What to avoid ???

[MooseMom]

Ok, been going over this thread.  I'm starting to think that it would be better, and shorter, to just make a list of what CAN be eaten.   

That's not a crazy idea.  In my head I keep a "substitutions" list.  Instead of this, I have that.  I love fruit, but so much of it is high in potassium.  But since I like so many kinds of fruit, it doesn't bother me to have some strawberries instead of bananas on my morning cereal.  I don't drink orange juice, but instead I have 100% cranberry juice spiked with sparkling water.  Actually, after all these years of doing that, I find fruit juice to be overwhelming.  I had a sip of orange juice not long ago, and I didn't like it.

My failing is french fries.  You can't go anywhere without fries coming with everything.  Usually I'm on the ball and think to substitute it for something else like rice or cole slaw, but sometimes I'm busy talking and forget and am then confronted with fries.     My latest labs showed my potassium at 5.7, so that was my punishment.

There are certain foods that I will not pass up, and those are fresh blackeyed peas and fried oysters whenever I go back down south (which is maybe once a year).  So, once a year I will have my fried oysters (fried in cornmeal, a double phos-whammy), and on another day I will go to my fave restaurant in Houston and have their black-eyed pea salsa, and I will enjoy it and not worry about it.  That's my once a year celebration for just still being alive!

And portions really is the key.  I love dried apricots, so maybe once a week, I will take one and chop it up and put that on my cereal.  When I think about what high serum phosphate or potassium can do to my body, that is incentive enough for me to do my best to comply with the diet.  Let your labs be your guide to how much you can cheat!

[jbeany]

This might help - I worked out a best choices list for fresh fruit, way back when....

Here's my shopping "cheat sheet" for the produce section.  I started with the list of 45 fruits from the kidney school diet section.  They don't give actually potassium amounts, just approximates rated with a star for each 60 mg of potassium.   I then looked up all the fruits that only had one or two stars, did my best to make sure the portion sizes were the same, and put them in order from highest to lowest. I followed Big Sky's advice, and didn't worry about the fluid content.

Fruit      Serving      Potassium

Passion fruit   1 medium   62.6
Apricot      1 medium   90.6
Plum      1 medium   104
Blueberries   1 cup      114
Tangerine   1 medium   146
Apple      1 medium   148
Watermelon   1 cup, diced   170
Pineapple   1 cup, diced   178
Raspberries   1 cup       186
Strawberries   1 cup, halved   233
Blackberries   1 cup      233
Cherries, sour   1cup, pitted   268
Peach      1 medium   285
Grapes      1 cup      288
Grapefruit   1 cup, sections   320
Cherries, sweet   1 cup, pitted   322

I was surprised that tangerines were so high on the list - I would have guessed that they had a lot of potassium, just like oranges. 

[MooseMom]

That's a brilliant list!!!  I'm going to start using this!  Thank you!

[Riverwhispering]

I found this on the internet.  It finally makes sense about Starfruit

Star fruit can be yellow to green with a complex flavor that may be tart or sweet, combining flavors of pineapples and lemons.

If you have no kidney problems, you can eat all the star fruit you want - it has no effect on healthy kidneys. But if your kidney function is impaired, eating star fruit can be very dangerous, even deadly. Symptoms of "star fruit intoxication" include persistent hiccups, nausea, vomiting, agitation, insomnia, mental confusion and convulsions that occur within one to five hours of eating the fruit.

The problem seems to be the high levels of oxalic acid (or oxalate) in this fruit that can accumulate in weakened kidneys. But since kidney patients don't seem to have problems eating other oxalate-rich foods (such as spinach), Brazilian researchers who have been studying the reaction suggest that another, unidentified substance toxic to nerves is the real culprit. Whatever this toxin may be, people with healthy kidneys have no problem excreting it while those with impaired kidney function run into trouble with the combination of the unknown toxin and oxalate. The only way to deal with star fruit intoxication is prompt dialysis – so anyone who does have kidney problems and develops hiccups, vomiting or other symptoms after eating star fruit should get immediate medical attention.

Star fruit intoxication can develop in patients with kidney failure after eating as little as one half of a fruit or drinking less than eight ounces of star fruit juice. In one case, a patient with impaired kidney function died after eating just a single star fruit.

Andrew Weil, M.D.

[babycake]

you cant eat fresh tomatoes
but you can have canned

you cant eat fresh corn
but you eat canned

you can have a limit of potatoes
but you can boil them over night
or you can buy canned potatoes

as for the pop
lite drinks
like orange
7-up
sprite
you can have
no colas
or dark beer(if so take a binder

they say if you crave choc
you can buy a nutrition choc bar

[snlfankevin]

From seeing the first page of comments, I'm shocked that starfruit is something we should avoid! I don't think I've ever eaten it before, but I'm really surprised that none of my doctors or nurses have told me to stay away from starfruit and grapefruit. Maybe they just assumed that I would never eat that... Haha and I don't plan to now!

[babycake]

i find it strange and a bit stupid

in the hospitol here in salem oregon
when you order food
they give you renal menu
which is fine

 but on there it shows you
can have a brownie,
apple pie
potatoes
potato chips

the menu
at the hospitol in portland at ohsu
there menu does not even have that listed

they do alot of differnt plans and ideas

ohsu doesnt even use heprin in dialyis at all

they use it in the hospitol and in the dialyis units in salem

[Sugarlump]

I was always under the impression that blackcurrants were high in potassium but apparently, according to Ribena, there is only very minimal potassium in their drink
made from blackcurrants and water. I love Ribena, plus it's a good souce of Vitamin C.

I'm not sure if you have Ribena in the states or elsewhere, but it's a still blackcurrant drink sold as cordial or ready-to-drink cartons 

[tdreed]

Angie, That's interesting about the starfruit.  What's in it that's so bad?  I've got a lot of advice about things to avoid, but I'd never heard this about starfruit.  I think I've only tasted a starfruit once, but I'd better stay away from them from now on.

     the center where i get my treatment gave us a hand out sheet that said the star fruit was deadly to dialysis patients





sp mod Cas

[Sugarlump]

I have a potassium checker on my i-phone (its American but pretty handy for weighing up best option!

[bliss85]

From seeing the first page of comments, I'm shocked that starfruit is something we should avoid! I don't think I've ever eaten it before, but I'm really surprised that none of my doctors or nurses have told me to stay away from starfruit and grapefruit. Maybe they just assumed that I would never eat that... Haha and I don't plan to now!

Was the first thing my dietician told me before starting...kinda odd so many people were not.

[kitkatz]

Oh geez, could we please be a little more helpful here than google it.  That is like telling members to look it up themselves.  They come here for support and to find some answers from people who live with it!

I know to avoid:
Starfruit- it can kill a renal patient
Oranges- high in potassium
Grapefruit- it can react with some medications
dark sodas- high in phosphorous


But as always follow your doctors' and renal dietitians advice.

[jmintuck]

Sure.  I'm not on dialysis yet, and I still have around 10% of my kidney function.  My Nephrologist told me to limit protein because it's hard on my kidneys, and to limit salt because it raises my blood pressure (which is already high and I take a lot of med's for it).  He also told me to watch the high potassium foods because my potassium level was high, and I wasn't sure what those foods were.  A dietician at the hospital told me to stay away from bananas, potatoes and tomatoes, that those are all high in potassium.  Then another doctor told me that he thought the BP med's were raising my potassium, and limiting the potassium wasn't going to help.  He changed my BP medicine and my potassium level went back down to where it should be. 

My Nephrologist also told me to "limit my fluid intake", but he didn't really want to set an amount.  I take 60 mg. of Lasix a day, and he said just make sure I don't drink so much that I start retaining fluids.  I asked him if I could still drink Tab and diet Coke, which is practically all the fluid I drink (I know that's bad, but it's true) and he said it was okay for now, but that I probably will have to stop drinking it eventually.  He did have me start taking one Tums with every meal, I understand that's for the phosphate. 

None of this is probably new to those of you on dialysis, but it's what I've been told.  It does seem like there are a lot of things we should avoid, and not that many things that are good for us.  My sister is diabetic, and I was thinking, what if I was diabetic and had kidney problems?  How can you limit protein if you're diabetic?  What would you eat?

WOW! I am both diabetic with CKD. I am slightly limited in protein, but somehow I cope alright. I simply avoid potatoes, bananas and potatoes, NO I can NOT look them in the eye. I will vomit if my potassium gets to a blood level of roughly 4.50 to5 and above. This is why I avoid as much potassium as possible. You can eat rice and SOME things like cauliflower, crushed to a nothing like mashed potatoes. Those are two known things, and as far as I know a few spears of asparagus. This is the few things I have eaten without problem. Beef is OK, but you have to be choosy with the portions. Pork and other meats, same, you have to be very picky with the portions. Other organ meats, such as kidney is not recommended, for what I read. I would never approve of Kidney pie or the like, until I received surefire clearance.

 Cheese is another thing to bring up with the dietitian. Ask how many grams, slices, or however the cheese could be served. The dietitian and Google are good bedmates.

[jmintuck]

OMG I ate starfruit while I was on PD. I got a couple off a tree to try, as Id never had them before. Guess its a good thing they taste like crap!!

Ive never been told to "avoid" anything, more so to focus on portion control and total amount of potassium consumed each day. I did find it difficult to guage sizes of fruit and vegetables, which I think may have contributed to a couple of high potassium episodes. I would eat exactly or less of the amount I was allowed, but I will still getting high potassium levels. I figured my idea of a medium tomato must of been alot different to the version of medium that was writting on my sheets. After that I did avoid tomato because I was too scared to eat it. Didnt bother with banana either, as I can never stop at just a half a banana.

I was told about avoiding potassium things, really it is good to know. Sometimes the ODD cheat once in a while is OK, but I am very restrictive, even when I cheat a bit. I even am nervous about the ketchup on McDonald's burgers, really. I don't think I had a high potassium vomiting episode blamed on this, though, I think I might have ate something, like a scalloped potatoes half serving ad threw up my guts soon after. There is that damn downfall when it comes to a few suppers in my independent living home. I don't thankfully care for potatoes very much, unlike what I used to do before dialysis. Maybe that is naturally my body rejecting potatoes as a protection against potassium? I seem to have many "natural protections" of avoiding things that have potassium, or the potential to have potassium. Broccoli is another thing that I really can't care for very much either. I read somewhere that this one has potassium too. Hmm. Wonder why?? Higher potassium foods, less likely to like anymore.

EDIT!


Read that GRAPEFRUIT is a real thing to have to avoid!!? I loved grapefruit before. Never had a grapefruit since quite some time before kidney failure dx. Now I know what to now do about this until further information comes in. I KNEW early on, thankfully about the Starfruit. I know I will not dick around with ANY starfruit, no matter what anyone says! They can't so far identify what a possible toxin can be in starfruit if the other oxalate foods were OK for dialysis patients. I hope they can figure out what it is.

I am closing in on watching my labs to gauge when AND if I can allow a "slip-through" for anything. If something, such as my Kryptonite (potassium) comes back high, I say "That's it. No cheating for now". Try and ask for a new lab work the next time after dialysis or the next week, whatever comes first. Potassium is the REAL Kryptonite for me. The warning that comes for high potassium for me is vomiting nonstop. I had 3 episodes of that, AFAIK, so I now have to clamp down harder to avoid this. I know to STOP potassium and cheating for the few days between dialysis events when that happens. Now I would be wise to keep a diary and record what I eat and how much. If symptoms occur, write them in and write down the suspects for this. With the suspected offenders, figure out how much you ate of that. There you may uncover more Kryptonite than hat met the eye.