Candy For Kidney Disease? What Candy to Eat and Avoid With Kidney Disease | Sugar & Stevia CKD

This video is about candy for kidney disease. With halloween coming upon us, let’s talk about candy including what’s good for kidney disease, and what you should avoid.

Traditional candy like Jolly Ranchers, Snickers, and Kit-Kats are all things that you’ll find in the candy section in the supermarket. Now you’re gonna see on some people’s list that they have candies which are okay for kidney disease. Unfortunately all traditional candy is bad for kidney disease. Even if it is a low potassium or a low phosphorus treat candy it’s still going to have sugar and artificial flavors.

If you’re a diabetic you definitely should be watching your levels of sugar intake because it’s going to drastically affect your blood sugar which generally affects your kidneys. Even if it doesn’t have sugar, candies have artificial flavors which have known over time to cause damage to the body.

If you do want candy the best thing to do is limit it. It is okay to have it in small amounts and not often. Have it like a treat; once a week or something along those lines. Let’s say you want something sweet you can always try a baked apple with cinnamon. That’s always an option that helps a lot of sweet cravings. Similarly, you could always try fruit by itself which has the natural fructose sweetness to it which is different than the sugar that they add to candies and junk food. Glucose that comes from fruit is a healthier, better sugar. 

Also you can do a high cocoa content dark chocolate. We like 60 or higher. When you’re doing that you only want to have about two squares which is usually about one line of the chocolate bar. If you have that amount you’re not going to get too much phosphorous or potassium, so it’s going to be acceptable it’s not going to affect your kidney in a negative way. In fact, a small amount of chocolate has some kidney benefits.

Meanwhile, there is a natural sweetener classified as a food called stevia. Stevia has been out for a long time and actually has a lot of studies with kidney disease showing it’s beneficial as well as good for people that are diabetics who have diabetic kidney disease. Stevia has zero calories, so you don’t have to worry about gaining weight. Some people might not like the aftertaste but a lot of people take it and find it’s completely like sugar and they don’t notice a big difference. If you do get bothered by a little bit of aftertaste, you can always use a little bit of sugar (a pinch) to take away the aftertaste.

Now with stevia you can make your own candies as you would sugar but instead add stevia as the sweetener. If you make your own jello, you could use stevia which is going to provide that sweetness. Now there are some stevia brands out there of candies that are already available and do not have to be made. These include Stevia Sweets, Smart Sweets, and Stevita. These are brands that are commercially available. You may find them at your supermarket but you are most likely going to find them online.