Cooking for David A Culinary Dialysis Cookbook

This book is very helpful in planning meals while on dialysis. It is a whole new world for me, and I was looking anywhere to find help on making some good meals and still following the dialysis restrictions.

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OK.. but not what I was hoping for

I was diagnosed with stage 3 CKD back in June. So I thought this book would be helpful to me. And it was. On the dissappointing side, there are a few too many recipes with canned fruits and cool whip for my taste. I also have multiple food allergies (what a nightmare, food allergies AND CKD!!! )including a shrimp allergy and many of the main course and appetizer recipes use shrimp. Although I'm not on dialysis I have pretty much the same restrictions. This book was a good starting point for recipe ideas. Also, she gives a great deal of information about why CKD management is so important, that was very helpful and educational.

However, I found getting a good gram/ounce food scale and a copy of the USDA food nutrition data base more helpful for me [...] buy a hard copy here on Amazon). I prefer a whole food diet and am now just converting my old recipes. Although this is a pain in the butt, I find spending a bit of time doing this more helpful for me. Also, write on freezer bags and masking tape are god sends for labeling frozen food and cupboard kept ingredients. For those who don't want to spend the time doing this, get this book.

Now matter what book we buy, we still have to spend a lot of time attending to our diet. And even though I rated this book 3 stars, I'm grateful to the women who wrote it. Like many of you who are dealing with this new life style, it can seem overwhelming at first. (Who knew guacamole could be so deadly?)Hang in there!

8/25/06 Recently I found software is available that will track all this for you. I purchased Diet Pro, which was easy to customize to my needs. It uses the same nutrition tables the dieticians use (USDA)and has made my life much easier! It will take food amounts by weight or volume amounts and show you your daily nutrition intake. I can also put in recipes and get a nutrional breakdown per serving, and save the recipes in a file. I no longer spend hours calculating my daily nutrition. There are other programs out there too. Diet Pro was the least expensive.


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Incredible Book!!!

I was used to eating out all the time and had no idea how to cook a meal, when I was told I needed to go on a renal diet. I thought I was either doomed to live on bread and water, or not live at all!! I've only had my book for a couple of days and I have already made several of the recipes. They were quick and easy to make, and many of the recipes use a lot of the same ingredients. They also tasted incredibly good!!! I was amazed!!! I learned that with a few substitutions and some portion control I can eat meals that are better than what I got in the restaurants! I feel like a gourmet cook already!!! Thank you so much for this book! It really is a life-saver!!!!

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