Advent treats for dialysis - the right way to do it

The Advent season has begun and also the Christmas markets open their doors again. The smell of gingerbread, stollen and fresh cookies is everywhere. But how do these treats get along with dialysis? With a few tips and tricks, you can enjoy some Christmas treats without having to worry too much about potassium, phosphate and your health. Let's take a step-by-step look at exactly how you can make your Christmas treats dialysis-friendly.

Christmas treats & dialysis - what ingredients should I look out for?

As you already know, it is important for you on dialysis to eat a diet as low in phosphates and potassium as possible. The reason for this is that your kidneys normally filter both substances out of your blood. In people on dialysis, the kidneys cannot do this without help. You can therefore help your kidneys by trying to cut down on potassium and phosphate in your diet. This also applies to baking. Sugar should also only be consumed in small amounts to protect your body from diabetes mellitus. This is especially true for people who already have diabetes. By saving sugar when baking, blood sugar levels can be kept within a healthy range despite snacking.

To enable you to open your personal Christmas bakery as quickly as possible, let's take a closer look at the most important ingredients for Christmas cookies, stollen and gingerbread. By the way, both the other dialysis patients and the dialysis team are sure to enjoy a taste of your delicious Christmas cookies!

The right flour for dialysis

Flour is an important basic ingredient for your Christmas treats. It ensures, through its adhesive protein (=gluten), that your dough sticks together. When a little liquid is added, flour becomes an elastic mass that is easy to shape. If you stand in front of the flour shelf in the supermarket, you will notice that there is a huge selection of different types. But which types are suitable for you on dialysis?

Basically, you can remember: finer flour (with a low type number, e.g., type 405) contains less potassium and phosphorus than, for example, whole wheat flour (type 1700). In addition, wheat flour is particularly suitable for you, as it contains less phosphate and potassium than spelt, oat, buckwheat or rye flour. Since type 405 wheat flour is the most common type of flour anyway, you probably won't even need to look for an alternative in many Advent recipes. The most important nutritional values of the different flour types are summarized for you:

• Wheat flour type 405: 62 mg phosphate and 168 mg potassium per 100 g
• Wheat flour type 1700: 350 mg phosphate and 390 mg potassium per 100 g
• Spelt flour type 630: 116 mg of phosphate and 135 mg of potassium per 100 g
• Rye flour type 815: 128 mg phosphate and 170 mg potassium per 100 g
• Buckwheat flour: 254 mg phosphate and 324 mg potassium per 100 g

Nuts only in small quantities

Nuts are real energy bombs and contain fat, protein and carbohydrates as well as large amounts of potassium and phosphate. Since they also contain a lot of healthy fiber, you should not completely eliminate cashews, chestnuts, peanuts, hazelnuts, almonds, Brazil nuts, pistachios, walnuts, etc. from your diet, but only eat them in small quantities. Therefore, when baking, make sure to use only a small amount of nuts.

As a little trick, you can experiment with spices instead. You can use cinnamon, allspice and vanilla without hesitation. They give your cookies a great taste even with significantly fewer nuts and provide a Christmas scent throughout the house - without sugar!

In addition, you can try using walnuts or Brazil nuts, as they contain slightly less phosphate and potassium compared to cashews, peanuts, hazelnuts, almonds and pistachios.

Chocolate - Pay attention to the correct dosage

Chocolate is also included in many Christmas treats. As you may already know, you should use it sparingly. Due to its high phosphate and potassium content, it is less recommended for people on dialysis. The high sugar content in many types of chocolate should also be taken into account. As with nuts, it is better to use spices. Just try it and you will see, you won't miss the chocolate!

In addition, always remember: the dose is crucial. So if in a cookie some chocolate or a few nuts are contained, then that is absolutely okay. But you shouldn't eat a whole plate of it. Generally speaking, white chocolate contains slightly less potassium and phosphate than milk chocolate. However, this cannot be generalized, which is why you should look up the exact nutritional values of your chocolate varieties again if in doubt.

Why high-quality fats & oils

Fat is included in almost all recipes when baking. It acts as a flavor carrier that allows the other ingredients come out even better. Above all, make sure to use high-quality fats that are rich in omega-3. These include, for example, rapeseed or olive oil. Rapeseed oil in particular is ideal for baking, as it has a neutral taste. Olive oil, on the other hand, has a strong flavor of its own. Therefore, you should not use olive oil for baking.

Sugar - less is more

Similar to fat, sugar is also used in baking as a flavor carrier. Fortunately, commercial sugar usually contains hardly any potassium and phosphate. Nevertheless, you should only use sugar in limited quantities, because it causes your blood sugar levels to rise. Too high of blood sugar levels are harmful to your blood vessels and organs in the long run. Especially people with diabetes should avoid sugar as much as possible.

You do not have to worry, however, many baked goods taste just as good with a little less sugar! As always, an alternative is delicious spices, which have already been listed above.

Milk - use alternatives

Milk provides the body with valuable protein. On the other hand, it unfortunately also contains a lot of phosphate. With various tricks you can manage to replace milk in your recipes without noticing a difference in taste. For example, instead of milk, use a mixture of cream and water. For 100 ml of milk, you can use 35 ml of cream and 65 ml of water. This way you can save valuable phosphate points. Instead of about 92 mg of phosphate in 100 ml of cow's milk (3.5%), the cream-water variant only contains about 22 mg.

Another option is to use plant-based milk alternatives. An overview about some varieties you will find in the following table. Almond milk, in particular, is popular with people on dialysis as a substitute for cow's milk because of its low phosphate and potassium levels.

• Whole milk (3.5%): 92 mg phosphate and 150 mg potassium per 100 g
• Low-fat milk (1.5%): 95 mg phosphate and 150 mg potassium per 100 g
  
• Oat drink (unflavored): 41 mg phosphate and 27 mg potassium per 100 g
• Soy drink (unflavored): 52 mg phosphate and 118 mg potassium per 100 g
• Almond drink (unflavored): 10 mg phosphate and 67 mg potassium per 100 g
  

Eggs only to a limited extent

Eggs contain a lot of animal protein; which is good for the body. Protein rich foods often contain phosphate at the same time. However, they are important to meet your daily protein needs, so that you have enough energy. So that means that you can use eggs for baking. Nevertheless, try to save a few phosphate points in recipes with a lot of eggs, for example by not brushing cookies with egg yolk.

In addition, you can replace one or two eggs with alternative products:

1. Widely used, for example, is an egg substitute consisting of one tablespoon of starch mixed with three tablespoons of water. This substitute is roughly equivalent to an egg and contains significantly less potassium (< 1 mg) and phosphate (6 mg).
2. You can also fall back in some recipes, for example, on applesauce. 75 g applesauce is equivalent to about one egg and also contain less potassium (50 mg) and phosphate (5 mg). In comparison, an egg contains 88 mg potassium and 128 mg phosphate.

Using these two egg alternatives also has another practical advantage: you can also snack on the raw cookie dough without hesitation!

Now you can start with the Christmas baking! If you're still lacking ideas, feel free to take a look around the Mizu app. Here you can find great recipe suggestions for dialysis and look up the nutritional values of individual foods once again.