Kidney Diet      
Plant based Alkaline Diet
Neutral Protein 0.6 grams/kilogram
Low Salt 1200 mg sodium   Himalayan pink salt
Water
useful foods
AVOIDS  foods

PKD DIET
These are suggestions to try. They are gathered from among our collective experiences - anecdotal knowledge. We are each unique with our own set of symptoms from various foods. Before trying something new, check all changes with your doctor. Eliminate toxins, especially kidney toxins, Exercise and rest sufficiently to keep kidney blood flow abundant With normal kidney functioning, one possibility to try, is a diet that is alkaline, plant based, geared toward kidney health, with an abundance of starchy vegetables: rutabagas, turnips, sweet potatoes, beans, brown rice, sweet corn, spelt, rye, all whole grains and a sprinkling of a few alkaline nuts such as almonds, chestnuts and coconut. A low sodium, 1200 mg sodium diet helps to keep blood pressure low which in turn can help keep cystic organs smaller. A low sodium diet is more easily achieved by cooking all your own foods, eliminating prepared, canned, and take out food. If salt is necessary, one can try measuring out an 1/8 teaspoon of Himalayan salt daily, then tossing it at the day's end. The following day start fresh with only 1/8 teaspoon. A neutral protein plant based diet that is individually calculated to 0.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weigh is another thing to try for maintaining healthy cystic kidneys. Most recently it was discovered that by drinking 3 liters of water per day, this too might help to assure the health of polycystic kidneys. Assure that the body takes in EAA essential amino acids and EFA essential fatty acids daily. Talk with your doctor about any of these possible changes that you may wish to try. Avoid all caffeine. (coffee, chocolate, black tea, green tea, white tea cola, and de-caffeinated beverages as well). If your doctor permits, try chamomile, rooibos, hibiscus, thyme, saffron, rose hips, linden flower, or veronica tea. For a little bubbly, try cranberry, apple or grape juice mixed with Perrier or other fizzy mineral water. Remain alkaline.

• Eat foods in season and as close to a home grown state with little processing.
• Locally grown is best.
• Organic is second best.
• Fresh produce is third.
• Frozen is fourth.
• Try to avoid canned, prepared, fried, and microwaved food.

• Avoid kidney toxins.

Ask to see the renal dietitian for an alkaline diet calibrated specifically for you. An alkaline vegan diet that avoids all animal proteins (ground meats, dairy, egg whites, milk, cheese, beef, pork, chicken), soy proteins, yeast, alcohol, concentrated sugars seems to make us feel better. Fruits and Vegetables to avoid: salted foods, tomato, potato, eggplant, peppers, celery, star fruit, strawberries, plums, prunes, soy, margarine, crisco, potato chips and peanuts. While kidney functioning is still excellent, dietary things that help PKD are high potassium foods; plant based diets with an emphasis on raw fruits and vegetables; whole food starches such as corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, winter squash. Include a few selected pre-soaked grains (spelt, quinoa, rye, oats, kasha, brown rice) and pre-soaked nuts (almond, coconut, chestnut). Enjoy plenty of leafy greens, broccoli, radish, and below ground root crops. Soak all beans, legumes, grains, seeds and nuts before eating. This lowers their phytic acid content, making these foods more digestible and alkaline.

AVOID HARMFUL PKD Ahi tuna Alcohol Ale Alfalfa Sprouts Animal proteins most Aluminum Ammonia Anabolic steroids Artificial sweetener Aspirin BBQ Meats Beef Bacon Black tea Blood dishes Bluefish Bologna Bovine growth hormone BPA Bratwurst Butter Caffeine AVOID ALL FORMS Candy Catfish Celery Chaparral tea Charred meats Cheerios Cheese Chemicals cough Chicken with bleach bath Chilies Chlorine Chocolate Clorox Clover Honey Cod liver oil Coffee AVOID ALL FORMS Cola AVOID ALL FORMS Comet Corn syrup Cream Creatine supplements Crisco Croissant Crustaceans Dairy DDT De-caf Chocolate De-caf Coffee De-caf Cola De-caf Tea

AVOID HARMFUL PKD Donuts Dry Cleaning Duck Edamame Eel Eggplant Forskolin Fish oily Flaxseed French fries Fried foods Fructose GM Foods Green Tea Ground meats Hamburger Hard cheese High fructose corn syrup Hot dogs Iceberg lettuce Juice bottled canned (BPA) Lard Laundry powder (inhaling) Licorice Liver Liverwurst Lobster Mackerel Malt liquor Margarine Microwaved food Miso Miso soup Mochi Multiple vitamins Nightshade plants Nato Noni juice Organ meats Oven cleaners Parmesan cheese Paté foie gras Peanuts Pepperoni Peppers Pink meats Pheasant, commercial Phytates Phytic acid

AVOID HARMFUL PKD Phytoestrogens Pink meats Plastic Plums Poki Pork Potato Potato chips Powder soap Poultry Powdered soaps Quail Rice wine Rindswurst Sashimi Salami Salmon Saki Sardines Salt pork Sausage Scallops Scrambled eggs Shell fish Shrimp Soy Soy milk Squab Starfruit Steroids Stevia Stout malt liquor Strawberry Sushi Sugar Tamari Tea AVOID caffeinated Tempé Teriyaki Testosterone Tofu Tomato Trout Tuna Turkey Tylenol Vegemite Vinegar Wheat Wheat Germ White Rice Windex White Tea Wine Yeasted Bread Yeast Yellow cheese

AVOID KIDNEY TOXINS Aspirin Aleve Creatine Caffeine Chaparral Chondroitin Ephedra Gentamycin Glucosamine Ibuprofen Lithium Motrin NSAIDs Naproxen Paracetamol Phenacetin Starfruit Tylenol     AVOID for all humans Aluminum Candy French Fries Lard Margarine Peanuts Potato Chips White Flour White Sugar

PKD AVOID HARMFUL HERBS Chaparral Forskolin Ginkgo Biloba Certain Chinese Herbs AVOID HARMFUL ANIMAL PROTEINS   BETTER  CHOICES TO REPLACE Lamb Beef Bean burger Hamburger Haddock Salmon OrangeRoughy Tuna Perch Sardines Cottage Cheese Parmesan Goat Cheese Cheddar Buttermilk Whole milk Plugra cultured Butter Yogurt Sour Cream Wild Game Poultry Wild Turkey Turkey Pheasant Poultry

what fISH are BETTER CHOICEs?
Enjoy flat white fish that is non oily and low in fat. such as haddock, cod, orange roughy, perch, For more examples of flat white fish click here. Avoid fish oil supplements. These are high in mercury. Eliminate cod liver oil products by checking the ingredients lists in cosmetics, vitamins, and supplements.

Why are aspirin, NSAIDs, phenacetin, tylenol, ibuprofen, aleve, to be AVOIDED ?
These medications have a lifetime cumulative detrimental effect on kidney functioning. If there is the occasional need for aspirin, this is different than taking aspirin everyday for a lifetime. Sometimes the detrimental effects need to be weighed against the positive effects of a medication. For this take your doctor's advice and question him to explain how this can negatively affect your kidney functioning.

Why is star fruit (Averrhoa carambola) to be AVOIDED ?
I have enjoyed the gorgeous array of produce from Hilo's Big Island Farmer's Market. I had previously eaten star fruit and mango, a traditional local combination. I discovered that starfruit is a known kidney toxin. Star fruit originated in Southeast Asia and is readily available worldwide.. It causes an array of symptoms in patients with chronic renal failure or end-stage renal disease. The symptoms vary and include insomnia, intractable hiccups, agitation, muscle weakness, confusion, consciousness disturbances of various degrees, seizures, and cardiorespiratory arrest. The various star fruit subspecies contain different toxins, including a powerful neurotoxin that is suspected to accumulate in blood, cross the blood-brain barrier in chronic renal failure patients, and eventually leading to irreversible damage.
Star fruit intoxication is a serious fruit intoxication frequently observed in patients with chronic renal failure.To date 2 PKD'rs have written about relatives succumbing to star fruit toxins. Because no effective treatment is currently available, patients— especially those who are newly diagnosed with chronic renal failure or end-stage renal disease—must be warned not to ingest star fruit, even in small amounts. Here is a study on a guinea pig heart, recommending that (star fruit) carambola extracts are to be avoided in individuals with normal or diseased hearts.

Why is Glucosamine and Chondroitin to be AVOIDED ?
It is made from shellfish and shark cartilage, these are high in copper and high in oxalates, which are detrimental to individuals with PKD. If one has an iodine allergy to imaging dyes, this may have a cross over allergy.
Completed GAIT clinical trials, a multi-center trial of 1500 individuals Glucosamine/chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial (GAIT), run for 24-weeks, concluded that Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate alone or in combination did not reduce pain effectively in the overall group of patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. Analyses suggest that the combination of glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate may be effective in the subgroup of patients with moderate-to-severe knee pain must be confirmed by another trial. Another clinical trial of Glucosamine supplementation showed that it does not affect blood sugar in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
The American College of Radiologists concluded that there was a possible benefit in severe cases of knee osteoarthritis. Another comment from the NIH. Here are two sources vegetarian glucosamine Freeda vegetarian glucosamine Swanson vegetarian glucosamine.

Why is Noni juice (Morinda citrifolia) to be AVOIDED ?  Hawaii is home to the growers of noni juice. Noni has had some cases of harm to kidneys according to the growers of noni juice. They suggested with my history of both kidney and liver  disease, I avoid noni. Noni is very high in potassium and has been a cause of very high potassium levels. Lemon juice is a great flush, low in potassium, cheaper to obtain, and makes one alkaline .There are several cases in the literature that  link noni to inflamed livers (hepatitis).
Hepatitis induced by Noni juice from Morinda citrifolia
Hepatotoxicity of Noni juice: report of two cases.
Acute hepatitis caused by Noni

Why are multivitamins to be AVOIDED ?   Unless prescribed for you by your physician, avoid multivitamins, instead try individual vitamins as needed. Multivitamins contain high amounts of copper. Researchers have noted that individuals who develop cancers have higher amounts of copper in their bodies. Additionally multiple vitamins contain many of the fat soluble vitamins that can lead to an vitamin excess. Choose an all natural vitamin made from a food source so the micronutrients will be present. Juicing with nutrient dense calorie poor fruits and vegetables are especially good for the body.
When some take supplements or vitamins, they take the vitamins specifically needed than re-check vitamin levels. This allows the body to continue to manufacture its own vitamins such as B12 from the food. Certain vitamins if taken after 2pm, interrupt a restful night's sleep i.e. B vitamins. Some alternate ways to take a month's vitamins is one month on, and one month off.
A report has been released about caution with megavitamins: Unsafe Levels of Selenium Found in Dietary Supplements
ROCKVILLE, Md., April 9 -- The FDA has identified hazardous levels of selenium as the cause of 43 adverse events stemming from use of certain flavors of the dietary supplements Total Body Formula and Total Body Mega Formula. The distributor of the products, Total Body Essential Nutrition, of Atlanta, has recalled the Tropical Orange and Peach Nectar flavors of Total Body Formula in eight- and 32-ounce bottles and the Orange/Tangerine flavor of Total Body Mega Formula in 32-ounce containers.

How do you swallow large tablets? If  bananas are allowed in the diet, try chewing a bite of banana but do not swallow it. Then place the tablet in amongst the mashed banana and swallow both together without chewing the pill.

What will keep cystic kidneys healthy?

WHOLE FOODS LOCALLY GROWN PRODUCE
A plant based diet that is alkaline and geared toward kidney and liver health seems to work best for most of us. Some have reported an alkaline diet diminishes protein spillage in the urine; lowers blood pressure; corrects anemia, diminishes kidney cyst growth, and for some has resulted in improved kidney functioning. For more on alkaline foods click here.

LOW SALT
1200 mg of sodium - eliminate all canned goods, prepared foods, frozen dinners, fast food, salty snacks and take time to read sodium levels of purchased foods. To assure that you are eating low salt cooked foods, try sampling your own cooking. A low salt suggestion - Daily place 1/8 tsp Himalayan salt in a shaker. This small amount of salt can be consumed daily. It can be used for seasoning, for baking, for any purpose. At the end of the day, the 1/8 teaspoon needs to be tossed and replenished with a new 1/8 tsp Himalayan salt placed again into the salt shaker. Some have experienced by using Himalayan salt there is no change in blood pressure. A few adventurous have tried one drop of solé each morning in a glass of mineral water. To read about solé, click here. In a clinical trial patients were given either salt restriction or medication to control blood pressure. Individuals who restricted salt fared better. For more information on blood pressure click here.

NEUTRAL PROTEIN
Researchers calculated the amount of protein intake needed daily to keep the body in a neutral protein balance. That amount is 0.6 grams/kilogram. The formula is body weight divided by 2.2 then multiplied by 0.6. For instance if one weighs 110 pounds divided by 2.2 = 50 kilograms multiplied by 0.6 = 30 grams of protein is the protein intake needed to keep this body in a neutral protein balance. If one is eating an alkaline diet that keeps the urinary pH at or near 7.0, it is likely this individual is also in a neutral protein balance. For more information on protein click here.  Avoid gorging on protein like a lion.

WATER
Drinking ample of water shuts down vasopressin, a trigger for cyst growth. The amount of water to raise urine osmolality equal to that of serum might be twice the urine output or 3 quarts or 3 Liters. We will have to await clinical trials to prove or disprove if in humans cyst growth will be diminished. A page with information about bottled water is here. To read more about Water, click here

CAFFEINE
Avoid caffeine in all its forms. This triggers cyst growth. Maintain a consistently low blood pressure. For more on caffeine click here

kidney toxins
Eliminate kidney toxins. More on avoiding kidney toxins.

INCREASE KIDNEY BLOOD FLOW
Exercise and rest increases kidney blood flow - lay supine raises kidney blood flow as well as certain blood pressure lowering medications. Information on kidney blood flow click here.