The hardest part is the diet (6/28/22)

The hardest part about my kidneys failing and being on dialysis is the nutrition. I have to minimize phosphorous (natural), phosphate (artificial) and potassium (almost in everything). And every time I eat I need to take these potassium binders which are supposed to absorb the potassium in the meals.

If my levels get too high, a few things can happen to my body:

“Extra phosphorus causes body changes that pull calcium out of your bones, making them weak. High phosphorus and calcium levels also lead to dangerous calcium deposits in blood vessels, lungs, eyes, and heart. Over time this can lead to increased risk of heart attack, stroke or death.”

“When you have too much potassium in your blood, it is called hyperkalemia, or high potassium. Having too much potassium in your blood can be dangerous. Hyperkalemia can even cause a heart attack or death! “

I can’t eat out anymore because I have no idea what restaurants are putting in their food. And keep in mind I ate out 99% of meals for 20+ years.

I need to read every nutrition label on every ingredient I buy and then figure out recipes that are easy, that I can actually cook but most importantly, enjoy.

I also can’t have too much shrimp or lobster (which would be a good option) because I’m prone to gout flare ups. Some seafoods like salmon are OK.

The super lean burgers I just cooked for myself with no salt or seasoning may have triggered my knee gout. Historically red meat has never been a trigger for me but my body is changing and it might be what tipped the scale. Bacon cheeseburgers are my number one favorite food. If I lose this, this is a big one.

One of my weight loss tricks was Greek yogurt and cottage cheese (both low calorie, high protein). Well, can’t eat those because they’re dairy and they have too much potassium.

Same with bananas and oranges, my 2 favorite fruits. Tomatoes too. A great vegetable. To the normal person, these food are considered healthy. They even have something called “banana diet” to lose weight and detox. But to me, they can literally give me a heart attack lol.

It looks like it’ll just be chicken and vegetables for a long time. But only certain vegetables. No potatoes (unless I let them soak for 24 hours before cooking them). And Nepro shakes. I just discovered this today. The hospital brought it with my breakfast. Actually tastes pretty good. I was thinking of designing a protein shake for dialysis patients but looks like Abbott already covered the market.