Food for kidney patients (and foods they have to avoid)
CreSer (Grow. Crate. Believe.), is growing vegetables and fruit that are healthy for kidney patients (since not all of these foods are available in the villages). These are the foods we have been told are recommended for kidney patients - foods that they will be trying to grow in their San Pedro location, using Huerto boxes.
May 2022: CreSer are going to try and grow these vegetables and later fruit, that are recommended for renal patients (to keep sodium, phosphorous and potassium intake as low as possible). Ideally, they would like to get organic seeds, but they will take anything to get started!
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Garlic
Cilantro
Arugula
Radish
Turnips
Onions
Bell peppers (especially red)
Looking ahead, other foods on the food list are:
Blueberries
Pineapples
Red grapes
Skinless chicken and egg whites are on the good list, so they are also trying to raise chickens and rabbits.
For this program to be successful, there needs to be a strong educational element to the program that includes active follow up with the families about how to prepare the food. In addition to teaching about foods to eat, there also needs to be education about what NOT to eat since some staples like tomatoes, avacados and potatoes are on the "not good" list.
Studies indicate that diet is extremely important in managing kidney disease. We are already providing despensas to kidney patients, but we want to augment the despensas with more of the above items - and none of those listed below!
These are foods that should be avoided by kidney patients:
Canned food and any processed food (especially processed meats)
Whole wheat breads
Brown rice
Bananas
Dairy
Oranges
Pickles/olives/relish
Apricots
Potatoes (any kind!)
Tomatoes
Swiss chard/spinach/beet greens
Dates/raisins/prunes
Tilapia unfortunately is on the bad list because it'a high in phosphorus and potassium.