What is a Kidney-Friendly Diet and How do I Start Eating One?

today we're talking about a topic that's near and dear to my heart what is a kidney friendly diet and how do you start eating one today I'm Dr Blake Shusterman I'm a board certified kidney doctor and I'm also the cooking Doc and author of The Cooking docs kidney healthy cooking a modern 10-step guide to preventing and managing kidney disease now if you've been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease you've probably been told about a kidney friendly diet you've probably Googled a kidney-friendly diet trying to figure out what that means for the things you eat every day and how that diet can help you protect your kidneys before we go any further everything we talk about here today is just for informational purposes this is not medical advice and make sure you hit that subscribe button click that Bell so you never miss a new recipe or a new health tip so if you're in this position what is a kidney friendly diet and how do you start one today the first thing to know is there is no one-sized fits all kidney friendly diet so the diet for you with chronic kidney disease may be different than the diet for somebody else who has chronic kidney disease and that makes a lot of the information on the internet kind of outdated and maybe not applicable especially to you the purpose of a kidney friendly diet in my opinion as a nephrologist is one of two things first is to prevent your kidneys from getting worse so what foods can you eat that will help your kidneys stay stable or prevent you from needing dialysis or having that kidney disease progress from stage three to four to five to needing a kidney transplant or going on dialysis the other part of a kidney friendly diet is what foods do you need to watch out for that may build up in your body because your kidneys are not filtering them as well as they're supposed to so one of the main things the kidneys do is filter out the waste products in the body from the things that you eat and if your kidneys are not filtering properly and that's what happens when you have what's called chronic kidney disease then these things can build up a little bit in your blood so we're talking about things like potassium we're talking about things like phosphorus those are things that can build up in the blood of people with chronic kidney disease and if you're looking for that aspect of a kidney friendly diet you need to know whether or not you're at risk for these stings and where to find the high potassium and the high phosphorus in your diet so you can eliminate it or lower it so it doesn't necessarily cause you problems in the long run now if you're starting on your journey of a kidney friendly or kidney healthy diet as I like to call it you may have Googled and found some great information on the Internet you may also have found some really old outdated stuff so in the past a kidney friendly diet was very limiting we told people to eat white flour white Foods white bread white rice and avoid things like whole grains and nuts and other things that are in general really healthy for your body but what we found over the course of the last 10 years is that a diet that limits all those good things doesn't necessarily protect your kidneys So currently a kidney friendly diet is much more inclusive and you are likely able to eat a lot of the things that you really like even if you have chronic kidney disease so a lot of fruits and vegetables and whole grains that were limited in the past may not need to be limited anymore so figuring out what foods you can and can't eat will often be determined by the medications you take and where you are along that kidney disease progression if you're in stage one or two or if you're in stage five or you're on dialysis it also may depend on whether or not you have diabetes and the other health conditions that you have that impact what you need to eat to stay healthy the good news though is that there are some pillars across the kidney friendly diet spectrum that apply to just about everybody with chronic kidney disease so if you're looking for more information about a kidney friendly diet just starting on your journey or looking for more practical tips I would start with these five things number one learn to cook at home if you are in control of the ingredients that you're putting into your food then you can make sure you know exactly what's going in you can tailor it to exactly what you need to do to help protect your kidneys and you can tailor it to exactly what you need to do to prevent those waste products from building up in your body if your kidneys aren't filtering correctly now if you're frightened of getting in that kitchen or you've never really learned to cook before that's okay all you need to learn is a few simple things start there and then over the course of the next five to ten years you can really learn how to produce a low sodium flavorful delicious meal check out my website cookingdoc.com because I've got lots of great recipes on there for you to start with number two limit the sodium in your diet now when I'm talking about sodium you may just know it as salt and limiting salt or sodium in your diet is important along the spectrum of kidney disease whether you're stage one or you're on dialysis or you've had a kidney transplant so find out where that high sources of sodium are in your diet and and try to cut them down there are a lot of sneaky sources things like bread things like processed Meats a lot of processed foods have high sodium in them and that brings us back to number one which is learning to cook at home if you learn to cook at home likely you can limit that sodium in your diet very easily number three lower your sugary drink intake so drinks that are high in sugar can put you at risk for obesity and diabetes maybe even make your blood pressure worse put you at high risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke so whether it's the Mountain Dew or the orange crush or the Starbucks Frappuccino or the energy drink all those things that are really high in sugar can definitely impact your health in a negative way so start to cut down on those and you don't need to do it all at once start cutting back one drink a week maybe two drinks a week over the course of the next couple months you want to set up a system that will help you eat healthy for the rest of your life you don't want to start making changes now that you won't be able to keep going on with them you may need to just start with little changes and those little changes will add up over time so that in five to ten years you've got an amazing diet you're not drinking those sugary drinks so even if it takes a little while to get there stick with it you'll get there number four avoid High animal protein diets and really start to incorporate plant-based protein sources into your meals so that's things like peas and legumes and tofu those are plant-based protein sources that may not put as much stress on your kidneys as you eat them on the other hand things like the Atkins diet or the South Beach Diet things that are really high in animal protein and red meat may put more stress on your kidneys over time now there's some controversy there and and this is one of those things where it really comes to a one-size-fits-all die it doesn't work for everybody if you have diabetes or if you're really overweight or obese and you're trying to keep that weight off you may need a higher protein diet to help keep that weight off and as we're learning more about kidney disease and protein it may be that just you need to focus more on the plant-based protein sources and you can still eat a higher protein diet rather than focusing on limiting that protein overall in general I think the jury's still out we're still trying to figure it out but you can definitely do your kidneys a favor by substituting plant-based protein for some of those animal based especially red meat proteins that you may have in your diet every day lastly you should figure out what a kidney friendly diet means for you what specific things do you need to avoid based on your medications and your level of kidney disease and that's something where a dietitian can really help you do that so ask your physician to refer you to a renal dietitian or check out online resources there are some great dietitians online that will be able to help you figure out where you are along the Spectrum and what a specific kidney friendly or kidney healthy diet means for you thanks so much for watching today I hope you learned something the fact that you're here in general and starting on your journey of a kidney friendly diet looking out and seeking out information to better your health is amazing as a kidney doctor I love to see that there are things that you can do with your diet that can undoubtedly make a difference in your Kidney Health if you want to learn more about kidney disease head over to my website cookingdoc.com and check out my book The Cooking docs kidney healthy cooking a modern 10-step guide to preventing and managing kidney disease is now available for 9.99 the e-version there's way more information in there for 9.99 that you'll get at a doctor's appointment with a 50 copay thanks so much for watching make sure you subscribe to my channel click that like button hit that Bell and I will see you next time [Music] thank you

Channel: The Cooking Doc

Views: 1,734

Keywords: kidney disease, nephrology, nephrologist, kidney health, health, doctor, kidney doctor, nutrition, ckd, kidney diet, diabetes, diabetic, salt, low sodium diet, kidney dietician, diabetes diet, cooking channel, recipe video, healthy recipes, dialysis, chronic kidney disease, kidney stones, kidney awareness, wellness, cooking, high blood pressure, heart disease, red meat, plant based, soda, plant based protein, potssium, phosphorus, pea protein, how to eat healthy, kidney healthy diet

Id: 6gX2MdXOR5o

Length: 9min 17sec (557 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 12 2023