Draft: not yet reviewed by a clinician
Use this page to prepare questions for your care team. It does not replace their advice. Your own targets and doses come from your nephrologist, diabetes team and renal dietitian.
Cinnamon apple Cream of Wheat¶
Cream of Wheat is one of the lowest-potassium and lowest-phosphorus hot cereals: a cup has about 40 mg potassium, against about 164 mg in a cup of oatmeal. Diced apple and cinnamon give it sweetness and a little fiber without the potassium of a banana.
Serves 2 · 10 minutes · Lower potassium · Lower phosphorus · Vegetarian
Carbohydrate per serving
38 g carbohydrate (about 2½ carb choices of 15 g). For a breakfast of about 55 g, add a slice of white toast with unsalted butter (about 14 g). Your own amount comes from your diabetes team.
Per serving¶
| Energy | Carb | Protein | Potassium | Phosphorus | Sodium | Fluid | Fiber |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 222 kcal | 38 g | 3.8 g | 103 mg | 45 mg | 18 mg | none | 3.1 g |
Checked by scripts/build_handbook.py: sodium at most 600 mg per serving; "lower potassium" means at most 600 mg and "lower phosphorus" at most 300 mg per serving. See how recipes are checked.
Ingredients that are not in the app's food list (herbs, spices and a few others) add about 6 mg potassium per serving; they are counted above.
Ingredients¶
| Ingredient | Amount | Grams |
|---|---|---|
| Cream of wheat, cooked | 2 cups cooked Cream of Wheat, made with water and no salt (about ⅓ cup dry) | 502 g |
| Apple, raw, with skin | ½ medium apple, cored and diced small | 91 g |
| Butter, unsalted | 1 tbsp unsalted butter | 14 g |
| Sugar, brown | 2 tsp packed brown sugar | 9.2 g |
| Cinnamon, ground | 1 tsp ground cinnamon | 2.6 g |
| Vanilla extract | ¼ tsp vanilla extract (optional) | 1.0 g |
Steps¶
- Melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add the apple and cinnamon and cook for 3–4 minutes, stirring, until the apple is soft.
- Cook the Cream of Wheat in water as the package says, but leave out the salt.
- Stir in the vanilla, then spoon the apples on top and sprinkle with the brown sugar.
Why it works for kidneys¶
- Cooking with water instead of milk saves about 170 mg potassium and 110 mg phosphorus per half cup of milk you would have used.
- Leaving out the salt the package suggests keeps sodium under 20 mg a bowl.
Make it fit you¶
- More protein: add 2 scrambled egg whites on the side (about 7 g protein and 10 mg phosphorus).
- Other fruit: ½ cup of blueberries or canned pears (drained) instead of the apple; check the carbohydrate.
- Less carbohydrate: use half the brown sugar, or a sweetener such as sucralose.
Log it in the app¶
Log one serving as these foods from the app's food list (grams per serving), or save them once as a meal (Planning and menus):
- Cream of wheat, cooked: 251 g
- Apple, raw, with skin: 46 g
- Butter, unsalted: 7.1 g
- Sugar, brown: 4.6 g
Sources¶
- USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy): every ingredient value, through the app's food list and the SR Legacy records listed in
handbook/data/recipes.yml. - Satellite Healthcare: food labels: under 600 mg of sodium per meal; AKF Kidney Kitchen: potassium per meal: 600–700 mg of potassium per meal on a low-potassium diet. The recipes use 600 mg for both as a review line.
- NKF: potassium and your CKD diet: 200 mg or more of potassium in a serving is high; AKF phosphorus food guide: 100 mg or less of phosphorus is low.
- FDA claim definitions: "low sodium" means 140 mg or less per serving.
Not yet reviewed by a clinician. Facts and sources last checked 2026-10-06.