Vegan VS Renal Diet

[HSM]

Hey Everyone!

I know the renal diet affects all of us in different ways but I'm hoping to get some help with mine. I'm practically vegan and trying to formulate a nutritious & enjoyable diet plan isn't easy, I find my diet is very repetitive. I'm still in the transitional stages of becoming a complete vegan (I still eat dairy now and then) but I don't eat fish or egg at all. I was wondering if you guys could share your vegetarian/vegan meals/snacks with me. I don't mind if it has dairy in at the moment, but please don't post if you are going to give any advice to me to eat meat meals, I'm strictly vegetarian at the worse. lol. Thanks for your time guys & girls. Take Care!

HSM

[flip]

Are you on dialysis now?

[Romona]

It is kind of hard because of potassium in fruits and vegetables. There is a website I think it is called World's Best Foods. It has some nice vegan recipes. You can put in what you are trying to avoid or what you need more of and bring up foods that match.

[qwerty]

Not only K+ but the protein factor is another. Many people who attempt to follow a vegan diet end up lacking protein and also iron insufficiency (experienced this myself in the beginning as I am vegan). There are various forms of vegetarian lifestyle where you can still include at least eggs and fish. Vegan itself means absolutely no animal products at all. Lot of soy type products, tofu, and beans are substituted for the protein/iron needs of which are generally contraindicated in renal diets particularly in the amount these products are used. Vitamin and mineral supplements also usually are needed. Best to really research the different levels and best advice is to talk to your nutritionist if you have one available. If anything there are some things you can combine of both dietary lifestyles that may be beneficial to give a good variety to you also.

[okarol]

You may find some of these threads worthwhile:

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?

[HSM]

Are you on dialysis now?

Yes I am. I'm on Hemodialysis. I'm not sure if that makes a difference which one I'm on, I just thought I'd say.

[flip]

Hemo eliminates a lot of the good protein sources like beans and peanut butter. Many of the good alternate sources for protein are high in phosphorus and/or potassium.

[pelagia]

HSM,

My husband has a transplant, but he had ESRD due to PKD and then a couple of months on dialysis.  I don't have a huge amount of experience, but I will share.

In 2003 they told my husband that he would likely need dialysis or a transplant in 1-2 years.  His kidneys were still somewhat functional in March 2008 when he had nephrectomies in preparation for a kidney transplant in May (he had really giant kidneys from PKD).  I attribute this at least in part to the diet we followed during that period of time, which was pretty much how we have been eating for the 30+ years we've been together.

We have never been fully vegetarian, but we have been close for decades.  Before Stephen's nephrectomies we ate a lot of beans, whole grains, tofu and veggies, drank soymilk, ate some cheese, rarely had beef or pork (holidays mostly), drank green tea and water, didn't eat junk food, etc.  I drink wine frequently and Stephen has the occasional beer.

The dialysis diet was really hard for us.  Regardless, we had to get Stephen healed and strong in 7 weeks between the nephrectomies (and dialysis) and the kidney transplant.  We ate a lot of beef in those 7 weeks.  Maybe more than we ate in the five years before that.

I found that it is almost impossible to get enough protein in the dialysis diet, while keeping phosphorus within guidelines, unless you eat beef (it has highest protein and lowest phosphorus per gram of protein relative to other protein sources).  One other option is to find a high protein powder that can be used in a beverage or baked into bread.  I found something here in the US called "Designer Whey" that Stephen was happy with.  I think others in the IHD community also rely on this product as a nutritional supplement. I also used it to make bread and cake, with white flour, that was high protein, low sodium, low phosphorus, etc..

Another life saver for us was a software program that I bought on the web for my mac.  It uses the USDA database and lets you determine the nutrient content of everything you eat.  You can plug ingredients into the program and it lets you figure out the nutrient content of any recipe.  You can eat almost anything you want on the dialysis diet -- if you balance it out and control portion sizes.  We found a way to keep peanut butter and soy milk in my husband's diet because they were really important to him.  And you have to watch the potassium, which is high in fruits and vegetables..  In the end though, I think the major challenge is getting enough protein to combat the effects of dialysis while keeping phosphorus within limits.

One thing I learned from reading posts here at IHD is that folks are using more binders than my husband's neph had prescribed.  It appears that you can depart from the dietary guidelines a bit if you use adjust your binders.  I'll leave it to others to give you advice on that.

The threads Okarol posted look very helpful.  There are so many positive health benefits to the vegetarian/vegan diet.  I hope you can get it all worked out.

[carla13]

Hi! Nice to see I'm not the only vegan here!

I'm on Haemo and when I told the Hospital staff i was a vegan they went into a panic and got the dietician to come and see me as a matter of emergency! However, she was very pleased with what i ate and had no problem with my diet.
The potassium issue is a problem, but I boil all my vegetables to within an inch of their lives! (no it's not the best solution taste-wise but it works!)

For snacks I eat (I'm not sure where you live, I'm in the UK so i'm talking about UK foods here):
Tartex on toast or crackers (tartex is a yeast based pate and really yummy!)
Lots of meat replacers fake 'chicken' slices, (great on sandwiches with lettuce and vegan mayo!) 'bacon', tofu, Seitan, (wheat based meat replacement)
Small hand fuls of seeds, linseed, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds. these will give you some of the nutrients and oils you will be missing.
A great thing to do is take swede, carrot and parsnip and boil them and mash them all together with some vegan margarine and black pepper, it's a great yummy alternative to potato mash and if you boil the veggies they lose most of their potassium!
Soya yoghurt is lovely - Alpro do a wonderful black cherry yoghurt, (which is a little sinful, eat it , like I do, while you're dialysing or just before!)

The biggest benefit I've found of having a vegan diet is that my phosphate levels are the best in the unit!
The worst thing is having to suffer the dreadful food every time I have a hospital stay because the kitchen staff have NO idea what to feed me! (i was given boiled tofu and plain pasta with peas and sweetcorn every day for two weeks in a stay I had last year!) 

Good luck with the diet! As long as you're sensible and know what you are doing you should be fine!

carla
xx

[pelagia]

Do you know what your daily intake of protein and phosphorus end up being?  Do you use binders?  I was surprised at how little my husband's neph or dialysis clinic nurse said about binders.  They only ever prescribed one renagel per day for him, which didn't give much flexibility in terms of what he was eating.  I started catching on the more I read about binders here at IHD.

[Kini]

I get a product called RE GEN it's a little drink with lots of protien. It's made for people on dialysis as a supplement, I have times when my daughter just will not take in enough protien so her Dr. writes a script for this as Medically Ness. and it's covered under her insurance. Here's the like   

http://www.nutra-balance-products.com/nutrabalance_products_regen.php

[HSM]

Wicked, I have been prescribed a high protein supplement by the dietitian now, which is brilliant as I am now starting to get a little bigger. I also eat peanuts while on dialysis. Unfortunately anyone on hemodialysis knows you can't gain masses of wait in a short period of time, it makes it some what awkward to put on wait and muscle, but thats kool, i'll do it the slow way rather than no way. By the way what is a binder or binders? I'm sorry if that sounds silly but I've never been told about them before.

[jbeany]

Binders are meds taken with food that bind to the phosphorus so you don't digest it.  Some of the most common ones are called Phoslo, Renagel, and Fosrenal.  Over the counter Tums antacid tabs are also used by patients who don't have problems with high calcium.

[G-Ma]

pelagia...I have never heard of being able to bake protein supplement into bread.  Do you use just any recipie and will the container say if it can be heated?  That may help my lack of protein.  Thanks for good information all of you.
Ann