American Kidney Fund Launches Kidney Kitchen Pro™ to Expand Patient Nutrition Resources for Renal Professionals Also Unveils New Provider-Focused Resources on Secondary Hyperparathyroidsm
Rockville, MD.
|
August 03, 2021 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
The American Kidney Fund (AKF) today launched Kidney Kitchen Pro™, a comprehensive online resource that will provide renal dietitians, other allied health professionals and clinicians support in helping patients successfully navigate the challenges of kidney-friendly eating and nutrition.
Kidney Kitchen Pro provides customizable resources, such as meal plans and toolkits, to help people living with kidney disease better manage their health through what they eat and drink. The Kidney Kitchen Pro meal planning tool makes it easy to collect and share a week-long meal plan featuring recipes from AKF’s popular Kidney Kitchen® website, along with other kidney-friendly foods.
Additionally, AKF today unveiled new education resources on secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT), which occurs when a pre-existing disease like chronic kidney disease (CKD) causes low blood calcium. The new SHPT downloadable guide helps professionals have supportive conversations with patients about what SHPT does to the body and ways to prevent the condition through diet and medication.
Both Kidney Kitchen Pro and the SHPT resources have been developed by AKF with generous financial support from Amgen Inc.
Damage to the kidneys’ filters caused by kidney disease prevents the kidneys from adequately removing waste, excess minerals and extra fluid from the blood. A kidney-friendly diet is critical to help patients manage their disease, although, there is no standard kidney dietary recommendation to follow as everyone’s nutritional needs are different and based on individual lab results. For example, when a CKD patient is also managing SHPT, they and their care team need to manage levels of calcium, vitamin D and phosphorus that are not in balance.
“Following a renal-friendly diet is a perpetual challenge for people with kidney disease and kidney failure,” said LaVarne A. Burton, AKF President and CEO. “Our goal in developing Kidney Kitchen Pro and the SHPT resources was to provide much-needed comprehensive, standardized and user-friendly content for renal dietitians and other professionals to use with their patients. We are grateful to Amgen for their support of our effort to develop nutritional resources that will help patients and providers work together to develop and customize meal plans based on eating habits, preferences and the personal dietary restrictions they have.”
AKF built Kidney Kitchen Pro with strategic guidance from the American Kidney Fund Dietitian Advisory Group, a diverse collaborative of 10 expert renal dietitians that guided the development and execution of the content, tools and resources:
- Melanie Betz, MS, RD, CSR, CSG
- Antonio D. Cain, MBA, RDN, LDN
- Maura Chesney, RD, LDN
- Carolyn Feibig, MS, RD, LD, CCTD
- Janelle Gonyea, RDN, LD, FNKF
- Beth Guthrie, MS, RDN, LD
- Amanda Oakley-Lane, MS, RD, LDN
- María Eugenia Rodríguez-León, MS, RD, CSR, LND
- Aisling Whelan, MS, RDN, CDN
- Kathy Wong, BS, RD, RDN
“Kidney disease and related conditions like secondary hyperparathyroidism can lead to significant clinical consequences, making it vital for patients to have the proper intake of foods and nutrients,” said Ned Endler, Executive Director at Amgen Inc. “Amgen is honored to support the American Kidney Fund on this initiative to improve kidney patients’ health outcomes and ultimately enhance their lives.”
###
About the American Kidney Fund
The American Kidney Fund (AKF) fights kidney disease on all fronts as the nation’s leading kidney nonprofit. AKF works on behalf of the 37 million Americans living with kidney disease, and the millions more at risk, with an unmatched scope of programs that support people wherever they are in their fight against kidney disease—from prevention through transplant. With programs that address early detection, disease management, financial assistance, clinical research, innovation and advocacy, no kidney organization impacts more lives than AKF. AKF is one of the nation’s top-rated nonprofits, investing 97 cents of every donated dollar in programs, and holds the highest 4-Star rating from Charity Navigator and the Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar.
For more information, please visit KidneyFund.org, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Contact Details
Stefanie Tuck
+1 202-470-1797
+1 978-390-1394
Company Website
