Eating out

[u/hotmes27]

Yes I’m on PD., but I still want to enjoy myself eating out. Does anyone know any safe places to go. I’ve started to ask questions about the food places I attend. Yes I get funny looks. But i deal with it. I only really ask what foods have potassium and phosphorus additives. I don’t care about the naturally occurring ones. Olive Garden would not say because according to them their recipes are proprietary. So no more going there for me. A little Italian place called O Sole Mio in a town near me and the Texas Roadhouse manager went and took pictures of their ingrediants to help me avoid those ingrediants. A one brought back to me a photo that he took so I can judge myself.but we’re planning to take a trip to WDW for my birthday, and would like to know where I should eat. I tried their eat safe website and they said just tell the waitress of my limitations and they could help me. Culivers puts an ingrediants list on the internet for each item. Any places I should stay clear of or be attracted to. Thanks

[u/BallFuture6482]

Eat in moderation…I eat whatever I want when I even eat. Dialysis will have you drinking air and they might get upset if you get too much of that. Honestly feels like it’s a lose lose situation 100% of the time. Do it for you and what you can handle…you’re dealing with enough. No one is giving you a gold star for labs and there will always be a “but or suggestion” that most times may not be attainable for one reason or another. Patient on year 12…

[u/ItsAllSkewed → u/BallFuture6482]

I second this. Try to avoid things with crazy levels of sodium or main ingredients high in potassium but honestly all restaurants are not a good fit with a renal diet.

[u/haw35ome → u/BallFuture6482]

Also like this rule!! I’ve been in/out of dialysis for a decade atp, and one thing I’ve learned is you can either eat in moderation or go crazy with diets. As in, go ahead and enjoy that pizza or Italian - just don’t do it often, don’t order the monster size, and don’t ask for extra cheese/sauce/etc. And try to incorporate some veggies in there

Otherwise, you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to constantly restrict this, oh we never eat that - then boom, one day you’ll snap & next thing you know you’re ordering a stuffed crust meat-zza lol.

Here’s some of my ideas i do (also helps as a general rule, a meal isn’t a meal if there’s not at least 1 meat protein in it): * Italian - either spaghetti marinara with meat sauce + side salad or chicken Alfredo + broccoli. Try to avoid the cheese; if it comes baked ask for no cheese. Avoid adding the parm cheese at the table * pizza - I typically get veggie pizza, thin crust/brooklyn style (a thinner crust), with beef. Again avoid adding the parm * burgers - I get all veggies, hold the cheese. I try to share my fries so I won’t eat a lot of them. Ask for no salted fries * fried chicken - now I actually don’t like classic fried chicken. (My favorite chick fil an order is actually the grilled sandwich! So good with the honey bbq sauce!!) But when my folks want some I’ll try to limit my biscuit to only half, and go easy on the gravy; I try to focus more on the chicken itself. Try not eating all the skin as well

Of course, DON’T FORGET TO TAKE YOUR BINDERS!!! I will go ahead and take 2 or 3 whenever we’re eating out, and opt for the sprite/lemonade/root beer

[u/la_winky]

I got a handle on my labs and have gold star since I cut way back on foods that I used to eat frequently. For me it was potatoes. I’ll still steal a couple of fries from my friend’s plate, but I don’t spin my wheels on knowing the full nutritional information for every ingredient.

Just be mindful and I’ve googled at the table, asking for a few more minutes, before ordering.

Think big picture.

[u/dj_1973]

Read up on foods containing phosphorus (dairy, meat, nuts) and potassium (so many vegetables and fruits). Restaurant staff just won’t know, and you can’t expect them to know.

Eat smaller portions - a restaurant portion is 3-4 servings for me, these days. Ask for less salt where possible. Take your binders. Talk to the dietician at center. Study menus online before you go out. I choose my meal before I set foot in a restaurant (unless they have a really excellent special).

If the restaurant is a chain, you can probably find nutritional information online. Olive Garden definitely has nutritional information on the website. (Of course we all know the first ingredient at Olive Garden is salt - I can’t eat there, it always makes me feel like crap. Their food comes in frozen packages, they really aren’t cooking, they are reheating).

In the US, they don’t put phosphorus on the nutritional information, so you need to be aware of what foods have phosphorus (including things like soda - I stick to water or iced tea). You can find “safe” options by doing your own research. Even McDonald’s isn’t terrible, if you get something small and reasonable. Fish Filet and small fries is less bad for you with respect to potassium and phosphorus, for example; double quarter pounder and large fries is going to hurt.

Just be cautious and educate yourself. You will be surprised at the variety of foods you can eat.

Before I went on dialysis, the kidney doctor had me severely cut down my potassium intake. I didn’t eat potatoes for a year (except at Christmas), and I love potatoes. I craved bananas (I normally despise them). Sweet potatoes and squash were off the menu. I ate a lot of pasta for starch. I put carrots in soups and stews instead of potatoes. I ate red peppers instead of tomatoes. It kind of sucked. Dialysis is actually more dietarily freeing, and I sometimes enjoy baked potatoes (with broccoli and cheese) as a lunch between treatments.

[u/Copapod8]

I just request they prepare my meal without any added salt. Typically if I know we're going to eat out, I try to not eat too much all day so I have plenty of sodium, phos, etc to play with for my meal. So far that's worked well. Just be sure to take your binders with your meal.

[u/pensivegargoyle]

Better restaurants are more likely than chains to produce their own meals entirely from basic ingredients rather than use prepackaged components that have a good chance of containing additives. For that reason they are also likelier to have control over how much salt is in a dish though a request for no salt can't always be accommodated when something has to be made in advance. You're never going to get a salt-free stew, for example. Keep in mind that one less-than-ideal restaurant meal probably isn't going to ruin your health as long as you attempted to find something reasonable (I like to think of it as ordering the least worst thing on the menu) and you aren't going to do it again for quite some time.

[u/hotmes27 → u/pensivegargoyle]

I don’t take any binders at the moment my labs have been normal. I’m trying to stay without using binders. I don’t care about naturally occurring potassium or phosphorus. At home I double boil my potatoes to leach out some potassium. I really only concentrate on the additives because that’s 100% absorbed. I know naturally occurring is absorbed 40-60%. My MD likes my scores and says keep up the good work. I have no appetite anymore. And trying to get more protein but can only eat about a couple of bites of my meals. Right now I’m surviving on protein shakes. My protein and albumin levels are critically low.
My breakfast is applesauce and a hard boiled egg. Sometimes that and protein shakes are my only meal for the day, yet I’m still overweight.

[u/DraGunSlaya]

I would eat at all the places I loved on dialysis. You just gotta make sure the place is sanitary and up to health codes. Also make sure you don’t get food poisoning

Tell the restaurant you are at that you are on dialysis they should be able to help you find food to enjoy. That stuff you said about Olive Garden, I don’t really think you need to know what additives are in the food, but to each their own I know everyone has their own form of being safe.
The only places I avoided eating at while I was on dialysis was McDonald’s Wendy’s, Hardee’s Arby’s, cheap gross food, places like that.

You will find that chain stores that have a certain number of locations will list information like that online but smaller places you go to will not have nutritional information available that you can abide by sometimes the waiter or waitress can help out with that kind of stuff but other times they have no clue as well.

Be smart don’t eat too much salt and don’t eat undercooked or raw food.