What is or could be dangerous to drink/eat after a kidney-transplant?

[kristina]

Hello,
I have been wondering for a long time which food could be dangerous to eat after a kidney-transplant?
"In the old days" I was always enjoying some live-yoghurt in the morning and some creamy curd (Quark) made from sour milk as a snack etc. but I have not even touched it since my transplant because the "pro or contra" does not seem to be clearly explained on the Internet ...  and I have also wondered about fresh fruit etc.
Has anyone studied the "pro & contra" about all this?
Many thanks from Kristina.
P.S. As a precaution I always cook fresh food for the meal every day ... but I sometimes wonder about eating in a Restaurant and how save it would be? What to avoid etc.? Furthermore, how much do other transplant-kidney-patients drink every day i.e. water/tea/coffee etc. and/or is it dependent on the individual body-weight? Another question of mine is: do you drink a little red or white wine on a very special occasion and how safe would that be? I wonder, because I have been reading about sulfate in red wine being generally dangerous for the body of a kidney-transplant and this information seems rather confusing...
Many thanks again from Kristina.

[SooMK]

Hi Kristina! My Center's guidelines were that I shouldn't eat raw shellfish (no problem, I don't like it), grapefruit (I miss that), pomegranates. And also to avoid buffets. I do not eat meat but I do eat fish. I do eat yogurt. We cook mostly at home, especially since covid, of course. What I eat at restaurants is mostly about trying to avoid meat and things I just don't like. Usually I realize afterwards what I liked most was not having to cook. I have one cup of coffee, one cup of tea and probably about 4 cups of water every day. I do not pay a lot of attention to the amount. I don't drink soda or juice. I have a glass of wine maybe once a month. Every once in awhile I'll have a mixed drink for a special occasion. I have read so much advice and there's so much confusion that I just have my own guidelines for myself and stick to that. I pay attention if one of my doctors advises something but otherwise, not so much.

[kristina]

Many thanks SooMK for your comprehensive answer, it is very much appreciated and I feel it is a good idea for me to check-up on my diet regularly just to make as much sure as is possible, that I remain on "the right road", so to speak. I still drink every day about 2 and a half litres of liquid, mainly water, a coffee, Camomile-tea and Peppermint tea. Perhaps I shall also try and begin to eat yoghurt again and I am very glad that you agree about the confusing advice i.e. what to eat/drink and what to avoid as a kidney-transplant-patient. I am also a vegetarian and always cook my vegetables in lots of water to "drain out" as much potassium as is possible.
Many thanks again for your kind answer from Kristina.

[kristina]

... The reason for my asking these questions is the fact, that in my close vicinity I have come across kidney-patients who have lost their kidney-transplant and whilst this is very distressing for obvious reasons i.e. what did go wrong, could it be their food (wrong food etc.?), or could it be their liquid-intake or did something else go wrong with their transplanted kidney and/or their transplant-health-care afterwards etc., I am really most interested to find out as much as is possible about vegetarian food after the kidney-transplant and liquid-intake etc. and I would be very grateful to learn as much as is possible about this.

Many thanks again for your kind understanding from Kristina.

[UkrainianTracksuit]

Many transplant centres have some very in-depth information about managing diets, do's and don't post-transplant, and food safety. This one linked has been put together by the John Hopkins lung transplant program, but the information remains relevant to any transplant patient due to the immunosuppressives.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/transplant/programs/lung/_docs/3_Lung_Guide_nutrition_and_preventing_infection.pdf

I eat in restaurants that I know have high ratings and care about their reputation. So no buffets that is for sure. I buy the odd fast food items (veggie burgers) and ensure that they are piping hot. I try to avoid salads or things like that unless in a restaurant that has quality produce.

The other thing to keep in mind is pasteurization. You should consume only pasteurized products like honey, milk, or cheeses. Things like eggs need to be thoroughly cooked so no runny yolks. I attended a webinar on transplant nutrition and there was one key takeaway: you could eat something unpasteurized or runny eggs 10 times thinking that it is okay because you didn't get sick, but the 11th time might be the charm, and you can get very sick. Best to avoid altogether.

I am not a heavy drinker, more like a moderate drinker. I don't drink every day nor do I consume copious amounts like a binge drinker. I like mixing cognac into coffee some days, other days I have a cocktail. Vodka. Champagne toasts.

As for water intake, I aim for 2 to 4 L.

[SooMK]

Excellent point UT about pasteurization. We live in an area where there are farm stands so I need to be ever alert to avoid non-pasteurized eggs, apple cider, honey, etc.

I do believe that failure to maintain medication schedule--what is often termed non-compliance--is a non-trivial contributor of loss of donated kidneys. (Off topic is the discussion of why recipients don't maintain their med schedule: cost, side effects, probably a few other good reasons that should be able to be addressed by the clinic but may not be.)

[kristina]

Many thanks UkrainianTracksuit and SooMK for your kind thoughts which I appreciate very much. The reason for my asking and checking-up is because I have not yet come across any useful information about liquid-input and food-input at “my” transplant-centre and in a way, it explains itself, because there are so many patients from so many different cultural backgrounds and perhaps it would be too difficult to put anything specific about food/liquid-intake forward in these (sometimes) mad days of political and social correctness … ?

Of course, we need to pamper our new kidney as much as is possible in order to keep it “happy” for as long as is possible. I also make as sure as I can that everything is pasteurized, but I have not found yet any pasteurized honey. I also only drink Almond-milk instead of cows-milk and I am still looking for a trustful Restaurant...

… And many thanks, SooMK, for making the important point about med-schedule. I was told to take mine at 10am in the morning and 10pm in the evening, because I am “up and running” at around seven in the morning, have breakfast and from 8am and 8pm onwards I don’t eat anything in order to make sure that my small amount of medication has the greatest and most potent impact, when I take it at 10am and again at 10pm, always two hours after stopping to eat anything … and then, after having taken my anti-rejection meds, I won’t eat for the next two hours either. I was told that the more precise I adhere to these rules, the better effect my anti-rejection-meds have on my body…

There seems to be some difficulty to find out why some people’s transplant fails and it is still a mystery to me because only a few little details seem to be known about it. But, I remember one of the drivers at “my” dialysis-centre telling me (before my transplant), that in his opinion it is most important to avoid eating any spicy food after having had the kidney-transplant... He was very convinced about that point and I took his thoughts very seriously, because he appeared to have learned a lot from transplant-patients and the failure of their kidney-transplant whilst he drove them back to the dialysis-centre …
Many thanks again from Kristina.