About the DaVita Diet Helper

[chefnancy]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

Ham is not the best choice of Easter entree for kidney patients because of way too much sodium. Turkey, leg of lamb, or roast beef are better choices. You could also roast a fresh ham, which is the same cut as a ham but not cured. It yields a delicious, moist and tender roast pork that your family would probably enjoy.

[artbylen]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

I am having a problem with the technical side of the program. When I (add) an item to my daily plan it doesn't show up on my weekly plan. Example: Today I had added 1 poached egg, toast, butter and 1/2 grapefruit. I saved the checked items I wanted and removed the original breakfast offered.
For lunch I came home late and instead of trying to make breaded chicken I added my leftover halibut with a croissant and butter. I also had 1/4 c. pomegrant juice with 7up. The program let me add things so then I removed the suggested davita lunch. Looking good so far! Saved and moved to dinner.
My husband came home with lamb chops he wanted, know I cooked them before. So I substituted them for the offered pork chops. Along with noodles and asparagus. Well I saved that too.
However when I clicked to see it on my weekly plan and then went back for todays meal all it shows is the removed items and not the substituted items. This is making the programs frustrating for me. I want to print out my nutrition totals for my nutritionist but it is not programing it for me. Am I missing a step?

[chefnancy]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

Why don't you message Sara about your problem? I am sure she will find an answer for you.

[Sara]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

You are correct artbylen--the Weekly View page does not import- changes fromn the Nutrition Log. I suggest go the the Nutrition Log and print the Last 7 days if you only want to see the nutrients.

If you want to see the foods and nutrients its a bit more complicated. Open a Word document then go to the Nutrition Log. On your keyboard press Control-Alt-Print Screen. This will make a copy of the nutrients and the meals/added foods you logged.Go back to your Word document and press Control-V to paste your information. You can then Save and Print to take to your nutritionist.

If you have any problems with this you can send me a message directly from the DaVita Diet Helper Feedback in the top right hand section of any screen.
Thanks,
DaVita Dietitian Sara

[angieskidney]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

I was worried someone would click the link from MagicOPromotion so I just wanted to say DO NOT click on that link as it is not what it says it is.

Cooking for David is a real cookbook found here: http://www.culinarykidneycooks.com/cookbook.htm

Not the link that poster posted. Thx.

[roscot50]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

Do you like to drink colas like I do? Do you have a problem with your phosphorous, like I do? Have you been told that colas have too much phosphorous and that the only sodas you can drink are the clear ones, and the simple flavored ones like orange or grape, or even root beer? Well, guess what? Pepsi has come out with a new cola that has no phosphorous! It is called pepsi natural. The trouble is, it is only available in a few cities in the midwest, the west, and New York. We have to band together and tell Pepsi to release Pepsi Natural in our area. Right away! They cannot ignore the potential market here. Heck, I'd buy enough of it to make it worthwhile! Well, almost. The thing is, Pepsi should realize that we, as renal failure patients, need this product, well, okay we don't need it, but, we really want it, and we deserve it. And the market should bear it out for the company. Even healthy people would be interested, since it's an all natural beverage, with natural sugars, and naturally sparkling water, and natural kola nut flavoring, and it's packaged in an all natural glass bottle! Okay, I guess that last bit wasn't the best example, but, still...

[Pretty Purple Lady]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

Hello Sara and All!!
I have tried to use the Helper and it seems very good, but I've noticed contratdictions in the do's and don'ts lists. Some of the menus have salsa listed. I thought red sauces are not allowed??? Also, I find the portions difficult to manage, as was mentioned by another.

I am at stage 5, 15% currently without dialysis. I get a little tired because I'm not eating much as my taste buds are not working very well. I'm not a big sweets eater, but I can taste that best. Chicken and fish almost have no taste and lean beef and lamb needs seasoning. I have drastically reduced my sodium intake (yahooooo!!)

I would really like to use the Helper more frequently. I have input my diet prescription, but how do I know the foods listed are appropriate for me when the food lists says, "DON'T"? HELP me with the Helper, please. Thanks in advance....anyone.

[Barbara ann]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

I am happy with this helper most of the time until I realized that most of the sweet items are not sweeten with sugar and I am allergic to artifical sugars. I am not diabetic so I was wondering why you do not list the food item both ways?

I have been writing to the manufactures and 99% have provided a list of thier foods with a complete nutrition guide. I now can make up my own recipes, as I am also allergic to chicken and turkey.

Another thing I noticed is you tell us to leach potatoes and yet I can find no nutrient content for leached potatoes unless the are in the nutrition log and not labeled as such

[Sara]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

Hi Pretty Purple Lady,
Glad you discovered DaVita Diet Helper!
The meals created in this meal planner are calculated based on the nutrient content (including sodium, potassium and phosphorus) in the foods for each meal. This allows for including some foods that otherwise are on the limit or avoid list. In otherwords, it is possible to create meals that have some of the ingredients higher in sodium, potassium or phosphorus because the total amount contributed is still within the diet goals for the day.
Food lists simply divide foods into allow and limit or avoid--and do not address how to include those limit foods in recipes and meals.

[Sara]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

Hi Barbara Ann,
When creating the meals we tried to have similar carbohydrate content, so some items contain sugar and others contain sugar free items. If you choose to use a sugar sweetented item instead of sugar free--no problem. You will simply get more carbs and calories compared to the original meal. We could not list both ways in the meals due to the way the program is set up for analyzing nutrients.

I will check into adding the nutrients for leached potatoes into the database. Great suggestion!
DaVita Dietitian Sara

[tr33]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

It would be a great tool, well it's already a great tool, but it would be even better if you could add calorie restrictions as well at the beginning. Maybe I'm just too new to the tool but it's difficult to come up with plans that meet all the requirements for the renal diet & restricts calories as well.

[raphael]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

Welcome to the DaVita Diet Helper Discussion Forum.

My name is Sara, DaVita Dietitian and Nutrition Project Specialist. The DaVita Diet Helper is a meal planning tool for people with late-stage kidney disease. Because it is a unique new tool, we expect questions and discussion about:

•how people are using the tool
•how people like the recipes
•if there are ‘bugs’ in the system that need to be worked out
•if people are finding it easier to stick to the kidney diet
•if people are getting better lab results from using the tool
•ideas on how to refine the tool

Please share your input in this Discussion Forum.

Explanation about some DaVita Diet Helper features:

When you view the meals, you will notice the recipe includes additional items to be served with a meal, such as beverage, dessert, etc. Due to the program design, we are unable to separate the recipe ingredients from the meal ingredients. We hope the Preparation Notes clarify how all the ingredients are used.

The recipe ingredients are pulled from a food database. In some instances the ingredient name may be listed differently than the way it would appear in a recipe book. Unfortunately we cannot change this, but please let us know if you do not understand an ingredient.

All meals are for a single serving — this is necessary for the nutrient analysis feature to work. If you prepare a recipe and increase the portions for more than one serving, we invite you to share your ‘scaled’ recipe with other users. Keep in mind, seasonings require adjustment when doubling or tripling a recipe. Cooking time may also be affected.

We have included concentrated sweets in the diabetic meal plans to provide additional calories. We tried to keep the carbohydrate distribution for each meal and snack in the 40%-60% range as recommended by the American Diabetes Association. We acknowledge the current day guidelines that total carbohydrate intake is more important than the carbohydrate source. Modifications for an individual meal plan, or using carbohydrate counting, can be incorporated by the user. We encourage patients to work with their dietitian to make individual modifications.

We're looking forward to your input on this new kidney diet tool!

Many thanks for your incredibly helpful site: although ,as yet, I have not had any blood readings since starting to follow your suggested plan just last week!

As I live in Europe, several things are not available, like non-dairy creamer! and I would appreciate recipes to make my own kidney friendly waffles, as only heavily sugared ones are available over here, and Sodas are something I never used to drink,only having 'proper' juice, so can you tell me what I should look for on the label?

And, should I add anything to eggwhite to make it more like the commercial eggbeaters?

I'm sure there will be other cries for help as I go along, but thankyou in advance!!

[irishrose355]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

Hi Sara

I have been drinking Vanilla Rice Dream Drink...it is enriched...do you know how to calulate this into the diet helper for phosphorus, sodium and potassium? Or...yuck....should I just have the plain unenriched in the box and if so...any hints to make it more tasty???

Thanks,

Rose

[angieskidney]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

Hi Sara

I have been drinking Vanilla Rice Dream Drink...it is enriched...do you know how to calulate this into the diet helper for phosphorus, sodium and potassium? Or...yuck....should I just have the plain unenriched in the box and if so...any hints to make it more tasty???

Thanks,

Rose

I don't know if this will help but this page hasn't been updated since 2007:

http://kidneykorner.com/AK//DairySubstituteCompar.html

Still I have listed the contents of some Dairy Substitutes like Rice Dream (or RD as it says on that page)

Product ..................................Phosphorus (mg) ..........Potassium (mg) ......... Calcium (mg) .........Sodium (mg)
ENRICHED RD Vanilla....... 150 ....................................53 ...................................300 ...........................90

[Sara]

Re: About the DaVita Diet Helper

Hi Rose,
Angie's numbers are correct for the enriched rice milk. 150 mg phosphorus compared to 90 mg for a cup of unenriched rice milk. The unenriched is usually found on the same isle with soy milk and is not refrigerated. Look for the brick pac packaging. All the refrigerated rice milk brands in my area are enriched.

Horchata, a Mexican rice beverage is another possiblilty--usually free of phosphate additives, but be sure to read the labels. 1 cup has 6 mg potassium and 5 mg phosphorus according to the USDA food database. Another substitute that is lower in potassium and phosphorus is Almond Breeze non-dairy beverage. Even though it's made from almonds the potassium for 1 cup is 180 mg--about half as high as milk. Phosphorus is 90 mg a cup--compared to 111-138 mg in milk.