For many Americans, Thanksgiving means family gatherings,
fabulous food, and leftover turkey and fixings that can last for days
after the big feast. Yet holiday meals can be difficult for the nearly
400,000 Americans with kidney failure who depend on dialysis
– a life-sustaining filtration process that removes waste products and
extra fluids from their blood. Dialysis patients need to limit their
intake of salt, saturated fats, potassium and phosphorus, and that makes
many favorite holiday dishes, including sweets and salty snacks, off
limits to them.
Food Network Chef Aaron McCargo, Jr. and Fresenius Medical Care dietitians offer holiday leftover tips and recipes for dialysis patients and their families, including this delicious Turkey Salad Wrap. (Photo: Business Wire)
To help dialysis patients enjoy the holiday while staying within their
dietary guidelines, Fresenius
Medical Care North America (FMCNA), the nation’s leading network of dialysis
facilities, has teamed up with celebrity Chef Aaron McCargo, Jr., to
develop a new recipe for using leftover turkey (see below). In addition,
McCargo, and FMCNA’s dietitians have put together a list of tips to help
dialysis patients make the best use of post-holiday leftovers.
Chef McCargo, star of Food Network’s “Big Daddy’s House,” has developed
a new “Turkey
Salad Wrap” recipe in collaboration with FMCNA dietitians that
offers a dialysis-friendly way to use leftover holiday turkey. This easy
to prepare recipe combines diced turkey, celery, onions and sweet
gherkin pickles with a light mayonnaise and sour cream sauce and
seasonings. It contains no trans fats and just 341 calories per wrap,
and is available on FMCNA’s website at www.ultracare-dialysis.com.
“Dialysis patients need to avoid some of the traditional holiday foods
such as sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, ham, sausage, eggnog, chocolate and
nuts – not just on the holiday itself, but also when deciding what
leftovers to eat,” said Robin Russell, lead dietitian for FMCNA’s North
Texas region, who has collaborated with the chef on several recipes.
To help dialysis patients enjoy a healthy diet, both during and after
the Thanksgiving holiday, FMCNA offers the following tips that the whole
family can embrace:
Holiday Leftover Secrets Revealed
• New uses for old bread: Save old rolls or dessert pastries to
make bread
pudding.
• Quick-fix breakfast: Make a tasty breakfast in a flash by
stuffing leftover croissants or rolls with roast chicken or turkey and
smoked mozzarella. Add eggs for extra protein.
• Terrific turkey sandwich: Create a delicious sandwich with
leftover turkey, cranberry spread and cream cheese, which is low in
sodium and phosphorus.
• Recycled stuffing: Combine leftover bread stuffing with roast
chicken or turkey, and stir in an egg to bind the mixture together. Mold
into patties and bake or pan fry. Serve on toasted rolls with lettuce,
roasted peppers and tarragon mayo.
• Unconventional Cobb: Spruce up an ordinary chopped-lettuce Cobb
salad with leftover turkey, string beans, deviled eggs and stuffing,
instead of croutons or nuts.
• Freezable flavoring: For extra flavor without the salt, boil
turkey or chicken bones, strain, and use the remaining broth to cook
pasta or rice. Freeze extra broth in ice cube trays, and add a few
savory cubes to liven up later meals.
• Bagging and freezing: Try freezing individual servings for
quick lunches or dinners. Let leftovers cool to room temperature before
bagging to avoid bacteria buildup or spoilage. Also, be sure to use the
correct bags (labeled “freezer bags”) for freezer storage.
For a complete list of Chef McCargo’s dialysis-friendly recipes, as well
as fitness tips, videos and other information about staying active and
maintaining a healthy diet on dialysis, visit FMCNA’s Healthy
Lifestyles website. To find a dialysis facility near you, call toll
free at 1-866-4DIALYSIS (1-866-434-2597).
About Fresenius Medical Care North America
Through our
leading network of more than 2,150 dialysis facilities in North America
and our vascular access centers, laboratory, pharmacy and affiliated
hospitals and nephrology practices, Fresenius Medical Care provides
renal services to hundreds of thousands of people throughout the United
States, Mexico and Canada. We are also the continent’s top producer of
dialysis equipment, dialyzers and related disposable products and a
major supplier of renal pharmaceuticals.
For more information about the company, visit www.fmcna.com;
for information about patient services, visit www.ultracare-dialysis.com.
About Chef Aaron McCargo, Jr.
Chef Aaron McCargo, Jr.
competed on and won season four of “The Next Food Network Star” in 2008,
beating out thousands of culinary hopefuls for the ultimate dream job –
his own Food Network show. “Big Daddy’s House” premiered in 2008 and
continues to be a success. On “Big Daddy’s House,” Aaron shares his
passion for big, bold flavors and fun, family cooking, bringing a
down-to-earth vibe and warm smile to the kitchen. He recently published
his first cookbook, “Simply Done, Well Done.” Whether cooking with his
children, relatives, friends, or even by himself, big food and big fun
reign supreme. In 2011, FMCNA approached Aaron to partner together to
encourage dialysis patients to get back in the kitchen by offering
dishes with big, bold flavors that they can enjoy, while still adhering
to the restrictions of their dialysis diets.
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