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Cookbook to facilitate improved kidney function?
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) | Last Active: Jul 21, 2025 | Replies (11)Comment receiving replies
Thank you Ginger for your thoughtful and thorough responses to this discussion!
I concur that potential kidney patients often don’t even know that they have a condition until they are stage 3 or even stage 4. Consider that nephrologists’ patients are often stage 4 or worse and are in need of dialysis & / or transplant. Folks with mild or moderate kidney problems are often seeing a primary care provider and haven’t been told their situation even exists.
Secondly, as soon as you know that you have a kidney condition is the time to learn about the renal nutrition requirements. For me this meant learning about what the labs mean that my provider orders and getting a referral to a dietician who could teach me about how to “eat for these labs”. I learned about reducing sodium, the best kind of protein to consume, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, oxalates ….. I am one of those people whose kidney disease is due to diabetes and a history of hypertension (high blood pressure). So I was blessed to find a dietician who had training and experience in dealing with those conditions also.
As far as finding a “cookbook to facilitate improved kidney function”, I’m guessing you are interested in finding recipes to help. I have not actually done this but there was a Mayo Clinic Connect member that made a cookbook. She was a registered nurse, had kidney disease herself and had been on dialysis. She researched renal nutrition and made a cookbook that used acceptable ingredients &/or made kidney friendly ingredient substitutions for dishes and meals to support renal nutrition. The last I knew her kidney disease had improved and she was off of the hemodialysis that she previously required. She made this cookbook available to Mayo Clinic Connect members. I recall that she was supported by Mayo doctors and endorsed by Mayo Clinic Connect itself. If I’ve misspoken I apologize. @kamama94 could you please weigh in here? (Haven’t heard from you in a long time; hope you are well!)
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@cehunt57 Here's an update.
I am a retired LPN, not an RN, but have a background in nutrition and in chemistry.
The cookbook recipes now are outdated as manufacturers and food producers frequently change amounts, nutritional values, and ingredients. However, most of the essay portion of the cookbook (such as corn, squash, and beans equalling a complete protein or using unbleached flour rather than overprocessed white flour or potassium leaching of potatoes) remains accurate. In the interest of accuracy regarding the recipe values themselves, I always caution people when they refer to those early recipes to bear in mind that those values have changed over time and to get the latest nutrient value information always read labels and in some cases even contact the manufacturer for the latest values in a product.
On a personal level, using my own accurate-at-the-time recipes got me off dialysis. I became a vegetarian and except for eggs and extremely limited dairy cooked in foods like bread, I followed a vegan diet with the result that for several years I remained in CKD Stage 3a. As a diabetic with CKD I saw that a diabetic food list/regimen in some ways conflicted with a food list/regimen for CKD and I tended to rely on the renal diet more than on a diabetic diet.
Over time, though, diabetes created quite a bit of nerve damage and I developed gastroparesis, slow stomach emptying, and often could not eat well. I had weighed about 289 prior to that but the nausea and poor appetite and swallowing difficulties resulted in almost no insulin required and contributed to my losing a total of close to 150 pounds. I also lost muscle mass and wound up in the hospital several times because I couldn't meet nutritional needs.
Recently I had laser surgery on a diverticulum associated with my pharynx and affecting the esophagus and now am on a full liquid diet with very soft foods that don't need to be chewed (potassium-leached mashed potatoes, for example, soups with very mushy potato cubes or pureed squash.) I'm slowly losing ground even though I've stayed in CKD Stage3b and use very little insulin. Part of my weakness and resultant need for someone to come in 5 days a week and do cleaning and cooking is also due to comorbidities such as CHF, COPD, musulo-skeletal deterioration, and so forth.
Although I'm not ready for it yet, my PCP and I are exploring Hospice options so if and when the time comes we won't have to rush to find appropriate end of life care.
Meanwhile, I'm still here and post in How Ablout A Laugh in the Just Want To Talk thread.
Thank you for remembering me. I hope you're doing well. And please remind everyone who reads those old recipes to read labels for updated ingredients and nutritional values and ingredients.