Building a Renal Diet Grocery List – Canned Vegetables vs. Fresh Vegetables – Which Is Better for My Renal Pre-Dialysis Kidney Disease?

If you live in an area where fresh vegetables are not readily available or affordable, you may feel your options are limited to canned vegetables. It may also be the case that fresh vegetables are not available at this time of year for you to choose.  If this is the situation that you are facing, you must consider many factors when choosing these items.

With kidney disease, you must take care to limit your consumption of protein, sodium, potassium, and phosphorus. You may need to watch your carbohydrate intake if you have diabetes as well.  Unfortunately, because of these factors, canned vegetables can be a little trickier to pick than fresh vegetables.  Don’t forget you can choose frozen vegetables, and they are similar in nutritional content to what a fresh vegetable would be.  So they may be a great compromise when you are really wanting to use fresh vegetables but they are not available.  And remember, even though they may cost a little more, you will be eating less meat or protein so your grocery bill should be in a better place!

Sodium

Generally, canned foods are high in sodium. Fortunately, these items also are required to list the sodium content on the nutrition label. This part of the label can be consulted to see if the item would be acceptable or not. The percent daily value (%DV) that is on the food label should be no more than 6-10% to stay within the limits of your pre-dialysis renal diet. Most canned foods are significantly higher than this amount. Look for items that are marked sodium free, very low sodium or low sodium. Items are marked as reduced sodium or light in sodium may be reduced to an acceptable level . Sometimes these canned foods are still are a sodium level that is too high for your intake.

Another tip – you can rinse canned vegetables and reduce the sodium content by an average of 35%.  It’s a great way to use regular canned vegetables if you already have them in the house and don’t want to discard them.

Potassium

Sometimes if there is no salt added, there may be added potassium. You can notice if this is the case by checking the ingredient list. One form of potassium that is often used as a salt substitute is potassium chloride. If this is added, usually the food is too high in potassium to consume.  When reading the label, check for the word potassium in the ingredient listing – if it’s at the top, you probably have too much.

Potassium is not required to be marked on nutrition labels, yet some manufactures add it for certain products. If a food is under 200mg the RDA may label it as 6%. This is what is acceptable for you intake. If it is 100mg or 3% the RDA, this is a low potassium food. If the item is above 6% it is too high for your current intake.

If potassium is not listed, you still need to be careful. You must be aware of vegetables that are low in potassium. If you are not sure, it is better to make note of the vegetable and check before you risk it being high in potassium.

Phosphorus

Labels are not required to post the phosphorus in foods either. If it is posted as an RDI (recommended dietary intake) make sure it is under 15%. These foods would be 150mg. If an item is 50mg (5%) or less it is a low phosphorus food. More than 15% is considered a high phosphorus food and should be avoided if your levels are high, which your doctor or dietitian can help you determine based on labs. Canned beans (black beans, re-fried beans, kidney beans) are particularly high in phosphorus and should be avoided. Canned green beans and mixed vegetables are lower in phosphorus.

Check out our listing of potassium and phosphorus levels of a lot of foods and a huge variety of foods right now – go to the store armed with the list!  Click Here

Carbohydrates

Sometimes canned vegetables have added sugar. If you have diabetes, you should be particularly concerned with this value. One carbohydrate serving is considered 15g. This information can be found in the “total carbohydrates” category on the food label. Total sugar that is in a food is grouped into this value, making it a more accurate number to look for if you have diabetes. Fiber also is something that you should pay attention to on the nutrition facts label. The higher the fiber, the better it is for your blood glucose control. A good source is considered 10% of the %DV and a high source is 20% of the %DV.

Serving Sizes

Be careful to note what the serving sizes are in food since often they are much smaller than you would assume. If you are consuming double the serving size, it is important to note that you are consuming double the sodium, potassium, phosphorus and carbohydrate amounts and thus they can be above your restriction.  The serving size is listed in the nutrition facts label.

It is rare that canned foods are better than fresh foods. There is much more to consider regarding canned vegetables. You still must be aware of which vegetables are high versus low in potassium and phosphorus. Yet, it is possible to include these items in your diet by taking note of certain items that may be added such as sodium or potassium.

You can choose fresh and frozen vegetables, which will be lower in sodium, but you still need to pay attention to the potassium and phosphorus amounts in them because they could be a product that is high in potassium or phosphorus naturally.  Check out the potassium and phosphorus lists we have – Click Here – and go to the store with more information.

Renal Diet HQ supports the Month of June as we move into the full swing of Men’s Health Month and the great celebration of Father’s Day. We celebrate all the fathers and grandfathers who have become part of the foundation of our great country.

Oklahoma City, OK (I-Newswire) June 13, 2013 – Renal Diet Headquarters announces it’s support for Men’s Health Month in the month of June and the great day of Fathers Day, June 16th. Men’s Health Month has a goal to heighten the awareness of preventable health problems and encourage early detection and treatment of disease among men and boys. This month gives all persons the opportunity to encourage boys and men to get regular check ups for disease and heighten awareness of any injury among men and boys in sport or at work.

CEO Mathea Ford was quoted at the beginning of June, saying “Healthy Diet Menus For You and Renal Diet HQ are proud to support the efforts of the Men’s Health Network and celebrating Fathers Day. The employees of our company strive to motivate and move our business forward and men are a huge part of Renal Diet HQ and Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC. Our plan and mission is to see all males in our population continue to obtain high quality health services and wellness and a large part of that is eating the correct diet especially for those with pre-existing health conditions.”

Renal Diet HQ and Healthy Diet Menus for You, LLC will continue to expand the meal plan and nutritional education offerings with emphasis on renal pre-dialysis and renal diabetes. These two areas of concentration are key to mens health and wellness. All men should continue to watch their nutrition and should be encouraged to visit their primary care provider at least once a year for regular check ups and lab work. Many conditions are preventable and most are controllable with the guidance of proper medical care and oversight. 

Renal Diet HQ consists of a monthly subscription plans that include weekly meal plans for renal patients from stage 3 kidney disease through kidney dialysis. Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC works with cardiac, diabetic and gestational diabetic patient on diet and meal planning solutions. Each meal plan solution consists of recipes, nutritional information, and full grocery lists. Recipes provide full ingredient lists and complete instructions as well as specific nutritional information by recipe for our customers. The nutritionals include: calories, fat, saturated fats, sodium, carbohydrates, fiber, sugar, protein, cholesterol, phosphorus, and potassium, all of which are important to a person needing a special diet. Grocery lists are provided for meals individually and also for the entire seven day plan so you can go to the grocery store and get an entire week of meals or send someone for you. 

Renal Diet HQ is committed to bringing the utmost quality and service to it is client base through it’s website and toll free phone number. Specializing in this very complicated and unique group of patients, Renal Diet HQ is proud to be a superb resource that can be relied upon by it’s clients to meet the demands that our client’s desire.

Renal Diet HQ and Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC are located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and operated by the principals Mathea Ford RD/LD MBA and Chief Executive Officer and Donovan Ford, Chief Operations Officer. Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC was launched in January 2011 as the brain child of Mathea Ford who is also currently serving as CEO of this start up. Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC provides meal plans for diabetic, gestational diabetic, renal, renal diabetic and cardiac patients.

What Can I Use To Make A Healthy Smoothie For Kidney Failure?

After looking at what you cannot eat on a renal diet, it may seem impossible to enjoy a smoothie. After all the main things that go into a smoothie are limited and that means it won’t be very good, right?

Wrong!  Substitutions exist for the common high potassium and high phosphorus foods that are normally added to smoothies – so you can still enjoy that flavor without all the potassium.

Fruits For A Smoothie

Of course, high potassium fruit should be limited with your current diet. By speaking to your dietitian, you may be able to work higher potassium foods into your diet. Typically, you should try to consume the lower potassium fruits, though, and that is what I am going to use in the recipe so you can have a great smoothie right after you are done reading this!

Low potassium fruit (under 200mg): apricots (2), blackberries (1/2c), cherries (1/2c), peach (1), plum (1), strawberries (1/2c)

Very low potassium fruit (under 100mg): blueberries (1/2c), raspberries (1/2c)

For each serving you are making, use 1/2 cup of fruit above. Frozen fruit works excellent in smoothies and eliminates or cuts down the need to use ice, especially if you have a fluid restriction.  So, you can use the flavors to add a little bit of pop to your otherwise ordinary day.  And frozen fruit is easy to find all year long – so you won’t be stuck without having an ingredient when you get a craving.

Can I Use Milk In My Smoothie?

Milk, yogurt and ice cream which are normally be added to a smoothie must be eliminated because of the high phosphorus levels for most kidney patients.  If you are not limiting your phosphorus, then you can use milk as long as you account for the protein it contains. To obtain a similar creaminess, non-dairy whipped topping or non-dairy creamer could be added instead of a dairy product if you can’t have them.  Another idea could be to add sherbet.

For each serving you are making, use 2 to 4 tablespoons of whipped topping or sherbet.

Protein In My Smoothie for My Kidneys

If you are on dialysis you have increased protein needs from when you were not on dialysis. For this reason, you may want to add a protein power. For a high quality protein, protein powders such as whey protein powder or egg white protein powder can be used. They  must be checked for potassium and phosphorus content. There are many brands that have less than 200mg of potassium and phosphorus. However, there are also even more brands that have high levels of these minerals and have an abundance of additives.

Products that are low in potassium and phosphorus include:

EggPro powder, LiquiCel, Procel Whey Protein Powder, Pro-Stat, Proteinex Liquid, Pure Protein Whey Powder

Since you may have a decreased appetite, you may be familiar with liquid renal supplements. These can also be used to supplement protein as well as add creaminess to the smoothie. Some liquid renal supplements include Re-Gen, Nepro with Carb Steady and Novasource Renal.

For each serving you are making, use one scoop of protein powder or 4 ounces of liquid nutrition supplement.

If you feel the smoothie needs some extra flavor, Crystal Light flavoring can be added to your smoothie to give it a kick!

Sample Recipes:

1/2 c Frozen Mixed Berries

4 Tbsp Non-Dairy Whipped Topping

1 Scoop Whey Protein

1/4 c Water (add more as needed)

Crystal Light Raspberry Peach (*optional)

Instructions: Blend all ingredients together. Add water as needed for the appropriate consistency based on your fluid needs or restrictions as well as based on your preferences.

or

1/2  c Vanilla Nepro with Carb Steady

1/2 c Frozen Mixed Berries

2 Tbsp Non-Dairy Whipped Topping

Crystal Light Strawberry Orange Banana (*optional)

Water as needed

Instructions: Blend all ingredients together. Add water as needed for the appropriate consistency based on your fluid needs or restrictions as well as based on your preferences.

Using one or two items from each section above can help you create a smoothie that you can enjoy on your renal diet. You can even experiment for more variety so that you do not become tired of the restrictions of your diet – which is a very important part of your diet.  Watching what you eat all day can be onerous.

If you are interested in more recipes, you can check out our kidney diet cook book on Amazon, that is designed to meet the needs of a person with pre-dialysis kidney disease.

 

Check out this great smoothie blender!

Oatmeal is one of the healthiest foods you could eat for diabetes or heart disease diets. This month we are spreading the word about how oatmeal can be a game changer in your life and improve your health.

Oklahoma City, OK (I-Newswire) January 2, 2013 – Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC, Renal Diet HQ and CEO Mathea Ford, RD/LD announces their support of National Oatmeal Month by releasing a blog series on oatmeal and related topics. Over 40 years of research has shown that consuming 3g of soluble fiber a day can reduce bad cholesterol and can help reduce the risk of heart disease. What a better way to get the soluble fiber than with oatmeal?

The topics of discussion included in the blog series are as follows: Benefits Of A Good Breakfast, Heart Disease, Diabetes Management, Weight Management and Cholesterol. Both general information and in-depth articles will be published via the blog during the January 2013 month in conjunction with National Oatmeal Month. We also will be adding oatmeal recipes to the blog that fit right in with your special diet, whether it’s kidney disease, heart disease or diabetes. Did you know that more oatmeal is consumed in January than any other month of the year?

Healthy Diet Menus for You, LLC provides diet and nutrition expertise along with meal planning for cardiac patients and the heart conscious as well as meal planning and diets for diabetes management. The Healthy Diet Menus for You, LLC website provides valuable information for all types of cardiac and diabetic patients through an extensive information library of articles and a fully functional blog written by the CEO and Registered Dietitian, Mathea Ford. Healthy Diet Menus for You, LLC is committed to bringing the utmost quality and service to it is client base through it’s website and toll free phone number. Specializing in this very complicated and unique group of patients, Healthy Diet Menus for You, LLC is proud to be a superb resource that can be relied upon by it’s clients.

Renal Diet HQ specializes in renal diets and meal planning both for pre-dialysis and dialysis patients. The Renal Diet HQ website provides valuable information for all types of kidney disease patients through an extensive information library of articles and a fully functional blog written by the CEO and Registered Dietitian, Mathea Ford. Renal Diet HQ is committed to bringing the utmost quality and service to it is client base through it’s website. Specializing in this very complicated and unique group of patients, Renal Diet HQ is proud to be a superb resource that can be relied upon by it’s clients.

Renal Diet HQ and Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC are located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and are operated by the principals Mathea Ford RD/LD MBA and Chief Executive Officer and Donovan Ford, Chief Operations Officer. Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC was launched in January 2011 as the brain child of Mathea Ford who is also currently serving as CEO. Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC provides meal plans for diabetic, gestational diabetic, renal, renal diabetic and cardiac patients.

About Healthy Diet Menus for You, LLC:
Healthy Diet Menus for You provides people with set weekly menus. Each menu is specifically targeted towards particular health requirements. Save time by subscribing to our easy to use menu plans.

Company Contact Information
Healthy Diet Menus for You, LLC
Mathea Ford
PO Box 6554
73153

Renal Diet Headquarters is celebrating National Nutrition Month with you. This March, we encourage you to eat right, your way, every day by using the skills and information you have to improve your health. As a kidney patient, your diet matters.

Oklahoma City, OK (I-Newswire) March 13, 2013 – Renal Diet Headquarters announces the their support for National Nutrition Month®,National Nutrition Month® is a nutrition education and information campaign sponsored annually by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The campaign is designed to support healthy eating habits and healthy activity habits as well. As with any form of nutrition therapy, diet and exercise go hand in hand. The National Nutrition Month® 2013 theme, “Eat Right, Your Way, Every Day,” encourages personalized healthy eating styles and recognizes that food preferences, lifestyle, cultural and ethnic traditions and health concerns all impact individual food choices.

As a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, CEO Mathea Ford was quoted at the beginning of March, saying “Healthy Diet Menus For You and Renal Diet HQ are proud to support the efforts on an annual basis of the Academy, the employees of our company strive to motivate our clients to the standards set forth by the Academy. We will continue to support the efforts of healthy eating and health exercising as it applies to the entire population in the United States and our client base. We believe we will continue to see drastic changes in the eating habits of our ever growing population and our health and our health care system will be better for it.”

Renal Diet HQ continues to expand the meal plan and educational offering with the expected launch of Renal Diet HQ IQ in the coming months. In this series CEO Mathea Ford RD/LD will continue to build on the information requested by our clients and expand first in the area of pre-dialysis kidney disease with the IQ series.

Renal Diet HQ consists of a monthly subscription plans that include weekly meal plans for renal patients from stage 3 kidney disease through kidney dialysis. Each meal plan consists of recipes, nutritional information, and full grocery lists. Recipes provide full ingredient lists and complete instructions as well as specific nutritional information by recipe for our customers. The nutritional information includes: calories, fat, saturated fats, sodium, carbohydrates, fiber, sugar, protein, cholesterol, phosphorus, and potassium, all of which are important to a person needing a kidney disease diet plan. Grocery lists are provided for meals individually and also for the entire seven day plan so you can go to the grocery store and get an entire week of meals or send someone for you.

Renal Diet HQ is committed to bringing the utmost quality and service to it is client base through it’s website and toll free phone number. Specializing in this very complicated and unique group of patients, Renal Diet HQ is proud to be a superb resource that can be relied upon by it’s clients to meet the demands that our client’s desire.

Renal Diet HQ is operated by Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma operated by the principals Mathea Ford RD/LD MBA and Chief Executive Officer and Donovan Ford, Chief Operations Officer. Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC was launched in January 2011 as the brain child of Mathea Ford who is also currently serving as CEO of this start up. Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC provides meal plans for diabetic, gestational diabetic, renal, renal diabetic and cardiac patients.

About Healthy Diet Menus for You, LLC:
Healthy Diet Menus for You provides people with set weekly menus. Each menu is specifically targeted towards particular health requirements. Save time by subscribing to our easy to use menu plans.

Company Contact Information
Healthy Diet Menus for You, LLC
Mathea Ford
PO Box 6554
73153
Phone : 4057937306

Mathea Ford, Registered Dietitian and Author, released another book targeted at those with predialysis kidney disease. This book helps people plan their meals and gives them all the tools necessary to successfully delay the onset of kidney dialysis.

Oklahoma City, OK (I-Newswire) February 2, 2013 – Renal Diet Headquarters and CEO Mathea Ford, RD/LD announces the launch of her fourth book “The Kidney Friendly Diet Cookbook: Recipes For A Predialysis Kidney Disease Lifestyle”. Her book will be available beginning this week in print form via Amazon. This book includes many curated recipes that match a predialysis patients needs and includes all the neccesary nutritional values that are vital to a predialysis diet meal plan. Mathea spent months curating and preparing the foods for these recipes and this book. She is very grateful to all the friends and family that made the book possible including her fine group of employees at Renal Diet HQ and Healthy Diet Menus For You,LLC.

Currently, the book is priced at a very reasonable rate and is appropriate for those in need of recipes related to predialysis stages of kidney disease. With kidney disease at any stage, a meal plan and diet are needed to ultimately delay further kidney damage. One in ten people develop kidney disease throughout the world, and this is a timely launch to aid people in reducing the risk of further kidney damage.

Brought to you by Healthy Diet Menus for You, LLC, Renal Diet HQ specializes in renal diets and meal planning both for pre-dialysis, renal diabetics and dialysis patients. The Renal Diet HQ website provides valuable information for all types of kidney disease patients through an extensive information library of articles and a fully functional blog written by the CEO and Registered Dietitian, Mathea Ford. Renal Diet HQ is committed to bringing the utmost quality and service to it is client base through it’s website and toll free phone number. Specializing in this very complicated and unique group of patients, Renal Diet HQ is proud to be a superb resource that can be relied upon by it’s clients to meet the demands that our client’s desire.

Renal Diet HQ is operated by Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and is operated by the principals Mathea Ford RD/LD MBA and Chief Executive Officer and Donovan Ford, Chief Operations Officer. Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC was launched in January 2011 as the brain child of Mathea Ford who is also currently serving as CEO. Healthy Diet Menus For You, LLC provides meal plans for diabetic, gestational diabetic, renal, renal diabetic and cardiac patients.

In a new article, published in November of 2012, researchers looked at whether or not people on PD were more or less happy than others on different types of dialysis.  The researchers made an attempt to look at the values and priorities in people’s lives to see how the dialysis was affecting them.  This study looked at other studies to determine a general outcome.

The researchers looked at several things:

We identified 7 themes: resilience and confidence (determination and overcoming vicissitudes), support structures (strong family relationship, peer support, professional dedication, social abandonment, and desire for holistic care), overwhelming responsibility (disruptive intrusion, family burden, and onerous treatment regimen), control (gaining bodily awareness, achieving independence and self-efficacy, and information seeking), freedom (flexibility and autonomy, retaining social functioning, and ability to travel), sick identity (damage to self-esteem and invisible suffering), and disablement (physical incapacitation and social loss and devaluation).

When you think about the way that peritoneal dialysis is viewed by the medical field, it is seen as a great thing for people to be able to accomplish more of their lives – keep on working, not have to travel to the dialysis center, and independence.  But the researchers also found that people were not necessarily happy with the way things were.

If a person did not have a good social structure or family relationships, they might be more depressed and alone feeling.  It seemed more likely with those who did CAPD instead of APD since they have to have the dialysate in the peritoneum and do exchanges throughout the day.

This article changed my perspective some on how I view the different options for prolonging life in ESRD.  You may need to consider many “different” obstacles once you find out you need dialysis instead of choosing blindly.  In my first book about pre-dialysis, I wrote about how much your attitude about how renal disease would affect you impacted your outcome.  That same holds true based on this study.

If you are in need of more information on dialysis meal planning, head on over to our meal planning program and see if we can help!