3 cups of veggies per day... plant focused.

[RoxanneKidney]

youtube.com/watch?v=Fpd1x1D...(Not working as expected?)

[Eaglesfly]

I been reading a lot about food, I bought 3 cookbooks on my Diabetes, CKD, high blood pressure, and lots of videos on the internet, I’m so confused about which one is the best for all my illnesses? Help please. Cooking from scratch has never been my cup of tea, but I’m wanting to learn praying 🙏🏻 I live longer🤪

[RoxanneKidney in reply to Eaglesfly]

What I would do it eat the same thing every day for awhile until you find things agreeable to add in. Like breakfast, just stick with the same meal, snacks etc. Think of food as medicine. Snack on veggies . Like the video says there are low sugar fruit options for diabetics. If you just stick with a few choices, while that might be boring, it will cut the confusion until you figure out what next to add. I pretty much have done that. Sometimes I just chunk up a bunch of veggies and put them in a crock pot and eat a cup of that.

[drmind in reply to RoxanneKidney]

This works for me. I found one or two meals and stick with those while trying to find addional ones. It can be boring, but it does cut down on the confusion. It's also different from from what I used to do before CKD. Food is no longer the big source of enjoyment that it used to be, but I view it as a necessity. I probably dont have as many food restrictions as others, but it was still very confusing and a little overwhelming at first. I bought three cookbooks and signed up for a vegan meal plan and none of these worked.

Now, rather than eggs and bacon for breakfast now, I stick with oatmeal and blueberries or a bagel with whipped cream cheese. Lunch is no longer a sandwich with deli meat, but a plate of salad and fresh fruit slices and occasionally. some scrambled eggs. It got a little easier for me as I struggled to change habits and find some simple foods/meals to eat. Good luck with your meal planning. I know things will get better if you keep trying. Keep us posted.

[RoxanneKidney in reply to Eaglesfly]

Also spend time in the grocery store. Take your time reading labels and going through all the fresh ingredients. Frozen veggies don't go bad. Some frozen raspberries are low in sugar.

[Skeptix in reply to Eaglesfly]

As others have said, simplify it down and make it repetitive so as to hit objective 1: eating the right amounts of what you need to live and what's good for your kidneys.

Then expand your range gradually. I have, most mornings a savory sandwich on low protein cardboard.. I mean, bread. No thinking about it. Its boring but I can dip I to other things for variety.

Cronometer is a useful app to track what you eat so as to log stuff like protein, salt, potassium, etc.

[Sophiebun11 in reply to Eaglesfly]

There are also cooking classes, and if you get your Dr. to refer you to a dietician, the dietician will give you recipes for your specific health issue. We all need to eat different things and we all enjoy different foods. There are also cooking classes you could take at adult school or your local Jr. College or Parks and Rec. Dept.

[Sophiebun11]

Good tips in general but when she said 3 - 5 cups and up to 9 cups she lost me. That is way too much food for my stomach to eat in a day. I'll have maybe 1 cup of quinoa with protein powder, 1 cup of salad, and maybe an artichoke, and maybe an open face almond butter sandwich. Or I'll have 1 cup of potato either steamed or in the form of chips which my dietician told me to have 3x per week due to low potassium.

I'm laughing thinking of how many bunches of spinach it would take to eat 1 cup of steamed spinach or maybe it's uncooked. Not sure. 3 cups of fruit would be about 5 apples, or 2 mangoes. That is too much for one day on it's own to me.

I don't eat bad things in place of plant based, but I just can't eat that much. Must be my autoimmune disease. I'm eating a little more since I started back on Prednisone, but I'll never eat that many cups of food per day. I'll drink that much water no problem. Maybe I should drink less and eat more!!! : )

I wonder if she meant 3 - 5 servings, not cups, which is usually 1/2 cup of many items or even 1/4 cup. I feel nauseous thinking about scarfing down that much food.

[RoxanneKidney in reply to Sophiebun11]

I'm sure it is serving size. Definitely want to eat and make sure you are getting your calories. Another mortality indicator is BMI. Definitely don't want to be on the low side.

[Sophiebun11 in reply to RoxanneKidney]

My BMI stays between 19 - 20 so I'm fine. I am low in protein so I need to add more protein powder, not necessarily more volume of food. I have esophageal dysmotility from my autoimmune disease so shoveling down large quantities of food is a full time job. It gets stuck if it's not soft, mushy, liquid, pulverized and in small quantities : )

[RoxanneKidney in reply to Sophiebun11]

Most of the time I don't feel like eating but not eating will increase the acid load