Dave Capper

Silver Spoons Holiday Cooking with Renal Failure Dave Capper

As a sequel to Silver Spoons Hemodialysis Cookbook, it was time for those difficult times of holidays, as they pertain to food. When food is plentiful and choices seemed few for those on dialysis, you can now enjoy foods as before, though maybe in smaller portions or sometimes slight changes.

It used to be like being at a buffet and eating limited food choices. Not any more. With this book, and the nutritional values of those dishes, now you can manage your diet better. Remember that it is not a food that hurts in most cases, it is the total food for the day that may be harmful. Like a bank account, budget your "spending" of those allotments of nutrients. Watch the daily intake, as well as the per serving intake and limit your daily intake of potassium to no more than 1000mg, phosphorous to 1000mg (but if you happen to go over on phosphorous, ask your healthcare team about taking additional binders) and of course always limit sodium to about 500mg per day. Eat high protein foods when you can.

It is important to note that adding salt is not the only danger for high sodium content. Many foods contain sodium as a preservative and most seafood is naturally high in sodium, afterall, they are raised in salt water. The sodium content in natural seafood is sometimes higher than you need on a regular basis.

All in all, with the many choices of food during the holidays, do the best you can to limit too much overindulgence of those nutrients that can prove more harmful to you now that you are on dialysis than those times before dialysis.

I wish you all well and happy holidays, whatever holiday it may be.