Fruits & Vegetables Prevent Kidney Stones

A recent study has shown that eating a healthy diet consisting of high intake of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains coupled with low intake of salt, sweetened beverages, and red and processed meats not only prevents metabolic problems like high blood pressure and diabetes but it also prevents the formation of kidney stones.

Researchers have found another reason to eat well: a healthy diet helps prevent kidney stones. Loading up on fruits, vegetables, nuts, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains, while limiting salt, red and processed meats, and sweetened beverages is an effective way to ward off kidney stones

The article also says that such a diet contained higher levels of calcium, potassium, magnesium, oxalate, and vitamin C while having a lower amount of sodium, things that are beneficial to overall health.

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Kidney Diet: Adjusting to Your Labs

During dialysis, your doctors will be monitoring your blood levels regularly. This is done in order to closely follow any changes that are occurring and quickly make adjustments to your diet to keep you healthy.

I've made a table that lists down the regular tests that dialysis patients have along with what the results mean with regards to dietary adjustments.

click image to enlarge

Hope this will help you understand how to manage you diet better.

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Kidney Diet: What You Can Do

As we've discussed previously, the kidney performs many tasks that keep us in tip-top condition. When kidney disease strikes, the ability of out kidneys to do these functions diminishes. In order to lighten the load on the kidneys, we have to make adjustments to what we eat and how much we eat.

Here are some general steps I was told follow in order to help ease the burden on my kidney when I went on dialysis. I noticed that, though difficult to get used to in the beginning, you get used to it after a while. The one good thing about following these guidelines was they allowed me to feel better overall and enabled me to go about doing what I did before getting sick, like working, playing sports and going out without missing a step.

LIMIT SODIUM

1. Learn to READ LABELS; very important, even after transplant; you want to avoid sodium and monosodium glutamate (MSG) or limit the amount you have.

2. Avoid processed, brined, or cured products.

3. Don't add salt to food, be it in cooking or at the table. Use other means of seasoning like herbs and spices.

WHY? High amounts of sodium cause blood pressure which harms our hearts and kidneys.

LIMIT PROTEIN INTAKE

1. You will be referred to a dietitian or nutritionist to guide you on the different food groups and amount of each you are to have per meal.

2. Your dietary regimen will differ from other kidney patients because each person responds differently to kidney disease and its treatment; don't compare with others.

3. Your diet will probably adjusted to get a daily allowance of 0.6-0.75 grams of protein per kilogram of weight, at least until dialysis, when you'll probably be asked to eat more protein.

4. Learn about the different types of protein. I've always been reminded to prefer fish and chicken over pork, and try to limit red meat as much as possible.

WHY? Too much protein will overwork the kidney and increase its rate of deterioration.

LIMIT POTASSIUM

1. As a guide, keep daily potassium intake to between 1500-2500 mg. You may be
asked to follow a lower daily limit if your kidneys aren't able to clear potassium well.

2. Know which foods are high in potassium; certain fruits like oranges and bananas are high in potassium

3. Choose low potassium foods like cabbage, lettuce, apples and pears.

WHY? High levels of potassium can cause heart attack or irregular heart beat.

LIMIT PHOSPHORUS

1. Keep phosphorus intake to between 800-1200 mg daily.

2. Avoid colas, beer and soft drinks; drinks with high phosphate content.

3. Know how much dairy you are allowed. These products, like milk and cheese, are high in phosphorus.

4. Avoid nuts, seeds, beans, peas and bran.

WHY? Your kidneys cannot remove phosphorus well. High phosphorus levels cause bones to be weak by pulling calcium out of our bones.

LIMIT FLUID INTAKE

1. I was told to limit fluids to 1 liter a day. You may be asked to limit fluid intake to between a liter and 1.4 liters depending on your center and how much urine your are producing.

2. Remember, soups and foods that are liquid at room temperature, like ice cream and gelatin, count as part of total fluid intake.

WHY? Your kidneys aren't able to completely get rid of the excess fluids in your body. Too much fluids will cause swelling and bloating of different parts of your body, not to mention increase the risk of high blood pressure.

By now you've probably noticed that most of it has something to do with limiting intake. This, to a point is true, however, it is very important that there is balance and not to overdo things. For example, if you limit protein too much you get weak, lose weight which will likely lead to more serious problems like susceptibility to infection.

Make sure that you eat enough so that you won't lose weight and have enough energy, which is just as important as limiting the items we just mentioned.

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Kidney Diet: An Overview

Nutrition is very important especially when you are dealing with particular health issues. This is the case for a person with kidney disease. Often, when kidney dysfunction is detected, you will be asked to see a dietitian or nutritionist who will prescribe a kidney diet in order to help preserve the remaining kidney function as well as prevent further deterioration to the kidney's health.

One thing I noticed is that not all kidney diets are created equal. Depending on how much kidney function a person has, the kidney diet, also known as the renal diet, will be structured differently.

During the early stages of kidney disease, the goal will be to lessen the stress on damaged organ. The first items doctors will limit will be sodium (salt) and protein.

Protein consumption, which is mostly from meat, chicken, fish and pork, will be decrease to lessen the amount of work the kidney has to do. Lowering sodium intake, on the other hand, is often necessary to keep blood pressure levels at proper levels. For diabetics, sweets and carbohydrates will also have to be controlled.

If the kidney dysfunction is in the later stages, potassium, phosphorus, calcium and fluid intake will likely be monitored also, as the kidney, in its weakened state, isn't able to regulate these levels well anymore.

The diet changes once again when you begin dialysis. I remember this being one of the most difficult things I ever had to adjust to. Due to the numerous restrictions, I often had to refer to my diet cheat sheet that listed the nutritional values of different foods.

i did in-center hemodialysis three times a week, so my diet was a bit stricter than those who did home dialysis (which is done daily) since the artificial kidney was not at work during non-dialysis days. I remember protein was limited to 5 servings a day (a serving is about the size of a match box), while being told to limit fluids to 1 liter a day. One thing that took some getting used to was removing salt totally from what I ate.

Monitoring potassium and phosphorus intake were probably the hardest part of diet preparation.
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