What is plant based diet

[jodaer]

Will someone explain to me exactly what Plant based diet actually is?

[Sophiebun11]

It's basically a vegetarian diet. You cut out, or cut down meats on a Plant Based diet. That way you'll decrease your protein intake and it will be easier on your kidneys. It will be better for your overall health, your BP, cholesterol, and weight.

You can eat delicious vegetarian meals. Here's a link from DaVita Kidney Care on nutrition and diet. They have many recipes and suggestions.

davita.com/diet-nutrition

Enjoy your new way of eating. I've been a vegetarian since I was 10 years old and don't miss meat at all. I use nutritional yeast powder to replace the protein in my diet. You can get plenty of protein if you can eat soy based meat substitutes, but I'm allergic to soy.

Good luck.

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[orangecity41 NKF Ambassador]

Here is a link to an NIH article on plant based diet and CKD on a study done. It also briefly describes a plant based diet. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[Blackknight1989]

For more information here is a link to the Association of Nephrologist site on the benefits, and example of, and the risks of a plant based diet. Link:

cjasn.asnjournals.org/conte...

[Sophiebun11 in reply to Blackknight1989]

I had to look and see what the risks were since I've been a vegetarian since I was 10 y/o. I read the only risk is lower phosphorus which wouldn't be a problem as long as your plant based diet includes legumes and nuts which vegans and vegetarians use as sources of protein.

That's a helpful link for people new to plant based diets. It's also a good idea to see a Dietician to make sure all food groups are being included in the diet and that everything someone is eating is right for their particular health problems.

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[Blackknight1989 in reply to Sophiebun11]

I must agree. Thanks for the props!

[orangecity41 NKF Ambassador in reply to Blackknight1989]

Thanks for the link to good information. I am on a prescribed CKD diet initially reducing intake of phosphorus, and sodium , and later diagnosed with hyperkalemia so now have to watch potassium intake.

[Blackknight1989 in reply to orangecity41]

My pleasure. I am always doing research so if a topic comes up that I have read about on a CREDIBLE website, I always try to share. I hope it helps. When I could work I spent over 30 years in service to and helping people. Now that I can no longer work in that type of employment or maybe any type of employment I still wish to help people. Thus, I hope the information I provide will help at least one person. If so, I can still feel like I have a sense of purpose!

[orangecity41 NKF Ambassador in reply to Blackknight1989]

Yes it does give us purpose. We never know how many are being helped.

[Bassetmommer NKF Ambassador]

Everyone before gave great links. Here it is in a nut shell. All foods are made from plants. Simply that. NO animal products.. Is it easy to do.... not really. I have been following a mostly plant based for 10 months now. I have added back in some animal products such as cheese, but very infrequently and also lo fat whipped butter. I found that the plant based dairy products are terrible and are as processed as it comes. NOPE. So any thing that is from grown plants is plant based. Nuts, legumes and beans to of course veggies. The issues that come with it is not getting enough protein and other PB items are high in phosphorous and potassium, which brings up challenges. That is why you really need to work with a dietician to get it right for you. Now, why? Because it lowered my creatinine and raised my GFR. All excellent reasons to stick with it. I am stage 4.

[jodaer]

Thanks for the help and the links. So, PB is basically vegan with a slide into vegetarian once in a blue moon. I'm T-2 so have been used to a diabetic diet, now it seems I need to switch things up. At this time I'm mostly concerned with sodium and potassium. I rarely eat processed or GMO foods and try to stay away from gluten. A challenge for sure.

[Skeptix in reply to jodaer]

How's you urea /BUN?

[jodaer in reply to Skeptix]

Is that the Urea Nitrogen (BUN)? It's 19 Range is 7 - 25

[Skeptix in reply to jodaer]

That's the one. Now I haven't found out what, precisely, the point of a low protein diet is, outside of tackling the CKD tendency for BUN to be out of range. Urea is a toxin and too much is bad news on various forms.

But if you are okay on this front perhaps you don't need to go on a low protein diet. Plant based perhaps (since meat is acidic and alkaline is better for the kidneys).

If your eGFR isn't scraping the bottom barrel you'd have some wiggle room I'd guess. Perhaps shift away a bit from meat if not totally watch the protein. That kind of thing?

I don't rember the science differentiating. It just 'said that very low protein (which is necessarily plant based) gave best outcomes to earlier stage CKD. It didn't say why, aside from the obvious urea issue.

[jodaer in reply to Skeptix]

Thanks.. My GFR was 55 the last test, 2 weeks ago? I'm more concerned right now about high potassium and sodium. I'm getting the P but the sodium is a bit harder. MY biggest problem though is leaking protein in my urine. Neph said I didn't need to cut back on protein yet but did say to keep it at 60 or lower. I don't eat vegetables or oatmeal like foods so a plant based diet wouldn't work for me. I'm 78 so figure I can be mostly careful and still not downslide enough to need dialysis. Haha famous last words.

[Skeptix in reply to jodaer]

I'm eGFR 33 and as far as I can tell I've no symptoms (apart from possibly light occasional skin sensitivity requiring lite scratching).

But others report symptoms at your stage so I'd take a cautious view. It's not just about dialysis - that's just the dubious step away from CKD Gold ... death.

Bloating? Scratching? Hard dietary restriction? Angina? Worth avoiding those.

What's the issue with vegetables? And what's hard about salt? You rely on processed foods or something?

You on a med for the.proteinuria (e.g. ACE)?

[jodaer in reply to Skeptix]

I am mentally allergic to veggies. Just the thought of eating most of them makes me nauseous. I don't eat many processed foods but a few. All foods have a certain degree of sodium and it all adds up at the end of the day. I'm on 2 BP meds and a diuretic. I do itch a lot, have for years. I didn't know it was a symptom for CKD. This is all new to me but I will figure it out. Oh, and I am being cautious or trying anyway. My sis died from CKD when she stopped her dialysis. She has been my example of what not to do.

[Skeptix in reply to jodaer]

Understood (although I'm not quite as put off by them as you). There are things that can be done to "disguise" the veg. I made a veg lasagne recently for the second time. This time I chopped the red pepper down from the previously prescribed "chunks" into about 1/5 that size. It had been awful trying to eat red pepper slithering around my mouth. Ditto the chop size of the rest of the veg. I also cheated by replacing the soya milk based bechemel with proper milk. It turned the lasagne into a nearly meat copy.

You could go a ways by cutting things down meat wise and limiting your protein to get some of the advantages of the optimal kidney diet. There are meat substitutes which aren't too bad - although they contain as much protein as meat, they don't have the acid downside that meat has.

At the end of the day, if it ain't bearable then no one will do it. It's got to work for you

[Skeptix]

Whats a plant based diet? In a word?

Boring.

Only kidding, though it isn't quite as tasty as an 'anything you like' diet.

Plant based is obviously, plant-based. Thus, no meat and no meat products (eggs, dairy).

After that you can tack on according to your needs. Processed foods plant based, raw food plant based, kidney friendly plant based.

The latter has different manifestations according to your view. You could have a plant based with restrictions in this, that and the other depending on your circumstances, co morbidities etc.

Me I'm on a very low protein plant based diet which requires supplementation with a protein-equivalent device called a keto acid analogue. There are other elements to it (such as getting the carb/fat/protein balance right) and going towards an alkaline instead of acid balance, etc.

Usually plant based is the basis low protein diet (since there is so much protein in meat / animal products). But you.also have to limit high protein plant foods as well.