieCowgirl79]

Re: Questions about diet

I just found out I have CHF in Feb and I still am frustrated with the kidney diet. Mainly with only being allowed so little protein. I have a family to cook for and whern I cook the kidney receipes my daughter will eat them, but my husband is another story. So I have to make an entire dinner for him. It sucks, esp. when I am not feeling well. Anyone else have this problem? Fran

LOL
I can relate, 2 diabetics, 3 ***** ****, 1 ESRD patient and 3 of them are picky eaters!
I refuse to cook two separate meals. If someone truly does not like what I prepare. (They MUST try it. But, if they dislike the food, they may have a garden salad or a pb&j sandwich. There are many recipes on the DaVita site. I have tried a good number of them. I suppose I really should review some of them and note where I made changes for my picky eaters. But this site has been a real dinner-saver many times.

[ladybug14]

Re: Questions about diet

I agree with using the Davita web site for recipies, they are quiye helpful. As for picky eaters, my granddaughter is a picky eater yet when I started cooking the CKD diet anb then for hemodialysis for my husband, I ask the kids to choose a recipie from the web site they thought wold be tasty. It worked and they request kidney recipies over their standard salt and fat filled recipies from the past.

Good Luck. Try thinking outside the box and be creative. Yeah right like you have the energy for that, Huh?

Ladybug14

[Min Yee]

Re: Questions about diet

I'd like to share the following website, if you're watching your amounts of carbs, protein, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, grams, calories, and the famous "whatnot"

NUTRITIONDATA.COM

[I WAS GONNA POST A JPEG PICTURE SAME SCREEN, BUT DON'T KNOW IF I CAN POST PICTURES, THAT LITTLE MOUNTAIN ICON ABOVE HERE NOT WITHSTANDING.

Min