It's very disconcerting to have this dog stare at me so intensely all day long, but I love him so much. I do. I love you.
He's like, "Are you still talking about oxalates and 7:00 a.m. This morning? Come on." Okay, almonds.
Almonds is one of the foods we take away. Almonds, spinach, cashews, we take them away. Specifically, almonds.
The paleo world, the low-carb world really love almond everything. And so, dietitians, no shade cuz we need our dietitians, God knows, but dietitians will always tell patients for diabetes, "Eat almonds. Almonds and spinach." "My dietitian, Jill, told me to eat almonds.
Just eat them." Keep my blood sugar steady, that's a great snack for me. It is a great snack! And it's not that the dietitian was wrong.
It's just what we say to patients as healthcare professionals, you know, you got to be really specific because when somebody says eat almonds, it's healthy for you, well, they're getting the bag, they're sitting down, they're putting on their show, and they're eating almonds. That's what they're doing. So, too many.
Then, there's a for the low-carb community, almond bread, almond milk, almond everything, almond bath I know. We got a new breed of dog called the almond doodle. I mean, you know, it's just almonds all over the place.
So, people tend to overdo it. Typically, when a food is touted as something that's healthy, we human beings just get just overeat it or overdrink it. That's what we do because think the thinking is, "If I have more of that, that's even healthier for me." And that's what's so annoying about kidney stones.
Often, I hear, "Well, Jill, what the heck? I was eating a healthy diet. I ate spinach.
I became a diabetic. I took away sugar. I changed my whole life and now you're telling me that caused kidney stones?" You didn't know what you didn't know, Joe, right?
So, but the problem is it is very frustrating for patients when they're trying to help themselves with one disease, yet they cause another. And how would the dietitian know? How would the patient know what's going on here, right?
And so, too many almonds You know, 1 ounce of almonds is 72 mg of oxalate. We take them away because most people are overeating them. So, we take away everything almond and we take away spinach.
And it's and also, let's not forget almond butter! Oh, people eat the heck out of some almond butter! So, between almond bread, almond butter, almond flour, almond milk, and just sitting around with the bag of almonds, people really overdid it and their oxalate's high.
I once saw a urine collection. The patient got the urine collection. They did not get any information when they had their stone removed about how to prevent kidney stones.
There's many urologists that their job is to take away the stones. They ain't talking to you about low salt and stuff. So, one of the reasons you keep making them is because no one's giving you preventative advice.
And so, I have seen patients We want urine oxalate to be under 30 on your 24-hour urine collection. And people will say on my on the Facebook group, Kidney Stone Diet Facebook group, they'll say, "Oh, Jill doesn't need to look at my urine collection. The doctor said everything's fine." But that's because the oxalate reference range said that oxalate at 45 is totally fine when it's not.
That's really high in the urine. We want it under 30. So, a lot of you were told that your urine collections are just fine.
If they were, I'm going to ask you, "Well, well, they can't be cuz you're telling me you got a new stone." So, something's a miss, right? So, the reference ranges on a lot of the lab values for 24-hour urine collections are much too generous. Some of them say that, you know, it's okay for you to eat 5,000 mg of sodium.
We all know, no! So, the oxalate should be under 30 in your 24-hour urine collection. And so, it's I have worked with people that when I first see them, their oxalate level is 125.
A- Actually, Dr. Coe has a case study on that one. I talked to her for 1 hour.
We went over her urine collection. We changed her diet, and the follow-up test two months later, her oxalate was I think 28. So, you are not just a stone former.
You must learn how to change your diet. This YouTube channel is a great way to begin your journey, along with kidneystonediet.com, the website. Jeff has an oxalate food list there that can show you the highest oxalate foods.
On the website, we have one little infographic that will show you a very short list of the highest foods, so it makes it easier for you. But I want you to remember, almonds are a no in the Kidney Stone Diet, just as spinach is. And, getting your calcium needs met is a way to start lowering your oxalate and, again, you don't want bone disease, osteoporosis, going forward, so you should be doing that anyway, but most women are not until they have bone disease, or Excuse you!
Or Finn is Anyone who's listening, Finn is jumping right in front of the camera, which is kind of funny. Yeah, well, he's a ham like his mama.. So, the point is go to kidneystonediet.com, look at the oxalate food list.
You're going to see that almonds are really high and you're going to have to get them out of your diet, but the good news is there's plenty of nuts you can still have. You take away almond, spinach. You can have I eat I eat every day a little mix of nuts.
I put them in my yogurt cuz I like crunch. I use pecans. I use walnut.
I use pistachios. I use sunflower seeds. I'll use flaxseeds, all in little portions.
So, it's a total of 2 tablespoons, but, again, portion, not perfection, because I'm getting all different varieties. Sunflower seeds are so low, it takes up some space in the 2 tablespoons, so the pecans and walnuts that are a little higher, they don't take up a lot of room. Portion, not perfection!
So, you can still enjoy nuts, you just can't be eating almond products anymore, especially the way you were. That's it, Jeff.
