Please advise/comment on my vegetarian diet in end-stage renal failure.

[kristina]

Dear friends, I would appreciate any comments, opinions, or critisms, on my diet. It might be helpful for you to know that I first suffered a complete kidney failure in 1971 (I was over seventeen). I cannot remember precisely what the doctors did, I was in a coma, but they assisted the recovery of my kidneys to 45-50%. The diagnosis was "chronic proliferative glomerulonephritis". Such a recovery is not unheard of in Lupus/SLE/MCTD/Kidney patients. I have been on antihypertensive tablets ever since. At the time, a senior doctor told me that he thought a vegetarian diet might be best for me. He admitted he had no evidence for this; it was merely a hunch. I followed his advice. My creatinine remained stable at around 120 until March 1999, whence it began to rise in an erratic fashion until reaching 436 today. My GFR is about 10-12%. In August 2006 the doctors said my kidneys would give out in six months. In July 2008 they gave me another doom and gloom prediction of yet another six months. Living under such a cloud is not good, but it made me fight. I am 55 years old and maintain, with this diet, a weight of about 59-60 kg (167 centimetres tall). So, here is my "very low salt" and low protein diet which I have been following since August 2006 (I wish I had began with it earlier). This diet keeps my Sodium and Potassium levels naturally under control without medical intervention. Breakfast consists of one peeled apple and half a peeled pear, with toast and a little soft cheese, and a cup of coffee (gresh ground beans). At breakfast I take the liquid from one One-Alpha Capsule and discard the coating, and one Calcichew-D3 Forte. Mid morning I have a glass of Lime Cordial (with part fresh squeezed Lime). Lunch is asparagus (a natural diuretic), a piece of bread with a little soft cheese and a little toast and honey, and a cup of coffee. Through midday into the afternoon I drink one mug of Camomile tea and one mug of Peppermint tea. All coffee and tea is with a teaspoon and half of sugar. If peckish later, bread and a little jam or piece of cake or muesli/milk or similar. I make my bread in bread-making machine with 6 wheat flour and 1 rye flour, olive oil, sugar, dried milk and water. All the water I drink and cook with is filtered.  The evening meal varies, though always accompanied by a cucumber, radish and lettuce salad (sauce = olive oil, cider vinegar, pepper, sugar). The meal itself may be one of the following: rice with a mix of cooked cauliflower/greens/carrots/lentils topped with bread pieces; or pasta; or one egg on bread with mushroom(max. 3 eggs per week); or rice and red cabbage/cooking apple. The meal is always with a cup of ordinary tea with lemon (no milk). This daily fluid intact keeps my weight ok, though I sometimes have another cup if I feel I need it. Sometimes as a snack I might have yoghurt, or Quark mixed with milk. I am not ultra strict, just careful. Dieticians have said my diet is ok. Unfortunately, there is little research to go on. My husband and I combed the internet to come up with this type of diet. Does it slow the disease down? Who knows? I just do the best I can. Please feel free to comment or criticise. We only have each other to learn from. Thank you for your comments and thoughts from Kristina: schmidt56@yahoo.co.uk 




Edited: Moved to proper section: Diet and Recipes - okarol/admin

[paul.karen]

Im no dietitian so im about useless.
But your homemade bread sounds good.  Yummy even
I wish i could be as regimented and strick as you are.
But i eat the worst stuff possable im sure :-(

[okarol]

Here are some related threads:

http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=4761.0 BEING VEGETARIAN

http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=3090.0 Vegetarianism and renal diet restrictions

http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=4635.0 Vegan Diet

http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=7839.0 What about Tofu?

[Zach]

Malnurishment is a big problem with pre-dialysis folks.

This is one study:
http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=12228.msg210383#msg210383

[kristina]

I was recently contacted by someone who was reading/studying the diet I was following,
which I put  here on IHD and I realized that as time has gone by I have made many modifications and total changes
and I now have a different diet altogether.

The reason why I mention this is because my kidneys were not responding favourably to that diet, so therefore
I went back to the drawing-board and I searched for a different diet that might be more effective.

I now realize working out a diet is extremely complicated because it has to be tailored to the individual.
Because we are all different it may be that what suits one does not suit another.

Also, I have learned, that – I can only speak for myself – modification of the diet is a continual process.
I have come across many people who recommend a particular diet and they were all different and probably one would not suit another,
and none of them suited me with my 10% kidney function due to chronic proliferative glomerulonephritis with SLE/MCTD.
So, in conclusion, I think it best that everyone finds the diet to suit themselves.

Kind regards from Kristina.