Did cashews give me kidney stones?

Did cashews give me kidney stones? Let's talk about that. Welcome back to the Kidney Stone Diet podcast, the show about reducing your kidney stone risk and living your best life.

I'm your host and fellow student, Jeff Sarris.

And I'm Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse. Hi Jeff.

Hi. So cashews, they're nice and creamy, and soft, and tasty. I don't know, they've always been my favorite nut, if I had to choose from a list.

I don't know what it is about them. They're They're different than all the rest. What do we need to talk…

They're They're like buttery. Aren't they like a buttery kind of I now, if I had my druthers about me, I've always liked all kinds of seeds and nuts kind of thing I cuz again, they're crunchy. So, I like everything crunchy.

I mean, I like almonds, but I was never I'm not tripping that I'm not eating them. I have I have family history of stones. So, I do what I ask y'all to do, so I don't eat almonds, nor do I eat cashews.

Now, cashews are so delightful. They're just so Well, Jill, I mean, and they don't got salt, so you don't got to worry about that. But they are higher in oxalate.

So, an ounce of cashews is 64 mg of oxalate. So, some people have asked me, "Well, Jill, I'll have two. I'll I'll just have two." Knock yourself out, Frank, you want two cashews, you can.

You always say, "Jill, portion not perfection." So, you could have two cashews. You know, you could. But people don't.

Once you have two, you want 42. So, that's usually the problem. And if people were eating cashews, they totally overdid it.

Cashew milk, cashew butter, it is the creaminess of cashews that texture that people just love. But yeah, we do. I pretty much say almonds, cashews, spinach, those things and a few other things we do take away.

But I have had people challenge me even with almonds, and they'll say, "I'm just going to have two. I'm the kind of person that can." And I will say, "Knock your socks off." So, if you really want, just like I don't think I've ever heard her say this. But you know, I mean, there are people out there that if they don't have two almonds, they're going to take their eyeball out.

So, I'm like Most people are like, "Oh my god, I never want to go through that again. Whatever you tell me, I will do." And so they do take away almonds and cashews and, of course, spinach. But some people have said, specifically, because of what you just said, Jeff, "Jill, there is just something about cashews.

Can I have two?" And I'll say, "Well, listen, Pauline, if you're "Jill, I won't have more than two, I swear to God, just two a week, but I really need them." Okay. See, for me, two would lead to 20. And two's just it's not worth it.

You know what I mean? I would want That's not fun for me. But for Pauline, and this is why we always have to We have to, you know, do this depending on what the person is able and not able to do.

So, if someone said, "Listen, I'm going to have two cashews along with some other low oxalate nuts in my yogurt, that's what I'm having, Jill. And you're not going to stop me," and I'll say, "Okay." Because they know that they can control that. There are patients that can control that.

And I've had a couple patients, too, say, you know, "I'm not that afraid, Jill. The pain wasn't that bad. I'm going to have three almonds a week, and that's what I'm going to do." Okay.

You know, I mean, they're grown, so they can do what they want. But typically, I do say cashews, almonds, cuz for such a small amount, it's high in oxalate. And typically, people way overeat these things.

Smoothies with cashew butter, smoothies with cashew milk. That is a very common thing. And again, cashew milk is something that people really like if they weren't using almond milk, cuz it is a creamier texture.

So, yeah, we take away these things, and if you're the kind of person that's going to tell me, "I'm just going to have two and I'm going to put it in a calcium source," okay. I think the bigger thing always to remember with these videos that say how, you know, as far as how high are cashews, or can I have cashews, can I have almonds, the bigger part the bigger point here is getting enough calcium.

For men and women, 1,000 mg a day. If you no longer get your period, women up to 1,200 mg a day. You spread that calcium out throughout the day.

If you're using plant milks, you have those plant milks, not almond or cashew, but the other ones, oat, pea, flax, macadamia, those you can have with You have to shake those cartons up, and you have those things with meals. Do never just chug from those containers. The bigger part of the oxalate equation of the Kidney Stone Diet is to make sure you get your calcium needs met.

I'm going to explain it this way so you understand it better. Cuz a lot of people are like, you know, "They have 5 mg of oxalate for lunch and they're running for two cups of milk." Don't do that. I'm talking about higher oxalate foods like sweet potatoes.

That's where you might want to pair some calcium. The reason we want you to pair calcium is you just need it for good bone health, but also when you eat oxalate on its own If you ate a big spinach salad, which spinach is absolutely nothing You can't have spinach, folks. It's almost 700 mg a cup.

That's off the table. But just for an example, say you had say you had some spinach, you had no calcium with it, you eat the spinach, very high oxalate, oxalate gets comes out of the kidney into the urine, that gets goes through the goes from, sorry, it goes from the stomach, it goes to the small intestine. The small intestine there, that's where nutrients are absorbed.

It's going to pick up that excess oxalate, bring it back into the blood, and you'll get higher oxalate. If you had a higher oxalate food like sweet potatoes along with a calcium product like yogurt, like a glass of milk, like a plant milk, that calcium in that food along with the oxalate in the sweet potato, those two things go from the stomach into the small intestine.

Because oxalate will be bound with calcium at that point, that is too big of a molecule to be sucked up into the small intestine, so it goes through the digestive tract out the colon into the stool. Bye-bye in the poop, okay? That's how we get rid of excess oxalate.

That's why it's important to combine the calcium with the oxalate. There are going to be times, though. I've had people say, "Jill, I'm going out to eat.

If I have a little oxalate, what, should I bring milk?" No, you don't have to do that. You guys didn't make a kidney stone because you had one high oxalate meal. You had many for months, years, and had no calcium.

That's how you got high oxalate, unless you have a medical condition like Crohn's, colitis, gastric bypass, malabsorption issues. That can also increase your oxalate. But for the general kidney stone former that I see every day, they ate too much oxalate without getting any calcium, and that's the deal.

So, cashews, like I said, if you're the two out of a million people that could just have two or need to have the two, you know, even an almond, I'll give it to you. I mean, yeah, have two and get on your way, get your calcium needs met. But I can see my group experts on the Facebook page, "Is she kidding me?

Now she's saying they can have two?" I would take them away. I don't eat cashews and I don't eat almonds. I have kidney stones in my family.

I'm not even messing with two simply because I would want 15 more, so or 30 more, so I just get rid of them. It's only a handful of foods we take away. I think most of you can cope with that.

That's that's all I got to say about it.

So we need to mark this note, episode 286, and you said you can eat almonds.

Yeah, for really. I mean, cuz I'm going to catch hell for that, but I always have people that say, "Oh, come on, Jill. I just want two." Okay, have two.

Have two, Pam, what can I tell you? You know.

Yeah, yeah. And, yeah, if you want to find out more about Kidney Stone Diet, how to prevent stones with all the kidney stone prevention goals, go to kidneystonediet.com. If you'd like the free weekly email newsletter from Jill that keeps you on track every weekend, she will send you an email just to keep you keep you rolling along and make sure this year is the year you prevent kidney stones.

You can find that also at kidneystonediet.com. So, I think with that, it's a good spot to wrap, and we'll see you next week.

Bye, everybody!