What is the most rewarding part of being a Renal Transplant Registered Dietitian?
Getting to follow patients throughout their path to transplant and watch them thrive afterwards.
What is the biggest challenge working as a Renal Transplant Registered Dietitian?
It is breaking through the black and white mentality that many people have about food. Most people like to think that there are two distinct groups of "good" and "bad" foods for kidney disease. There is actually a lot of gray area, and portion size is more important than anything. Take tomatoes for example- having 5-6 cherry tomatoes on a salad might be appropriate, but having a cup of tomato sauce on your pasta likely is not.
What advice would you give to someone seeking nutritional guidance living with kidney disease?
Meet with a dietitian! Registered Dietitians are a wealth of nutrition knowledge and can help tailor the renal diet to fit your individual needs. Dietary information online can be extremely confusing and restrictive, but an RD can help people to work through it.
What myths would you like to dispel regarding the renal diet?
That patients with kidney disease have to get their protein from animal sources. Plant proteins such as beans, nuts, seeds, soy, and whole grains can all actually have a place in a renal diet and following a more plant based diet that includes these foods may actually help to manage kidney disease.
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