Is bread safe to eat with kidney stones?

In this conversation, Jeff Sarris and Jill Harris discuss the relationship between diet, specifically bread consumption, and kidney stones. They explore common concerns about oxalate levels in bread, the importance of sodium intake, and how to enjoy bread while managing kidney stone risk. Jill emphasizes the significance of portion control and encourages listeners to focus on nutritional balance rather than eliminating foods entirely.

Takeaways

• Bread can be enjoyed even with kidney stones.
• Sodium content in bread is more concerning than oxalate.
• Portion control is key when consuming bread.
• Look for added sugars and sodium in bread labels.
• You can have a sandwich as long as you manage sodium intake.
• Eating well should leave you feeling full and satisfied.
• Different diets can still prevent kidney stones if managed properly.
• Homemade bread can be a healthier option.
• Focus on protein and fiber in your meals.
• Meal plans can help guide dietary choices for kidney stone prevention.

00:00 The Bread Dilemma: Is It Safe for Kidney Stones?
08:38 Navigating Sodium and Sugar in Bread Choices

Jeff Sarris (00:00)
Is bread safe to eat with kidney stones? Let’s talk about that.

So bread, bread, bread. It is tasty. It is comfort. There is so much that bread can do, whether it’s gluten-y, whether it’s gluten-free, like I’ve been gluten-free for a long time, but there’s still great breads that I can eat that I’m just like, ooh, so good. But we’re talking kidney stones. Yeah, and we’re talking kidney stones. What are we talking about here? Is bread safe?

Jill Harris (00:07)
My gosh, yeah. There’s nothing better than bread.

Jeff Sarris (00:31)
What are we looking at when we have kidney stones?

Jill Harris (00:34)
You know, on the Facebook page, the Kidney Stone Diet, there’s thousands and thousands of people over there. And you know, there’s me and there’s four group experts because it takes a lot of moderating that page. There’s questions all day long. And one of the most common ones, every day is can I eat bread? Can I eat bread? Can I eat bread? Is bread safe? And in the meal plan that we have at Kidney Stone Diet, I got a lot of bread recipes.

And if I am eating bread, I want some protein in there. Because to me, look, bread is delicious. Who doesn’t want to roll around naked in a loaf of bread? It’s just wonderful. It’s just wonderful. It’s wonderful. But I really do eat. My mother used to always say, you’re the only person in this family that lives to eat instead of eats to live. Or the opposite. I always mess that up. Eats to live. No, I, whatever I do. I’m not doing it for fun, I’m doing it for the nutrition. Shut up everybody, sometimes I screw up. Anyway.

I eat to live and I do. So if I’m having bread, first of all, bread is like $25 at the grocery store now. No, thank you. Dave’s killer bread is like freaking $8 a loaf. I’m like, it’s so much money and high salt. So the problem with bread is forget about what I do in the meal plan. Forget about what I eat. Let’s just talk about bread. Bread. People worry about the oxalate, but guys, you know, people will say, well, wheat flour, Jill has so much oxalate in it. But there ain’t a cup of wheat flour in that slice of bread. Portion, not perfection. So remember when you’re looking at the Harvard list, and if we pull up the Harvard list, which I’m going to right now at kidneystonediet.com, and we put in whole wheat flour, it comes right up. Whole wheat flour, well, let’s just go with bread. Whole wheat bread, one slice, 13 milligrams of oxalate.

Alright 13 milligrams of oxalate. You may say oh my god that’s high. You get 100 milligrams a day if you want have an open-faced sandwich. Well can I have a whole sandwich? Yeah 13 times 2. 26. Okay you can do that but you got 26. If you got a budget of 100 bucks in your bank of oxalate and you have a sandwich, you got to minus 26 bucks out of your bank. You’re not overdrawn yet. God bless. Have the sandwich. You’re going to have it. Sure. Somebody may say, well, I have an open face because that’s not where I want to waste oxalate. But a lot of you will say, hell yeah, I’m having that sandwich because it’s easy to take to lunch. I’m not worried about the oxalate there. Have it with a glass of milk or a plant milk that has calcium. What I care about is the salt.

Some of those slices of bread have 200, 250 milligrams of sodium. So what I want you to look at if you’re buying bread, look at the sodium. There’s also added sugar in bread. And especially you gluten-free folks, lots of times the sodium will be very high in breads because now there’s no gluten in it. And so they took what gluten brings to a bread or a pastry or any carb like that, is it brings its glue, makes it chewy. It’s a good mouth feel. Now they take that out. So basically you’re eating cardboard. So meaning they don’t want you to think, oh God, this is cardboard. So they put more salt. They’ll put some added sugar in there to make your taste buds get extra stuff. So what I’m more worried about is how much sodium you’re spending from your sodium bank in bread, not oxalate. Okay?

And again, a lot of breads will have added sugar. But because of keto and paleo, a lot of people know to look for added sugar in their food, period. But they don’t pay attention to sodium. And that’s why, and do whatever lifestyle works for you. You can do any lifestyle you want on the kidney stone diet as long as you fit into our goals. But pay attention to sodium. A lot of carnivore people, a lot of paleo people are eating so much sodium and they’re not looking at the label for sodium. They’re looking at carbs and they’re looking at sugar. And if you don’t have high blood pressure, what do you give a damn about sodium until you get a kidney stone and you have high urine calcium and you do a urine collection and you see you’re eating 6,000 milligrams of sodium a day. And that’s one of the reasons you have high urine calcium, which is a huge stone risk factor.

So when you’re looking for bread, what I would like you to do, turn it around Buster Brown. Look at the label. Don’t worry about oxalate. The most oxalate is going to be in a piece of bread is 15 milligrams of oxalate. Okay. Now, if you’re getting something with, well, let me finish this, me and my ADHD, turn it around, bust a brand, look at the label. Look at how much sugar and salt is in the product. You may say, you know what, Jill, I love this bread so much, it’s worth it. I’ll just minus the sodium and sugar from my goals of the kidney stone diet. And as long as I’m not over, that’s the point about having goals too. You may say, I love this food so much that I’m willing to take a portion out of my budget and spend it on that. That’s the best thing about our way of eating. You do you. I’m not going to tell you you can’t have bread that’s higher in sodium. If you don’t go over your salt limit, please do because this will work. This way of eating will work for people long term because of what I just said.

When you continually take foods away, look, it’s early January, everybody’s eating air right now. I want to lose 20 pounds by March, Jill. I’m gonna eat just air and lettuce, that’s it, for months. You’ll lose weight and you’ll gain it right back plus five pounds in April because you can’t sustain yourself. So whatever you do now, whatever lifestyle you do, you can still prevent kidney stones as long as you fit into our goal. Well, Jill, I want to do Mediterranean. I want to do paleo. Folks, I do low carb. But I pay attention to sodium because low carb goods typically have a lot of sodium in it. So I pay attention to that. And so you could do low carb. I do low carb. That works for me and my bowel issues. Works great for me. Plus, it’s one of the easiest ways to gain weight, too many carbs, right? So I’m just a believer in a lower carb diet. I always have protein on my plate, always have fiber on my plate. If I have carbs, half a cup or less. And I’m always full. I’m like, geez, I gotta eat again? Because I’m full. And I know some of you are like, too bad, so sad, you don’t wanna eat again. But you should all feel that way. If you’re eating well, you should feel full when you’re done with one plate.

There’s nobody here. If you’re going back for two plates, it’s because you’re not getting good things on your plate. Fiber, protein. Fiber half your plate. That’s salad, vegetables. There are carbs that have nice fiber and protein like quinoa. Okay? But what are we talking about, Jeff?

Jeff Sarris (08:04)
Yeah, so you’re saying you want a plate full of bread, just bread, right?

Jill Harris (08:09)
Bread, bread, bread, yeah. So bread, please folks, please enjoy bread. Don’t worry about the oxalate. Don’t be having no loaf. Pay attention more to the sodium. But absolutely, you can absolutely have bread. My meal plan, I’m always baking my own bread. So it’s low net carbs because I’m stuffing it with fiber and protein. So I do eat bread. I eat it in normal quantities. I’ve just made a beautiful bread. I just put it in the meal plan. It’s not there yet, but it’s coming.

And I made it with Greek yogurt and my oat bran flour. Simple as that. A little bit of baking soda. And so that will have little bit of sodium in it because I needed to leaven it, rise it up. But it’s again, portion not perfection. I’m not having half a loaf. So it can easily fit into my diet. Have a couple slices, freeze the rest, have it when I want it. That loaf will last me for, you know, a month. So what I’m saying folks, bread, people are like, Jill, we have no idea anymore what you’re saying. I don’t either most of the time, folks. Jeff’s like, God, please shut up. Bread, have it. Pay attention to the sodium and added sugar. Oxalate, don’t worry about it. Don’t eat half a loaf. Have a sandwich, move on. The world would not be a good place if we didn’t have options to have a sandwich once in a while.

Jeff Sarris (09:25)
Yeah, I think that’s a perfect place to wrap. If you’re ready to dive a little deeper, Jill sends a weekly email to keep you on track. You can find that at kidneystonediet.com. It’s absolutely free. Or if you want the meal plans, the meal plans are the most robust offering that we have at Kidney Stone Diet. You get meal plans, you get the prevention course thrown in, which is the flagship course that Jill has had for many years now to help people understand how to prevent stones. You get free group coaching with Jill. You get discounts on the private calls, private consultations directly with Jill one-on-one. Everything that you can find is at kidneystonediet.com within the meal plans. So yeah.

Jill Harris (10:02)
Jeff, there’s no better deal on that. There’s no better deal on the internet than that. We have given everything away for $48 a month, cancel it any time. You tell me, it’s hundreds of dollars of stuff. I’m very proud of our service, I’m very proud of it.

Jeff Sarris (10:14)
Yeah, we just want it to be for sure. We want it to be as valuable as it possibly can be because the goal is to prevent stones. So everything that we do here, everything we do there is to help you prevent future stones. So whenever you’re ready, kidneystonediet.com, pop your email in and hear from Jill once a week for free or dive deeper. It’s up to you. Thanks again for tuning in and we’ll see you next week.

Jill Harris (10:23)
Yes. Yes. Yes. Bye everybody.