What to eat? What to eat?

[GraphicBass]

So, for years I've been on a low-salt diet to accommodate my cardiovascular disease.

Then, I removed fats and sugar to accommodate my diabetes.

After that, I had to watch carb and protein intake, as it was bad for my heart failure.

It got so that when I'd make one of my regular stays in the hospital, the dieticians didn't know what to feed me. We (wife and I) finally settled on vegetarian 5 days, with a meat and fish day. Since everyone was saying fish was bad due to, well, all sorts of things. And beef...don't get me started on what we've heard about red meat.

Today at dialysis (yes, another chronic disease!), i got back the results of my lab work: low on albumin, low on calcium, low on phosphorus, low on cholesterol, low on hemoglobin. The only thing normal was A1C and potassium. Go figure — I've always had problems bringing my sugar down and always been low on potassium.

The dietician advised I ramp up the meat, dairy products and calcium-bearing foods. Exactly the opposite of what everyone (doctors, nurses, educators, etc.) has been busting chops about for years.

< Pause, while I knock my head against the nearest wall... >

So, I happily chowed down on a Longhorn steak (protein) last night, then tomorrow for lunch I get to have some cheese! And I don't have to feel guilty about it (at least not so much).

Moderation is important, of course, and I'm in the habit of watching my diet, so I don't plan to go crazy, but it's nice to relax the restrictions a bit to bring my labs back to normal.

Not sure what the point of this post is except to sound off a little about the crazed diet advice out there and how contradictory it can be.

Thanks for reading. Now back to serious subjects in other posts.

gary

[kitkatz]

I hear you. Hubby is diabetic, so his diet is whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean meats, almost the exact opposite of the renal diet.

[RichardMEL]

oh the diet is a constantly shifting maze of conflicting demands. It's like this fridge magnet I got from the D unit about phosphates had this sliding scale of what's good and what isn't. Now I queried the fact that in the "allowed" or "tick" end of the scale was a bloody big pineapple, and tomatoes!!!! What sort of a confusing message does that send? Now yes, it was about phosphates, but everyone knows you can't just consider one item like phosphates, potassium or calcium on its own and you need to consider them all together. Still it hought this was a bit silly to have those on the list, because for the vast majority of D patients they might get the idea eating pineapples & tomato is OK, when we all know it's probably not a smart idea. I thought it would be very confusing to the average punter to give those out......

[kristina]

Hello, GraphicBass,
I just wanted to say I appreciate very much how difficult your situation is with diet.

With all my own complications of past medical history,
Lupus, allergies and now pre-dialysis-ESRF
I also find it very difficult to work the diet out so it is balanced
and "makes" the blood-results as normal as possible...

With multiple issues it is always very difficult !

I had to do a lot of research, make changes
and then fine-tune the diet as I went along to achieve
what I felt was the best possible way for me.

The thing to remember is advice & information can be useful,
but invariably we are individuals and we have to work it out
to suit ourselves & our own medical situation,
but it is very helpful to get as much advice & information as possible
from which to chose our own possibilities.

This is why IHD is very important
because people write about their own experiences
and with the advice given
each of us can discover for ourselves
what may be right for us.

Nevertheless, it often seems daunting
and is always going to be very difficult
to work out a diet for us.

Good luck wishes from Kristina.

[Bruno]

So, I happily chowed down on a Longhorn steak (protein) last night, then tomorrow for lunch I get to have some cheese! And I don't have to feel guilty about it (at least not so much).

I had the same experience as you GB, but I went for the T bone. You could have knocked me over with a feather when the dietician said "you need to get that protein up, how do you feel about eating meat everyday?"