Eating Well with Kidney Failure

Following on from my post last Saturday
Potassium is the key , I am pleased to report that I have now obtained a book of 50 recipes that have been tried and tested to create a healthy diet for anyone with kidney malfunction (from those just slightly affected to those who have to undergo dialysis). It also contains good advice and helpful hints for making sure that your restricted diet contains enough protein and vitamins and for limiting the salt, phosphate and potassium in your diet without it being boring and inadequate.

So I can recommend "Eating Well with Kidney Failure - A practical guide and cookbook" to anyone who has been told to limit their phosphate or potassium intake. It deals with all levels of kidney malfunction and can make life much easier and meals much more interesting. It is written by Helena Jackson, Annie Cassidy, and Gavin James,'with the help and support of our renal and dietetic colleagues at St. George's and King's College Hospitals', and is published by Class Publishing, Barb House, Barb Mews, London W6 7PA www.class.co.uk .

Potassium is the key

Sorry to have kept you all wondering what has happened to me! I seem to have had all the possible health check-ups coinciding in the last few weeks and diet seems to loom importantly in all of them! But such conflicting advice only confuses me, the patient, and makes me wonder what I CAN eat safely without triggering some other weakness in my anatomy.

I now think that potassium is the key, but what a complex subject that is! What a bewildering list of foods contain potassium, and then you have to learn which foods are high potassium foods and which are low potassium foods and choose your diet accordingly. That sounds simple, but it isn't, for, if you are trying not to consume too much potassium, you not only have to avoid eating the high potassium foods but you also have to beware of eating too much of any of the low potassium foods!

So the equation is:- How to eat well, keeping this balance and at the same time making sure that you don't lose any more weight? It's even more of a conundrum when you have a garden full of delicious apples, tomatoes, runner beans and brussel sprouts (nearly ready) and only me here to eat them all! It's not fair! (I've eaten all my own-grown potatoes and carrots for this year.) I've also got my broad beans in early and they are now two inches high. I do love broad beans!

I was so happy with my 'healthy' home-grown fruit and vegetables (and piled my plate high!), and I loved the advice to 'eat five fruits and vegetables a day', but now I must limit myself to such small servings at a time. And when I eat out in a restaurant? That doesn't bear thinking about at the moment!

Well, now that I've got that off my chest, there's nothing for it but to discipline myself in regard to meals - and to give away much of the produce that I would normally be eating! Spare me a thought sometimes, please!