Soup - good or bad?

[flipperfun]

Hi now it's winter I really do enjoy soup occasionally, the emphasis being occasionally.

I recall when I was in hospital earlier this year, not eating well at all, my sister mentioned home made soup in front of one of the renal dieticians.  Oh my, she went into auto mode!  The message was loud and clear no soup! Why?

I am not a stupid person, of course I know soup is liquid, but I do not have a problem with fluid control.  I also know soup contains salt if you put it in there, or eat canned or cup of soup, and no I do not cook with salt either.  So what is the problem with eating soup?

It's cold and snowy here today and I just want something hot to warm me up!

Sorry for the rant!

Denise

[billybags]

Hi flipperfun, We live in the UK and we went for our annual get together at the unit last week, it was just to go through the various steps of APD and CAPD.What you would call an update. The first class was with the dietitian, we were told about different minerals and phos all the normal sh*t and guess what! we can now eat mushrooms and soup, as long as it is low salt. My husband has not eaten mushrooms for the last two years because of the phos.He only eats home made soup that I make now and again. They really do keep moving the goal posts. What I told her was "we eat a little of what we fancy" with in reason.

[thegrammalady]

the problem with some dietitians is they follow an all or nothing philosophy. i once heard a dietitian tell a new patients wife "if he ever eats any cheese his phosphors will never go down. now that's just plain nuts. the problem is many people have no concept of what a "little" cheese is. now on to mushrooms...a cup of mushrooms has a ton of phosphors, yes. but who uses a cup of mushrooms in one serving of anything. 2 or 3 mushrooms in your breakfast omlet isn't a problem.  moderation people. and that's what most dietitians will tell you. enjoy your soup, especially if it's homemade.

[jbeany]

No soup for you because you ran headlong into a dietitian who thinks every patient is an idiot.  If you account for the fluid, stick with homemade or a canned low sodium version, keep track of the ingredients so you don't get overloaded on phos or K, and don't have more than a cup or small bowlful, it's fine.  For that matter, in small amounts, you can have cheese, peanut butter, chocolate, citrus fruit, etc.  The only thing you have to avoid totally is starfruit, because of the neurotoxin in it that bad kidneys don't clear.  If you keep track of your monthly labs and your mineral totals for the day, a little bit of anything you really want isn't off limits.

Either that or you ran into a relative of Seinfeld's Soup Nazi.

[Zach]

No soup for you because you ran headlong into a dietitian who thinks every patient is an idiot.  If you account for the fluid, stick with homemade or a canned low sodium version, keep track of the ingredients so you don't get overloaded on phos or K, and don't have more than a cup or small bowlful, it's fine.  For that matter, in small amounts, you can have cheese, peanut butter, chocolate, citrus fruit, etc.  The only thing you have to avoid totally is starfruit, because of the neurotoxin in it that bad kidneys don't clear.  If you keep track of your monthly labs and your mineral totals for the day, a little bit of anything you really want isn't off limits.

Either that or you ran into a relative of Seinfeld's Soup Nazi.

You are so right, jb!!

 

[flipperfun]

Thank you all so much for your replies.  Yes I am now looking forward to my small bowl of soup today.  Really useful information about mushrooms too.  I bought some a few weeks ago, felt guilty and ended up throwing most of them away.  I only ate 2!

Many thanks again for keeping me on the right track.

[Bajanne]

I am really glad to read this thread, because soup is really one of my favourite meals to cook at home.  I do subscribe to the 'almost anything in moderation' renal diet.  At least that is my diet!  Except for starfruit of course!

[MooseMom]

I like to make big pots of chicken soup; it's easy, and I can control the seasoning (ie the sodium).  I freeze it into individual portions and then pop one into the microwave when I want it.  I don't tend to put noodles in it because they don't freeze well, but here's a trick my mom taught me...take one flour tortilla, cut or tear it into bitesized squares and then pop it into the thawed, simmering soup.  Easy dumplings!

[Jie]

I have soup each day, and it is not a big deal. When the soup is cooked for a long time, it may have high phos, so don't cook the soup for too long.

[ChickenLittle56]

I think I will have some soup tomorrow after I defrost it.

MM, I never thought of using cut up flour tortillas as dumplings, I do that too.

[Bill Peckham]

 


I endorse IHD's pro soup agenda!

[MooseMom]

I endorse IHD's pro soup agenda!

We're so radical!

[noahvale]

***

[jbeany]

While on D, I made cheesy cream of potato soup.  Huge pots of it.  Which I then froze into single serve tubs and doled out once in a while when all my labs were good and I really wanted some.  As I made sure not to have anything else that same day with large amounts of phos or potassium, it never caused so much as a blip on my labs. 

You just have to figure out your own dietary limits.  What the "professionals" say you must do is rarely what works for everyone.