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@Mustafas Cook
I love food, however, I was recently diagnosed with a catastrophic autoimmune-induced attack, which caused kidney disease at 33 years old. I spent 5 weeks in the hospital. At their lowest, my kidneys were 80% full of blood clots and down to 20% functioning capacity, but have improved to about 40%...a major victory! After eating whatever I wanted for 33 years, I've suddenly found myself limited to 50g of protein a day, on top of restrictions of 2,000 mg daily of sodium and potassium and under 1,000 mg of phosphorus (AKA "the big four") on top of maintaining a Coumadin diet (little to no vitamin K). Because I'm not diabetic, I don't have as many restrictions on the foods I can eat, like a diabetic would. There is no "golden diet" that one can simply jump on, straight out of the hospital, and it caused a lot of frustration. My first trip to the grocery store actually made me cry. So, I have learned to compare brands of items and read every label. Yes, shopping has become a two-plus hour process while I'm learning, and it's only temporary but necessary. It's taken a few weeks, but my taste for salt is diminishing. The trick is to use other seasonings to trick the brain into forgetting about the salt. As I come up with recipes suitable for a kidney diet, I will share them here. Hopefully, they can be of use to fellow kidney patients. I will always try to mention the brand names of the items I use, as they most likely have low "big four" numbers. My advice for newly diagnosed kidney patients is to invest in a good set of measuring cups, measuring spoons, and a scale. Personally, I use an Escali Mercado stainless steel scale I purchased on Amazon. I use it for every meal and remember: always weigh your meats BEFORE cooking them!