If you are aware of any reputable comprehensive apps to help track food intake for CKD patients. I would love a recommendation.
Kidney diet tracking is complicated and it would be invaluable to have a toolset for those of us trying to implement dietary changes that are comprehensive.
By comprehensive I mean any apps that track multiple key components of well rounded diets including:
1. kidney minerals (sodium, phosphate, potassium, protein and water )
2. nutrients (vitamins, minerals, amino acids), calories, fat, cholesterol, etc
3. Sugar
etc….
Things for overall good health and that those with co-mobilities ( heart disease, diabetes, overweight, etc) need to manage,
I’ve read that a serous issue with those on kidney diets is malnutrition.
Yet I haven’t found a comprehensive 360 degree resource to address this problem.
It is all about making it easier for people to manage their overall health and simplifying the process.
I believe that there is a lot of potential for AI based tools that could simplify this for the end users.
It is difficult to keep track of all variables and I can’t manage multiple apps. It is overwhelming to gather and enter the data into an app
I downloaded several apps and tested them from the Apple Store, they were all lacking. All were single focused, ie only tracking the kidney minerals and no nutrients or calories.
The best kidney tracking app that I found was Kidney Diet from the NKF.
However it was lacking in that it only tracked only potassium, phosphorus, sodium and water.
Also it’s’ database was extremely limited as far of a very limited default food list and the search function made it difficult to find even basic items.
I revisited it yesterday and my trial period was up. I tried using it for two weeks before I started learning about CKD foods which has taken me months of research every day.
Weight watchers used to have a great app with a robust database of foods with calorie, fats, carbohydrates, etc. the NKF has one that tracks the 3 related to CKD.
It also had a QR code to find foods with labels or add them. You had to look up foods without labels in the database but it had a comprehensive list as a starting point
Not sure of an app that tracks nutrients like vitamins, amino acids, etc.
Would love to find something like that. I’ll post it if I find something.
Again a preference would be an all in one comprehensive app .
Besides being from a reputable sources that includes up to date accurate data it is also important that the app be offered at a price point that would not be a financial barrier for use. There are numerous sites out there with people trying to monetize their own products and content. I don’t trust them based on several that I’ve vetted
Any toolset should also offer a longer trial period as learning about how to fit a diet to one’s unique health requirements and food preferences can be overwhelming and can take considerable time.
Some factors to be considered to justify this include:
If the database isn’t very good it takes dedication to find the data to enter yourself.
As the diet emphasizes eating non processed foods and Lots of fruits, vegetables and other whole food items which either don’t have nutritional labels and often don’t track phosphate it takes lots of time to find food lists that contain the data.
Then you have to find a reputable data sources with mineral content, nutrition values and calorie content et .
It’s a daunting task and something that the most people would not attempt or if they do give up on.
If I can find all of the required information and don’t get frustrated I will probably do my best to create a spreadsheet of the items that I eat with their values to help track it myself.
it takes lots of time when you learn that you have CKD to try and educate yourself on what you need to do to slow or reverse the disease
For example: I started educating myself about it when I noticed that my chart said that I had a new condition. No one told me about it. when I met with my doctor to discuss she said it was too early to be concerned. I requested that she refer me to the specialist anyway.
Because the reality is that it can take time to get an appointment with the nephrologists ( I waited 4 months, my appointment is this week).
After that I hope to get a referral to a dietitian specialist for CKD. So a good trial period for an app would be a minimum of 6 months to a year.
It’s important to give people the opportunity to learn about the disease and see how complicated an app is to use and what the benefits are not to mention have the benefit of having their diet data to share with the doctor. Also because it will take awhile to see if dietary changes are helping and your lab results are improving people may give up too soon.
We all are going to be on our diets and as our disease progresses our dietary needs will change over time.
This will result in lifelong subscibers.
From an overall health perspective if there were grants available to encourage high tech applications teams to develop such a program it could translate into a significant savings in the health care industry and government by reducing longterm health care costs.
There may be lobbyists who benefit from the astronomical costs of 33% of our country’s population getting this disease but there should be advocates who could rally around the cause!
Here’s to hoping that if enough people ask for this much needed solution someone who can make it happen will take one.
Please reply if you are aware of any from a reputable source that already has a decent app
Thanks
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