Went to the Renal Insufficiency Clinic yesterday...

This time Hubby went went with me (at my request). We got some great ideas in how to deal with my diet. Cannot believe what I have to avoid as far as food to avoid that is high in phosphorous.

Here is a good explanation from the Mayo Clinic...

The kidneys help regulate the level of phosphorus in your blood. If your kidney function is impaired, eventually you'll likely have elevated phosphorus levels (hyperphosphatemia). In turn, the elevated phosphorus decreases the level of calcium in your blood, which can lead to bone disease.

Often, 800 to 1,000 milligrams (mg) of phosphorus a day is the limit for someone who has kidney disease. Most healthy adults may eat double this amount.

Nearly every food contains some phosphorus, so you can't eliminate all phosphorus from your diet. Generally foods high in protein (some meats, dairy products, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds) are higher in phosphorus. Therefore, unless you're receiving kidney dialysis, you'll be asked to eat smaller quantities of them. Whole grains also are higher in phosphorus, so choose refined ones.

Example of Vegetables I am allowed to eat or have to avoid..

Avoid                                                             Permitted

Peas (fresh green, split, black-eyed), beans (black, garbanzo, lima, kidney, navy, pinto) or lentils	Green peas (canned, frozen), green beans or wax beans
Starchy vegetables: corn, parsnips, pumpkin or sweet potato	Starchy vegetables: potato, rutabaga or winter squash
Other vegetables: artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, mushrooms, peapods (cooked) or spinach	Other vegetables: cabbage, beets, carrots, celery, cucumbers, eggplant, lettuce, peppers, onions, tomatoes or summer squash

So it is noted that potato is permitted but it is also high in potassium which the kidney has a hard time processing as well. Interesting though that I cannot have cooked broccoli but I can have raw broccoli in small amounts.

Potassium guidelines for choosing foods

Fruit I can eat and fruit to avoid (list is from the Kidney Foundation of Canada)

Meat, Milk, Grains and Other Items I am allowed to eat and which to avoid.

 

Vegetables I can eat and which I need to avoid.

So I will be starting dialysis within the next month. I need to do training first and then I will be doing it on my own. My diet won't be as restrictive as it is now.

Cora

Halve salt to avoid the doctor

Halve salt to avoid the doctor

Elizabeth McMillan
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 9, 2010

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A little bit of salt can cause a lot of problems.
Because of its links to high blood pressure, and in turn strokes, heart disease and kidney disease, Health Canada recently recommended Canadians cut their sodium intake in half.

Stanton's employee Gloria Arnburg, left, and food security worker Melanie Keevik, right, discuss cooler space for traditional food in Stanton's Tuk store on Jan. 28, 2010. - photo courtesy of Marc Arseneau

But eliminating salt from food isn't as easy as putting down the shaker before a meal. Only a quarter of our daily intake of sodium comes from what people sprinkle on their meals, according to a report released last month. It's the sodium already in packaged food, not the seasoning put on after, that contributes the most to health problems like high blood pressure.
Melanie Keevik, a food security worker in Tuktoyaktuk with Health Foods North, said often people reach for processed food instead of cooking from scratch and don't think twice about sodium.

"All the canned food, the frozen pizzas, even the wieners and bacon, processed food. It's just so much easier for people to cook than it is for them to make a stir fry," she said.
But she said people should look for healthier alternatives.
"Harvesting your own traditional foods like geese and quail and caribou, and picking your own berries ... it's a better option.

There's no salt on the berries, or on any of that meat," Keevik said. "You add your own (salt) to it later when you're going to eat it, maybe. But there's no added preservatives, artificial this and that."

She said more education about how sodium affects people could help change habits.

"People when they realize what it is that they're consuming, then later on they notice that's too much and they try to cut down. They never realized it before," she said. "People will just eat something and ignore calories, ignore the sugar, the salt."

But like keeping an eye on sugars, "Sodium content is so high in the food that you buy in the stores that you don't even need to add salt to it," she said.

Elsie De Roose, the territorial nutritionist with the Department of Health and Social Services, thinks it's about time people started paying attention to sodium.

"The message is try and make as much food yourself as you can. For all those other good reasons, too - for cost and health. More fruits and vegetables, more cereals, more dairy, more fresh meat."

She recommended people ask their grocery store managers about low-sodium products and check sodium content both when buying food and in restaurants.

In its July report, a Sodium Reduction Group commissioned by Health Canada in 2007 found most Canadians consume 3,400 milligrams of sodium per day, far above the recommended 1,500 milligrams. By cutting the average amount of sodium consumed in half, there would be a 13 per cent reduction - or 23,500 fewer - cases of cardiovascular disease per year. The report translated this into a savings of almost $3 billion in health case costs across the country.

The report recommended most Canadians reduce their sodium intake to under 2,300 milligrams, equivalent to less than a teaspoon of salt, though the recommendations vary for age groups. It also recommended improving the way food is labelled so sodium content is clearer.

De Roose said that would be helpful, as many people may not be aware just how much salt they're consuming.

But even with more information, old habits may be hard to break.

"People are used to sodium and it's in a lot of food products for taste and preservation," De Roose said.
"These days people's lifestyles are so busy, it's hard to give recommendations to people to lower sodium, there's so much in packaged food."

Hmmm food for thought....

Cora

Great article on Sodium Intake....

Canadians' sodium intake leaving a bitter taste

Posted By TYLER BALL, FOR THE WHIG-STANDARD

Posted 2 days ago

Canadians can save $2 billion in health-care costs if they reduce their consumption of salt by one-third, says a study released Thursday by the Sodium Working Group, a government-backed research effort.

Michael Adams, a member of the working group, said sodium reduction is one of the biggest challenges to the country's health, especially since over 77% of it comes from the manufactured food we eat, and not out of a shaker. 

"It's already in the food," said Adams, a professor in the department of pharmacology and toxicology at Queen's University. 

"It's insidious, it's sneaking up on us. We don't even know its there." 

Excess sodium is a cause of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure, kidney disease and stomach cancer, killing between 10,000 and 15,000 people and costing the health-care system at least $2 billion annually. 

"Measurements suggest that Canadians are consuming 3,400 milligrams of sodium per day," said Adams. "The recommended amount is closer to 1,500 mg per day, which is quite a difference."
The researchers recommend that Canadians reduce their intake to 2,300 mg per day by 2016.
"(It's) not all the way down to the recommended amount, but a good compromise," Adams said.
Adams hopes Canada can follow a model successfully implemented in Finland and the United Kingdom, where the government asked for a reduction of salt in processed foods and manufacturers obliged.
"(It's) a system-wide approach that has benefited people enormously," he said. 

"Finland (did) it quite a long time ago and they've shown a remarkable improvement in the incidence and prevalence of cardiovascular disease."

However, the recommendation is voluntary. No manufacturer will be forced to reduce the salt in its products but Adams said the market will call for it. 

"Once there's a behaviour that has educated people into wanting this, every single company should be abiding by this reduction," he said. 

"All consumers ... need to be made aware so they can provide the feedback to reinforce this behaviour."
Health Canada will track the progress of manufacturers on a website, and recommend the most salt-conscious producers. 

The sodium working group wants the reduction to appear in every aisle of the grocery store, not just in foods that are traditionally sodium-rich. 

"No longer will you have to only just pick out certain foods ... all foods will have a reduction in salt," he said, adding it won't be easy, due to the versatility of salt and the many ways it's used in food production.
"It's there for flavour reasons, for manufacturing reasons and bacterial reasons," said Adams. "It's not just for the simple flavour enhancement that many people think." 

"To remove it is not trivial." 

Another problem is the way consumers have acquired a taste for salt because of its prevalence. 

"(Producers') fear is people are going to say, 'This doesn't taste very good', " he said. "This is why the target is 2016, it's not tomorrow, (so) we can do a gradual reduction." 

Hopefully this will wean consumers away from salt. 

"I would argue that six years is actually a long time for adjusting your diet," said Adams, "(but) if we can meet that target for 2016, then all the power to us." 

"At least, let's get onboard with this strategy." 

tball@thewhig.com

I agree on all levels since being told to reduce my sodium intake to 1300-2000 mg/day, I have noticed a huge craving for all things salty. Most days are okay but their is the odd day it is super difficult. Why have companies been allowed to put in the amounts of sodium that they do for so long? We have to have certain amount of sodium, potassium and phosphorus but for the renal patient to much is  NOT a good thing as the insufficient working kidney cannot process these complex minerals (hubby is shuddering at this usage as he his a chemist/physicist). So we are looking at reductions by 2016 and they are voluntary...hmm.


Let me know what you think.


Cora