Kidney Friendly Cooking Videos
Yes, along with dietitian Beverley Lau.
These videos have received over 3,000 YouTube views, are featured on the BC Renal website (Health Info -> Managing my Care -> Diet) and are also played through the Kidney Foundation of Canada. We play them in our clinic every week and receive many positive comments from patients and professionals.
Patients initially proposed cooking classes, which were very well received. However, due to multiple medical appointments attending a cooking class can be difficult for patients. This led to the idea of making cooking videos.
We received funding support from the Enhanced Patient Care Fund of the St. Paul's Hospital Foundation, which was paramount in getting this project off the ground. The highlight of developing this resource has been the positive feedback we receive from staff and patients. We have found that patients like the visual of seeing a recipe put together on screen in a quick way. I have heard from patients that they would watch cooking shows on TV and feel disappointed that the dish being made was likely not appropriate for their diet. We wanted to address this by making TV content that would look fun, simple and catered to our kidney patients – a cooking show that is made for them! From our knowledge, these are the first videos designed, filmed and produced by registered renal dietitians so although it was exciting and successful, we did run into different challenges and roadblocks. Each time we film however, we learn and find new and more efficient ways of developing these resources for our patients. We currently have a group of volunteers, nutrition students who help us with the content, recipe testing, recipe analysis and filming to make the process as smooth as possible.
We have more educational videos coming soon highlighting patient experiences and their go-to meals, so stay tuned!