Despite keeping to a fairly low potassium diet, I am struggling to get my potassium level down to an acceptable level. (7.3 this week pre dialysis, 3.9 post)I eat a fairly normal english diet.I usually have a cooked breakfast/light salad or sandwich lunch/cooked dinner. I try to limit my fluid to 1litre a day.I don't eat fruit and only have 100-200 mls of apple juice a day.I only have 1 cup of coffee a day.I only eat crisps or chocolate during dialysis.I usually have 2-3 portions of salad or lower potassium veggies a day.I presoak my potatoes.So what am I doing wrong? and what can I do to fix it? Dietician/nurses not much help. Tell me I must be eating high potassium food. But I can't figureout what... Help???
Quote from: Sugarlump on May 18, 2013, 07:39:32 AMDespite keeping to a fairly low potassium diet, I am struggling to get my potassium level down to an acceptable level. (7.3 this week pre dialysis, 3.9 post)I eat a fairly normal english diet.I usually have a cooked breakfast/light salad or sandwich lunch/cooked dinner. I try to limit my fluid to 1litre a day.I don't eat fruit and only have 100-200 mls of apple juice a day.I only have 1 cup of coffee a day.I only eat crisps or chocolate during dialysis.I usually have 2-3 portions of salad or lower potassium veggies a day.I presoak my potatoes.So what am I doing wrong? and what can I do to fix it? Dietician/nurses not much help. Tell me I must be eating high potassium food. But I can't figureout what... Help??? If you are getting a post dialysis reading of 3.9, then maybe you need to up your treatment time. Also, see if you are running on a 2.0 potassium dialysate bath as opposed to a 3.0. While you are doing the right thing by presoaking potatoes, how often are you eating them?
G'day Sugarlump,Your dietician/nurses are almost certainly right.I can see one culprit immediately - crisps. Salted potato crisps are very high in potassium, (unsalted not quite as bad,) 1oz containing 450 to 500mg, - about 4 times as much as a small bar of plain chocolate and about the same as eating a banana. A small chocolate bar is not so bad if eaten in moderation. Chocolate bars containing nuts can be significantly higher.Secondly, eating these during dialysis would only help you if our bodies immediately digested and processed the food so that the potassium you just consumed was in the bloodstream and dialysis could remove it all at the same time, or at least during the four hour session.Doesn't work that way, unfortunately. Quantities are also terribly important. 1 standard measuring cup of home cooked mashed potatoes can yield 900mg of potassium. That's a lot for a small quantity. While pre-soaking thin slices of potato and disposing of the water, then boiling and again disposing of the water does help, it Reduces, rather eliminates potassium.By comparison, 1 large banana, which most renal diet charts tell us are to be avoided, has about 450mg potassium.You need to get some really good advice, hopefully from your dietician, on the specifics of identifying potassium/phosphate etc, etc in your foods to be able to plan appropriate meals for renal failure.It's very important to be aware that quantity can be just as significant as the analysis. Someone else posted a while back, (Restorer?,) that we all need to become industrial chemists to cope with the renal diet.If you don't have any success, let me know and I'll dig up the sources for the lists I use.Henry p
Quote from: Henry P Snicklesnorter on May 18, 2013, 09:16:17 AMG'day Sugarlump,Your dietician/nurses are almost certainly right.I can see one culprit immediately - crisps. Salted potato crisps are very high in potassium, (unsalted not quite as bad,) 1oz containing 450 to 500mg, - about 4 times as much as a small bar of plain chocolate and about the same as eating a banana. A small chocolate bar is not so bad if eaten in moderation. Chocolate bars containing nuts can be significantly higher.Secondly, eating these during dialysis would only help you if our bodies immediately digested and processed the food so that the potassium you just consumed was in the bloodstream and dialysis could remove it all at the same time, or at least during the four hour session.Doesn't work that way, unfortunately. Quantities are also terribly important. 1 standard measuring cup of home cooked mashed potatoes can yield 900mg of potassium. That's a lot for a small quantity. While pre-soaking thin slices of potato and disposing of the water, then boiling and again disposing of the water does help, it Reduces, rather eliminates potassium.By comparison, 1 large banana, which most renal diet charts tell us are to be avoided, has about 450mg potassium.You need to get some really good advice, hopefully from your dietician, on the specifics of identifying potassium/phosphate etc, etc in your foods to be able to plan appropriate meals for renal failure.It's very important to be aware that quantity can be just as significant as the analysis. Someone else posted a while back, (Restorer?,) that we all need to become industrial chemists to cope with the renal diet.If you don't have any success, let me know and I'll dig up the sources for the lists I use.Henry phello Henry.I have been looking on the internet for an easy to use list of potassium values in food (actual amount rather than low, medium, high) as i realise there is a lot of variation between these groups and in portion sizes.BUt but but I was under the impression (FROM THE NURSES!!!) That it was alright to eat higher potassium foods whilst on dialysis, e.g. crisps, bananas and orange juice but from what you say this isn't true???I probably only eat 3 packets of crisps a week max and maybe 1-3 chocolate bars. I always get very hungry on dialysis (and bored) so tend to need to eat a fair bit of portable food hence crisps/chocolate etc.I obviously need to reduce my potato intake.Tonight I am cooking chicken tikka (left out the tomato paste) white boiled rice and cucumber raita. Think I need to rethink my entire diet and what I eat during dialysis.And maybe buy a set of scales (for portion size)...
I wish I could find a decent menu plan/recipe book for dialysis patients.All our dietician gives us is a leaflet telling us what to avoid...
G'day Sugarlump, - I found the link to the PDF's on the USDA site. It seems they've updated the layout since I was last in there, - big improvement.http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=22769also there's this:http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/12354500/Data/retn/retn06.pdfIts a file showing the effect of various types of cooking on vitamin and mineral composition of a range of foods.There's a fascinating range of different ways of accessing nutrition information, - most of the choices are on this page:http://www.nutrition.gov/whats-food/food-composition-finders[/uHope this helps,Henry P
I'm sure you already thought of this but thought I should ask anyway..You have checked to make sure none of the medications you are on raise your potassium? The only blood pressure medications that work for Ed raise his potassium.
Hi Sugarlump,Hope you are well.Here is another site that has some renal friendly recipes:http://www.rsnhope.org/recipes/ All the best!
G'day Sugarlump, It can be really surprising just what is in some foods. Hopefully your blood results will see your potassium levels back in line again.It must be emotionally hard starting dialysis yet again for the third time. ESRD can give us such a roller-coaster ride.it's good to see you getting on and doing something positive.Henry P
A good substitute for mashed potatoes is: mashed cauliflower! Make it like you would your potatoes. Not bad for a bit of a change! Also, watch if you put cheese on your sandwiches. That can raise it also.Good luck to you!
I Hate Dialysis Message Board
I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Author
