Things You Need To Know About Kidney Disease
At one moment, due to different causes, the kidneys may lose their function. Or, that function can be weakened. If not treated properly, acute problems could develop into chronic kidney disease.
The main function of the kidneys is to filter blood and wash out toxins, which are extracted through urine. Kidneys extract phosphorous and calcium.
When there is a problem in their function, phosphorus and calcium can not be extracted, and they build up in the body. Over time, these sediments can cause further problems, such as heart failure or problems in other organs.
The problem with kidney failure is that one of the protein products is phosphorus. Due to the fact that this can not be easily extracted, you should prepare food that is low in phosphorus. It is important to know what the color of your dogs urine means so you can react in time.
Proteins are essential for muscle growth and overall health. That is why you want to keep them in a meal. All in all, it is best to use ingredients that are low in phosphorus, have a low sodium rate, and have a moderate protein level. That is the reason why it is good to use vet approved homemade food recipes for kidney disease.
Homemade Food Recipes For Cats With Kidney Diseases
Diabetic cats need fiber, and cats with kidney disease need to reduce their protein intake. And when it comes to renal diet for cats with kidney disease, all recipes for kidney disease with rice are great for them. However, their protein intake is still essential, even if it is low.
Too low protein intake can cause muscle mass loss, which can be bad for a cats health. Therefore, we have included small proportions of protein in the form of chicken and tuna in the recipes for kidney disease below. They are super easy to make without any complications, even if you have never cooked cat food before.
Beans And Peas In Your Kidney Diet
Diet ManagementFeatured PostTagsbeansbeans for kidney dietKidney Dietlegumespeasphosphorus in beanspotassium in beans
Eating beans and peas was never smooth sailing for my patients on dialysis because of the high phosphorus and potassium content. Most of them grew up eating a variety of legumes as part of their regular meals. Yet it is quite unimaginable for some patients to avoid beans and peas completely. And why should they? Half a cup of beans provide protein, from 6 to 15 grams, and 4 to 9 grams of fiber. Because getting enough fiber in the kidney diet is a challenge for most people on dialysis, this source cant be ignored completely.
Don’t Miss: Not Spicy Bloody Mary Recipe
Healthy Diet Tips For People With Diabetes And Kidney Disease
Although everyone is different, below are some general tips for eating well with diabetes and kidney disease. Consider the following:
- Eat small portions of lean protein. If you eat too much protein, it can make your kidneys work harder. But you do need some protein for your body to function properly. Good sources of protein include eggs, chicken, and fish.
- Stay away from salt. Instead, season food with herbs and spices. Too much salt can increase blood pressure and potential kidney damage.
- Read food labels. Check for the amount of sodium and sugar in foods to keep from overdoing it.
Switch to fruits and vegetables with lower levels of potassium. Your doctor may tell you to limit certain fruits and vegetables that contain a high amount of potassium. For example, berries and apples have lower potassium than oranges and bananas.
Avoid foods with empty calories. High calories foods that provide little nutritional value, such as soda, chips, and ice cream, should be kept to a minimum.
Limit alcohol, as too much alcohol can damage the liver, heart, and kidneys. Certain alcoholic drinks are also high in sugar and can increase glucose levels in the body.
You May Like: Gluten Free Tomato Soup Walmart
Choose And Prepare Foods With Less Sodium
Sodium is a mineral found in almost all foods. It has many important roles in the way your body works. The amount of sodium found naturally in foods is enough to keep a healthy level in your body. But eating packaged foods and adding salt to foods can lead to eating too much sodium.
Too much sodium can make you thirsty and make your body hold onto water, which can lead to swelling and raise your blood pressure. This can damage your kidneys more and make your heart work harder.
One of the best things you can do is to limit how much sodium you eat. A general rule is to have less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium each day. Here are some tips to limit sodium:
- Use herbs and spices for flavor while cooking. Do not add salt to your food when cooking or eating.
- Choose fresh or frozen vegetables instead of canned vegetables. If you use canned vegetables, drain and rinse them to remove extra salt.
- When eating out, ask your server to have the chef not add salt to your dish.
Work with your dietitian to find foods that are low in sodium.
You May Like: Recipes To Lose Fat And Gain Muscle
Diet And Nutrition Are Very Important To Helping Individuals With Kidney Diseases Live Well Depending On Your Stage Of Kidney Disease And The Presence Of Other Possible Health Conditions Such As Diabetes Your Recommended Kidney Diet Can Change Over Time It’s Important To Discuss With Your Healthcare Team Your Specific Nutritional Needs There Is No One
AAKP Delicious!
The AAKP Delicious! recipe series program was created to support those affected by kidney disease, whether youre a patient or family member, in your efforts to take charge of your health care through nutrition.
Let our recipes and information about nutrition and cooking inspire you. Get ready to experience the joy of preparing and sharing kidney-friendly meals!
Our team at AAKP Delicious! have created easy and delicious recipes for individuals at all stages of kidney disease and with different dietary needs. Each recipe has a complete nutrient analysis and an indication as to what type of patient it is best suited for: CKD Non-Dialysis Dialysis Dialysis/Diabetes Transplant.
Newly released recipes! Download the brand new AAKP Delicious! 6th Edition! These 12 new recipes were released for National High Potassium Awareness Day on May 1. Learn more at www.areyou.ok.org.
NEW AAKP Delicious! 6th Edition
Kidney Friendly Coffee Shops
When choosing a fancy coffee order, keeping to the small cup size is a great way to enjoy while not overdoing it. You still get 12 ounces of your beverage but wont have to push away a cup of water at your next meal.
Of course, black coffee is best .
Choose sugar-free syrups if you need a sweetened drink. Not a fan of sugar-free? Try half sugar-free, half regular. A venti sweetened black coffee will set a woman over her daily allowance of added sugars. Also, skip the whip for even less sugar and saturated fat.
Finding the phosphate additives here is much trickier as they do not feature a webpage or PDF that includes all ingredients. To identify if a menu item has additives, you need to individually select that option and then review the ingredients. You can still do control + F search on that web page to make it a bit quicker.
You May Like: Parrot Bay Coconut Rum Recipes
How Can I Treat My Cats Kidney Failure At Home
The best way you can help your cat with kidney problems is by encouraging more daily water intake. Dehydration is one of the most common problems in dehydrated cats with kidney problems. Therefore, encouraging your feline to drink more water can be a good thought.
Besides, canned kidney care cat foods also contain a lot of moisture, and they are often recommended for the same reason.
Packaged Instant And Premade Meals
Processed foods can be a major component of sodium in the diet.
Among these foods, packaged, instant, and premade meals are usually the most heavily processed and thus contain the most sodium.
Examples include frozen pizza, microwaveable meals, and instant noodles.
Keeping sodium intake to 2,300 mg per day may be difficult if youre eating highly processed foods regularly.
Heavily processed foods not only contain a large amount of sodium but also commonly lack nutrients .
SUMMARY
Packaged, instant, and premade meals are highly processed items that can contain very large amounts of sodium and lack nutrients. Its best to limit these foods on a renal diet.
Swiss chard, spinach, and beet greens are leafy green vegetables that contain high amounts of various nutrients and minerals, including potassium.
When served raw, the amount of potassium varies between 140290 mg per cup .
While leafy vegetables shrink to a smaller serving size when cooked, the potassium content remains the same.
For example, one-half cup of raw spinach will shrink to about 1 tablespoon when cooked. Thus, eating one-half cup of cooked spinach will contain a much higher amount of potassium than one-half cup of raw spinach.
Raw Swiss chard, spinach, and beet greens are preferable to cooked greens to avoid too much potassium.
However, moderate your intake of these foods, as theyre also high in oxalates. Among sensitive individuals, oxalates can increase the risk of kidney stones (
Recommended Reading: Healthy Mexican Recipes For Weight Loss
Enjoy This Triple Berry Recipe
This summer, we want to make a difference for yourself or someone you love who struggles with kidney disease and enjoy this Triple Berry kidney-friendly smoothie recipe with multi-benefits.
-Ask your nephrologist and renal dietitian before preparing and consuming this recipe. Every person has different needs.-
You can also download the FREE FKP recipe book with 13 KIDNEY-FRIENDLY DELICIOUS SMOOTHIES that can be enjoyed with the whole family we created in collaboration with the Renal Dietitian, Chelsea Couceiro, RDN, LDN.
Medications To Take With Fast Food For Kidney Disease
You may have been prescribed what is called a phosphate or phosphorus binder. This is a medication that is intended to prevent the absorption of phosphates into your bloodstream.
Too much phosphorus is very harmful to the body over long periods of time and can lead to issues such as vascular calcification , skin breakdown, joint pain and damage, bone damage, and higher risks of heart attack, stroke and death.
If your doctor has prescribed phosphorus binders to you, be sure to take them as prescribed. They are most effective when taken at the beginning of your meal. If you struggle with phosphorus control, you may need to discuss a dose adjustment with your nephrologist or dietitian, especially when it comes to eating fast food.
Always discuss medication changes with your prescribing physician.
Recommended Reading: Old Fashioned Recipe Jim Beam
A Quick Overview Of Kidney Disease In Cats
Before talking about nutritional management of kidney disease in cats, there are a few details you need to know about this condition.
There are several different forms of kidney disease in cats, but chronic kidney disease is the most common.
The kidneys filter waste products out of the bloodstream but when they stop working properly, those waste products begin to accumulate. Common symptoms of CKD include lethargy, poor coat quality, weight loss, and loss of appetite.
Another form of kidney disease in cats is polycystic kidney disease . This is an inherited condition that causes fluid-filled sacs called cysts to grow in the kidneys. At birth, these cysts are small enough that they dont cause issues, but they will eventually grow in size and number, doing more and more damage to the cats kidneys. Eventually, as kidney function declines, the cat can go into kidney failure.
For more in-depth information about PKD, check out our in-depth article.
According to the Cornell Feline Health Center, the diagnosis of kidney disease typically involves blood tests and urinalysis to evaluate kidney function. These tests measure the concentration of waste products in your cats blood as well as other factors that indicate abnormal kidney function.
Unfortunately, there is no definitive cure for the various forms of kidney disease.
Ingredients That A Dog With Kidney Disease Should Avoid
There are numerous ingredients that are not part of vet approved homemade dog food recipes for kidney disease. For example, you should avoid giving bones, bully sticks, treats, pig ears, raw hides, antlers, organ meat, and yolks to a dog with kidney disease.
You should also avoid polyunsaturated oils such as soy, corn, flaxseed, cod liver, and sunflower. Besides that, there are four main ingredients that sick kidneys cant extract.
Those are:
Phosphorus Phosphorus accumulating in blood affects other systems in the body, and causes hormonal balance and less bone density
Omega 6 fatty acids This causes inflammations
Sodium Sodium increases blood pressure, which can lead to heart arrest, and it also causes water retention, which can cause dehydration
Vitamin D The kidneys have a hard time extracting Vitamin D
You May Like: Recipes For Gastric Sleeve Patients
Can You Substitute Any Of The Supplements In This Recipe
Dr. Wall hails from Australia and thus has chosen to use supplements readily available in that country. While you can find Thorne, NOW Foods, and Country Life supplements online directly from the brand, a significant number of them are available on Amazon as well.
Wall notes that while the initial investment in the recommended supplements may be high, theyll last you through many batches. Dr. Wall cautions her readers against using any supplements other than the ones listed, but you might be able to find similar options if you cant find the right product in stock.
None of the alternative supplements I found were a perfect match for the supplements Dr. Wall suggests, but here are a few options that come close.
2000+
- This product is available on Amazon but because it contains only vitamin E oil there are plenty of alternatives. When shopping, however, you should be careful to choose a pure, undiluted vitamin E oil like Cocojojo 100% Pure & Undiluted Full-Spectrum Vitamin E Oil. The dosing may be tricky, however.
- The NOW Formula requires just 2 drops, or about 63 IU . The Cocojojo formula comes in an 8-ounce versus 1-ounce bottle and, at 75,000 IU per bottle, averages about 13 IU vitamin E per drop. Youd need about 5 drops of the Cocojojo formula.
Renal Dietitians Help Develop Source And Adapt Recipes To Make Them Suitable For A Kidney Friendly Diet
A kidney friendly diet is foods and drinks that are better for people living with chronic kidney disease or kidney failure. When kidneys stop working well, they cant process foods the same as healthy kidneys. Tip: Use the search bar at the top of the page to look for particular ingredients i.e. pie relevant recipes should pop up! Check out some recipes here:
You May Like: Healthy Food Recipes For Two
Garlic For Kidney Health
If you are suffering from CKD you can benefit from garlic in your diet.
- Garlic contains diuretic properties. It helps in the elimination of salt/sodium and water from the body, helping the kidneys to flush out more sodium through urine.
- When kidney vessels are damaged, they are not able to filter the water from the blood on their own.
- Salt absorbs water from the blood and reduces the fluids in the blood vessels, thereby decreasing pressure on the arteries.
- Garlic is a food good for kidney repair, as it also protects kidneys from the negative effects of heavy metals, like cadmium, lead etc.
Tip: Since dialysis patients cannot take salt, they can use garlic to flavor food as a substitute!
Recommended Reading: Mikasa Love Story Soup Bowl
What Can You Not Feed A Cat With Kidney Disease
Cat food with high amounts of salt can be very harmful to cat with kidney diseases. And high-sodium diets can significantly increase blood pressure and can worsen kidney conditions. Likewise, you should also avoid feeding high salt treats to your cat with kidney disease such as commercial food, cheese, and so on.
On the other hand, a high-protein and high-phosphorus diet for cats can be equally harmful. However, this does not mean you should remove protein from your cats diet.
Don’t Miss: Progresso Chicken And Wild Rice Soup Recipe
Why Is A Kidney
A kidney-friendly eating plan helps you manage your kidney disease and slow down damage to your kidneys. It does this by preventing certain minerals from building up in your body, which is important because your kidneys do not work as well to remove waste products from your body.
A kidney-friendly eating plan also helps prevent other serious health problems and controls high blood pressure and diabetes, which can prevent kidney disease from getting worse.
It also ensures that you get the right balance of nutrients to help you:
- Have energy to do your daily tasks
- Prevent infection
- Stay at a healthy weight
Potassium Is Still Unclear In Fast Food
Luckily, potassium may be a bit easier to find. This should especially be the case more so since 2016, when the FDA required potassium content to be listed. However, this requirement has yet to be enforced and may still take time to become more obvious on food and nutrition labels.
However, potassium additives are now becoming a more prevalent issue with kidney disease, and of course are just as difficult to find obviously labeled.
You can use the steps noted above for finding phosphate additives to also find potassium additives. Just search for potassium instead of phos.
But I will add that potassium is likely not an issue for many with CKD, in fact, you may or may not need to limit your potassium.
If you are already struggling with these issues, I dont recommend you look even for fast foods that are okay for kidney disease. Because ultimately, theyre not if your labs and health conditions are not well-managed.
Read Also: Beefy Lipton Onion Soup Mix
You May Like: Torani Brown Sugar Cinnamon Syrup Recipe