If your elderly parent has been put on a renal diet, you really don’t want to have to be responsible for preparing their diet for them. In the long run, it’s going to be far easier and far safer to allow a meals on wheels program that caters to the elderly put the meal together.
It’s common for anyone that has developed kidney disease and needs dialysis to need a renal diet. Not adhering to the rules of the diet could have some very dire consequences.
The kidneys serve a pretty specific purpose. They have the responsibility for cleaning waste from the blood. When a person gets diagnosed with kidney disease the waste and extra fluid’s not getting flushed from their system and the toxins start building up. The dialysis machine takes over for the failing kidneys. The thing that people need to understand is that while the dialysis machine helps, it doesn’t do nearly as tidy a job as the kidneys do. The only way to keep your elderly parent with kidney disease healthy will be carefully monitoring their renal diet.
The Meals on Wheels program that you contact knows how dangerous salt will be. Not only will salt cause your parent’s blood pressure to climb, it will also trigger thirst. Since the body can’t remove the liquid as easily as it once could, the salt intake has to be carefully monitored. Food has to be served as fresh as possible since cured and canned food have been loaded down with all kinds of salt.
Many elderly people need to increase their potassium intake. That’s not the case with a renal diet. The meal on wheels program knows that when a person has been placed on a renal diet, they won’t be able to eat meals that include banana’s squash, cantaloupe, prunes, potatoes, and carrots.
Phosphorous is something that all seniors need to be careful about. It’s found in nuts, dairy, and whole wheat. The phosphorus removes calcium from human bones, increasing the chances of a break, something a person an dialysis doesn’t need.
In addition to being important to helping build muscle and bone, protein also helps the body fight off infections. People who have been placed on a renal diet need to eat protein, but it has to be the high quality protein found in lamb, pork, fish and poultry, and fresh beef. The meals on wheels program will carefully monitor the amount of protein in each meal to make sure the person doesn’t overdue it which can be almost as bad as not getting enough.
Anyone who has an elderly parent that has been placed on a renal diet will have to learn how to keep a careful monitor of everything their parent consumes.
