Do your nephrologist or your dialysis team regularly preach to you that you should eat less phosphate? In this article, you'll find practical everyday tricks to help you do just that.
Your doctors or your dialysis team have a reason for getting on your nerves about phosphate all the time. Too much phosphate in your body has dangerous consequences for your health. It leads to calcium deposits in your blood vessels, which in the long run causes problems with your cardiovascular system. But at the same time, let's make one thing very clear: it's not easy to eat a diet that is low in phosphate. If your medical team disagrees on that, why don't they try themselves to pay attention to the amount of phosphate in every second bite they eat…
To help you master excactly this challenge, here are 12 nutrition tips to get your phosphate under control. If you can incorporate these into your daily life, you'll see that keeping your phosphate levels in the green is a cinch:
1. Favor plant-based products
Did you know that phosphate isn't always absorbed by your body right away? Your body has a much harder time absorbing phosphate from plant products than it does from animal products. So when you look up foods in the Mizu app, you can turn a blind eye to plant foods in terms of phosphate because they contain less available phosphorus.
2. Choose the right cheeses
Cheeses vary greatly in the amount of phosphate they contain. Cream cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, Brie, Camembert... these are the cheese products that contain rather little phosphate. If you have kidney weakness or are on dialysis, you may prefer to include these cheeses in your diet. However, if you are a kidney transplant, you should avoid cheeses made from raw (=unpasteurized) milk, despite their comparatively low phosphate content. These include Brie and Camembert, for example.
The reason for this is that with untreated milk there is a risk that it contains germs that could pose a danger to your weakened defense system (=immune system). Therefore, you should eat as "low-germ" as possible. You can find more information on the topic of a low-germ diet in other articles on the Mizu app.
Now you already know which cheeses you can "save" phosphate with. Emmental, raclette, mozzarella or sheep's cheese, on the other hand, are very high in phosphate and should therefore be reduced in your diet.
3. Keep your fingers away from sliced toast cheese
Unfortunately, the sliced cheeses wrapped in plastic foils that you can buy for putting into toasts are true phosphate bombs across the board. You should really try to avoid them, because 25 grams of processed cheese can contain up to 600 mg of phosphate. For many people suffering from end stage renal disease, this is more or less half of the recommended daily value.
4. Choose the right meats
Just as with cheeses, there are big differences in different meats and sausages. For example, salami, bologna, pancetta, corned beef, boiled ham or beer ham contain very little phosphate, while a portion of liver sausage, white sausage or rabbit meat can quickly fill half of your daily guideline value of phosphate.
5. Fish fingers instead of salmon
There are also clear differences in fish. Interestingly, fish fingers, for example, account for about half the recommended daily phosphate intake of a dialysis patient compared to a portion of atlantic salmon.
6. Beware of additives
Many industrially processed foods are preserved or made tastier with additives. In the EU, these are whole E-numbers on the ingredients (e.g. E450). Some of these additives contain a lot of phosphate. You should pay particular attention, because this type of phosphate is particularly well absorbed by the body (almost 99%) and the amount is rarely specified.
7. Look carefully at ready-made products
Ready-made products and processed foods often contain phosphate additives to extend shelf life or enhance flavor. Instead, go for fresh products without added phosphates.
8. Take your phosphate binders properly
Phosphate binders bind phosphate in your body and excrete it directly. But to work well, you have to take the right dose at the right time. Otherwise, it doesn't really help to take them. Most phosphate binders need to be taken just before or during a meal. You may also want to take phosphate binders with your snacks or with certain drinks.
9. Take phosphate binders with your beer
Beer and wine also contain phosphate. So watch the amount you drink and take the right dose of phosphate binders with it.
10. Try alternative forms of baking powder
Baking powder usually contains lots of phosphate. In contrast, tartaric baking powder is usually phosphate-free. For 500g of flour you can alternatively use 1 teaspoon of baking soda and a drop of vinegar or lemon juice. Be careful though if your potassium is high, as tartaric baking powder is quite high in potassium.
11. Instead of milk, try a water and cream mixture
1/3 cream and 2/3 water tastes delicious and works great for most sauces or soups. You can also change the mixing ratio depending on your needs. You can actually use water-cream mixtures the same way you use milk - for example for pudding, pancakes or mashed potatoes.
12. Combine cleverly
The total amount is what is relevant. Therefore, you can always think about how to best combine foods that are high in phosphate with those lower in phosphate. A very simple example: if you would like to eat a cheese sandwich, eat it with white bread rather than wholewheat bread because it usually contains less phosphate.
You can find out exactly how much phosphate is in thousands of foods & recipes in the Mizu app. This way, you always have your nutrition companion with you in your pocket!
