Stage 3 Kidney Disease and Diet: What can I eat?

@ldrlaw Curious what happened with your husband that he had to be placed on dialysis? Did they do a chest catheter? How does this change your plans to winter in Arizona, now?

Here is what Cleveland Clinic has to say about monk fruit: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-you-should-use-monk-fruit-sweetener/
Sending you support as you go through this,
Ginger

@kamama94 @dks

You're right there is so much to educate ourselves on for diet, and it seems to change all the time. Right now, I am going through a period where there has to be an emphasis on getting good protein into me, but I don't feel like eating. I like mandarin oranges and their sweetness, and celery for its crunchiness, and some greek yogurt. So, it is a protein shake for me most days. My last tests from the dialysis clinic showed I am doing okay for albumin, but still losing weight that was not intended. It has my PD nurse and oncologist concerned, but I don't want to add in an appetite stimulant seeing that I am already taking so many medications!

I'll go track down those files!
Ginger

@kamama94 and @dks
Here are the files, in Adobe Acrobat format

@dks, I didn't know if you got this from ginger so am reposting just in case.

DIABETIC-AND-RENAL-FRIENDLY-VEGAN-AND-NATIVE-AMERICAN-RECIPES-2 (DIABETIC-AND-RENAL-FRIENDLY-VEGAN-AND-NATIVE-AMERICAN-RECIPES-2.pdf)

DIABETIC-AND-RENAL-FRIENDLY-VEGETARIAN-1 (DIABETIC-AND-RENAL-FRIENDLY-VEGETARIAN-1.pdf)

Yes-2 (Yes-2.pdf)

@gingerw ~ I'm sorry that your daily appetite is low. That is no fun. Your Greek yogurt protein shake should be good for you. Like you, I battle weight loss. With anxieties, I don't feel hungry on many days & then tend to lose weight. I know that many people have the opposite problem with weight, and I feel badly for all of us. Being on either end of the weight spectrum can certainly be hard. You say your medical team is concerned about your continued weight loss. How much protein would your team like to see you consume on a daily basis? Can you consume enough shake/smoothie to reach that level?

Hi Ginger: His GFR had dropped over a long period of time to 9. He had been very fatigued but now became nauseous for several days. He had two medical offices tell him to go to ER and he agreed. Then when he hung up the phone he said we could go tomorrow. My reply? Absolutely not. They initially put a port in near his collarbone and started dialysis the next day. They put a chest tube in before he left the hospital and set us up with DaVita. I actually feel somewhat relieved that we can now face this head on and he feels better. I know he’ll remain non-compliant - that won’t change. When he got back from DaVita yesterday, he said he could continue drinking 128 oz of fluids. I called the center today and they told me no more than 60 and they’ll discuss it further with dietitian😕

I'm a stage 3-4 CKD. After going to the ER last week, my husband is now on dialysis. I'm so, so thankful this happened in WI where we have good medical services when we were days away from going to our very remote, off-grid little home in AZ. So now we have a different focus on the foods he requires and the liquids he drinks. One of our biggest finds was monk fruit as a 1:1 replacement for sugar but the dietitians we've talked to don't seem to know much about it. It's available in liquid form from Amazon and in dry form with Erythritol from Costco. Does anyone have any input?

We also purchased some Green Salt. My husband, of course, doesn't like it but I think it's okay for some things - especially eggs. The website trygreensalt.com, however, doesn't do a very good job of explaining the contents other than saying that is has 50% less sodium than salt. It also has protein, fiber, magnesium, potassium, and Vit B3. I'm going to write to them and ask for a clearer picture on what this actually contains. In the meantime, does anyone know more about it?

In the booklet put out by DaVita, there's a picture which includes a container marked Vegan Ice Cream and another marked Almond Cheese. Where does one find those?

I hope today is a good day for everyone. Vicki

@ldrlw, glad hubby got appropriate care!

Some grocery stores offer unsalted or lightly salted potato chips and in small amounts occasionally are low enough in phosphorus and potassium to be ok on a renal diet.

So Delicious makes dairy free, egg free frozen dessert "ice cream" and the name is accurate! It's great! (In smaller servings than recommended on the label, of course.) So delicious makes a lot of vegan products - cheese, yogurt, etc.

Monk fruit is a Chinese fruit used as a sweetener supposedly ok for kidneys. I don't use it because I rarely eat sugar or sugary foods and as a diabetic I do tolerate well small amounts of maple sugar.

Green salt is a salty-tasting seaweed dried and ground. The company wasn't able to tell me much about its mineral content and people with CKD need to watch intake of minerals like potassium, I decided not to try it. And since I only add a pinch of coarse kosher salt (just a few grains) to something I decided not to experiment with green salt. On average I take in less than 15 mg Na daily. (It took several weeks for me to adjust to not using salt but I no longer miss it.)

Erythritol can cause cramping, bloating and diarrhea if too much is used - different amounts for different people.

One thing which has helped me find vegetarian and vegan foods is online shopping for home delivery (I'm homebound.) I can go to a grocery store's online shopping site (including Walmart) and type vegan in the search box to see what's available and most items have online nutrition labels, ingredients, preparation instructions, etc.

Good luck to you and your husband on your renal diets. Please keep me posted?

ldrlsw Yes, things will be different from now on, definitely. I hope your husband listens to his DaVita team, and follows their advice. The nausea is always a big flag when your eGFR gets low, and they use that to gauge getting onto dialysis. When I started PD, my eGFR was about 13%, and I had decided that the combination of active chemo for multiple myeloma and rapidly dropping eGFR was a bad combination. My energy was so bad. Now my kidneys have recovered to 18% since September, and my chemo meds are working more efficiently! That's a win-win in my book.

Here is a link to what the National Kidney Foundation has to say about fluids while on dialysis: https://www.kidney.org/newsletter/thirst-tips-dialysis-patients#:~:text=Most%20dialysis%20patients%20need%20to,and%20make%20dialysis%20very%20uncomfortable.

And what they have to say about fluid overload, and its effects: https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/fluid-overload-dialysis-patient#:~:text=Most%20dialysis%20patients%20need%20to,ice%20chips%2C%20or%20frozen%20grapes.

We cannot force someone to do something they do not want to do, or are willing to do, so I hope your husband will be able to see how being non-compliant may affect his health.
Ginger