| Elizabeth 2006-06-04, 9:34 am |
| Hi everyone, I'm new to all this having been recently diagonosed at
Stage 3. I'm astounded at the lack of information and help available
and have been searching the web for answers which are hard to find but
am slowly getting a little bit of the puzzle pieced together.
As to the nutrition. I suggest that any of you who are intent on
keeping a daily record of what you are eating and your nutrition counts
go to http://www.nutritiondata.com. It's a free program that you use on
your computer - no downloading.
There you will find a pretty good food base with all nutritional values
listed. The listings may not be exactly what you are having if it is a
brand food, but will be close enough. If not, you are able to take the
label information and add it into your "personal pantry" where you have
listed other foods from the data base that you normally eat.
You can put in the foods that make up a recipe and analyze it, name and
save it to your pantry. You can list everything you have eaten for the
day and analyze the day. I usually put in what I think I might be
eating for the day analyze it - see where I have to tweak my plan to
stay within my boundaries (like 50 daily grams of protein, potassium,
phosphorus, sodium) - but once analyzed and in the pantry I can edit to
my hearts content throughout the day. It will also tell you if you are
getting too much fat or sugar from your choices.
There are many other features and tools but for starters it has been a
great help to me. I'm told that nutrition requirements vary in
pre-dialysis, stage to stage. Also if you are on dialysis usually the
nutrient guidelines may relax somewhat in some areas.
But you need to find a renal dietition or diabetic dietition that has
renal knowledge to help you set your personal guildlines - everyone is
a little different. If who you are working with is hopeless, then find
someone else - even if you have to pay for a session out of pocket. BUt
usually your GP should be able to write a script for a dietition that
will be covered under your insurance - especially if you are diabetic.
But getting your nutrition guidelines from a professional is one of
those things you can do for yourself that is vital.
Another website that I have found most helpful is www.davita.com. There
you will find lots of information - general, but it will answer some
questions. They are also the best source, so far, for recipes on line
that are geared to pre-dialysis, dialysis and diabetic dialysis
patients.
If you are inventive and want to create your own recipes and see the
nutient counts and have the recipes in your own online cookbook - go to
www.recipezaar.com. You can join for multiple cookbooks or just create
one for free. There are thousands of recipes that could possibly be
modified for renal use - or you could create your own of file away ones
that you've found. Most of the applicable nutrients are shown in a
"nutrition label" format, but you can also click on more info at the
bottom of the label to get the whole shebang - ingredieint by
ingredient or for the total recipe or single serving. If you choose to
do this it would be good to put the work RENAL in your recipe title so
that others can easily find them in a search.
Of course, with either of the the programs mentioned the nutritional
information may not be exact - depending on the data bases or the
ingredients you are using - as you may not have the phosphorus or
potassium numbers for the ingredients you are using - but at least you
will have a pretty good guideline.
Hope this information helps,
Elizabeth
thame@dialstart.net wrote:[vbcol=seagreen]
> Thanks all of you for being so helpful - Chris
>
> On Thu, 18 May 2006 23:36:09 -0400, charles <someone@somewhere.org>
> wrote:
>
|