Low Oxalate Meals

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.

And we are back at it.

Oh, we're back at it. You know, I've taken I took Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, so we're doing Thanksgiving. This is Thanksgiving weekend break, so I've had some Which, of course, just means, you know, I've been on the Facebook group, I'm doing stuff behind the scenes, obviously, but, you know, not taking client calls and stuff, and not doing active phone calls.

So, it's been a nice little break. But I feel kind of lost in the world not screaming about kidney stone stuff. I mean, I need the break, people.

Don't get me wrong. But I always miss everybody, too, when I take a break. I have to be honest, even after all these years.

Oh, yeah, definitely.

I'm addicted to the kidney stone patients. Pretty much addicted.

Well, yeah, it's the connection with people. You know, that's the big thing in the end.

It really is. It's the connection with people. It's also interesting, too, because, you know, I live in a very busy part of the city.

And, you know, so many people left the state to go back home for Thanksgiving. So, you know, there's no people walking the dogs or anything. So, yeah, I'm like a connection creature.

So, for me, it's been kind of like, although I've enjoyed my time, you know, it's been it's been interesting for me, you know? So, there's that. Did you have a nice holiday, Jeff?

Oh, yeah, it was good. Yeah, goes by quick, you know, but yeah, a little time off. It's funny, too, because the same thing, I'm always building and doing and working on the things that we're doing.

So, yeah, it's weird to have a little break because then my mind is just like, "Oh, but I want to get back to this," or "I want to finish this," or "I want to push forward on this." So, yeah, it's hard to get away and really disconnect because it's so interwo- interwoven into like who I am, who you are, and everything.

Yeah, people are always like, "Oh, you're so lucky you work on your, you know, by yourself, for yourself," or whatever. It's like, yeah, we do, but when you do, you're working typically seven days a week. I mean, you can take a Monday off if you like, but you're going to be working then Sunday.

You know what I mean?

Well, and it's Sunday right now.

Exactly, it's Sunday right now and we're working. So, you know, it's just interesting. I know you feel the same way, too.

We're just so grateful we love what we do because, you know, honestly, when you love what you do, you never feel like you're working. So, it's pretty amazing to have this life that we have, Jeff.

Yeah, definitely. Well, yeah, so with that, should we dive right into this week's question?

Yeah. Let's go, baby.

My name is Joyce McNeer, and I'm just trying to find out some information about low oxalate meals that I can eat to prevent kidney stones. Oh, and I live in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Fayetteville.

All righty.

Yeah, so there's a little more–

Is that it?

Yeah, that's the whole one. There was a little more silence at the end, but we'll just pause it right there. Okay.

Joyce from Fayetteville, North Carolina. That was the most adorable voice I've ever heard, quite frankly. So, wasn't it?

Yeah.

So, low oxalate meals. Well, big question, right? So, we definitely have an answer to that.

We have a low oxalate meal plan, and you can find that at kidneystonediet.com under Meal Plan. And so, it's a subscription service, $19 a month, very cheap. Cancel it at any time.

And you'll get every Sunday, you get seven days worth of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack recipes sent to your email. And so, it will give you recipes that you can make for the week. Maybe you just want to make one thing, doesn't matter.

However you choose to do it, but you have all those options each week, and every Sunday you'll get a new meal plan sent to you. And all the all the food has been figured out: the salt, the added sugar, the calcium, the oxalate.

So, listen, so we have that meal plan service because people have been asking me forever to do that, and there we go. There it is. So, you're going to love it.

The meals are delicious. You're going to see how much you can really eat because everybody thinks they have to give up everything. Not true.

There's beans on there. There's chocolate in some snacks. Again, it's always going to be portion, not perfection.

We take away almond products and spinach, and everything else is back on your table as long as you're able to eat it within portion size. Now, if you're like me, and you like for me, I can't have Cheez-Its in my house, because I'll eat the whole box in one sitting. I will.

Doesn't come in my house. So, you may say, "She just said, 'Henry, I can have chocolate.' What the hell is she talking about? It's high oxalate." It is, but if you have a square or two after dinner, nobody's making a stone with that.

You get your calcium made every- had every day, you're fine. It's when we let things in our house, like chocolate, that you're like, "You know, if I have a couple squares, Jill, I'm having the whole bar." Not for you then. Chocolate has to leave the house.

But the meal plans, so that's there at kidneystonediet.com/mealplan. You'll find it. Jeff will put the link up or do something.

Pairing Calcium With Oxalate in Daily Meals

But, Joyce, in general, make what you want to make. You have the Harvard list. That's the Harvard Oxalate List.

Again, if you go to kidneystonediet.com, the Start page, you're going to see the most important resources that I want you to look at when you first start, okay? So, you have everything in a row, so you know the most important stuff. But a low oxalate meal plan is just looking at the Harvard list and making foods that you want.

You want pasta? Have some. Is it higher in oxalate?

A little bit. So, don't have five cups of it like most people do. Have a normal portion size.

Tomato sauce has high oxalate, Jill. Don't drench it in tomato sauce, and that's a perfect place to put a non-dairy or dairy source of calcium, right? So, when you pair oxalate and calcium together, that's how oxalate you can rid yourself of it, okay?

So, you don't Let me Let me see if I can put this. The meal plan is on the website, so you can start your journey doing that. Maybe you just get a month or two so you get a feel for things, get your favorite recipes, have them on rotation.

You'll be set. And that meal plan service that we offer is going to teach you, "Hey, I can eat a lot of stuff. She has all kinds of things in here." So, again, when you notice the serving sizes I'm giving you, you're going to be like, "Wow, it's pretty amazing." Once you get a feel for the meal plan, cancel it and then start making your own.

Yeah, she's a shitty business person. She just said cancel it. But cancel it!

It's a great teaching tool, so you can get your feet wet on what we're talking about. What is a low oxalate meal plan? How do I do this?

Oh, my gosh, I can have so much more than I thought of. When you buy the meal plan, too, it comes with education with each recipe. Ain't nobody doing that in the world.

And so, it will teach you why I used the things I did, substitutions if you're a vegan or vegetarian, lactose-free, all kinds of stuff. So, there's a lot of work put in that meal plan.

But, Joyce, when you're just starting, I would suggest joining that for $19. Get a feel for things. Then, you can go on your own.

So, you can eat higher oxalate foods. Now, remember, but you have to also get your calcium every day, and you can't eat as much as you want of those foods. Most people got kidney stones because they overate spinach and almond products without getting any calcium into their diet, and that left them with too much oxalate.

Also not enough fluids, also too much sugar and salt. So, all of those things are a great way to make kidney stones. So, what else, Jeff?

You can tell I've been on vacation. I'm even floundering myself, and I know this stuff like the back of my hand.

No, it's perfect. I was just going to throw the meal plan up on the website on the screen right now, just so you can see what we're looking at here. So, yeah, with the meal plan–

And look, many people do Yeah, great. Many people do use it as a tool. They're like, "I'm going to get a couple months, a few months, so I get a feel for what she's saying.

I'm going to print the recipes that she gave me, so I have them." And then, you just expand from there. But a low oxalate meal plan, when you're first taught that you have to lower your oxalate, it's very overwhelming. You don't understand really what it means.

You're thrown a brochure or a piece of paper that has all these things that are high oxalate when they're really not if you just ate them within a normal portion size. Remember, most of you get 100 milligrams of oxalate a day. That's a lot of oxalate.

Peanut butter, you get two tablespoons a day if you want it. It's under 30 milligrams of oxalate. So, you can see, you get a bank account of 100 milligrams of oxalate.

Also, a debit card, you're getting that today. You take away the oxalate you use in the foods you're choosing. And you'll see, you'll even have extra left over, even if you're a vegan, even if you're a vegetarian.

All right? Once you take away spinach, which is like over almost 700 milligrams a cup, and people were eating a few cups. So, it's very doable.

I suggest getting that meal plan at first to get your to get your mind around all the foods you can actually eat. And you're going to be shocked how many delicious recipes are in there. And by the way, people, they're simple, because these are foods I eat, and I don't have time, and I know you don't have time.

So, everything is no more no more, and there's only a couple recipes that are 30 minutes, most are 20 minutes or less. So, super simple things, tasty, delicious, all Kidney Stone Diet safe. It'll teach you how to do it.

There you go.

Yeah, that's the big thing. Yeah, the inspiration. The inspiration to get on track, to stay on track, and keep going.

And not to just be plugging products, but I just wanted to mention the e-book, because I don't think it was out yet with the last episode.

Yes, we have So, if you do join Okay, so yes, I forgot about our people love it. So, for the last several months, I've been making a Kidney Stone Diet Safe Snacks and Desserts. All the sugar, salt, oxalate, everything's figured out.

There's 30 recipes. If you get the meal plan, we throw in the snack book for free. If you just want the snack book, it's only $9.95.

People were saying it should have been $30, but we don't roll that way here, because I'm a patient myself, and I know what it's like to get a bunch of medical bills in your mailbox. And so, we do things very high quality here, and very inexpensive. That's how we do here.

We understand that our demographic is old like me. We're on Medicare. We have illness, so we have, like I said, medical bills.

We're on Social Security. There's all kinds of things. So, we're very respectful of our prices.

My privates tend to be pricey, because that's that's a lot of time for me. But our products, like the Kidney Stone Prevention Course right now, $40 off. It's $149, people.

Look on the web. There's over $300 these are, and you get you get calls with me. So, the snack book, the meal plan, ridiculously cheap.

If you understood the amount of work that goes behind the scenes between the IT and all of that Jeff does, and then making these recipes that I do, and then our third partner, Dave, who does all the beautiful design work, it's ridiculous how we price this. But we believe in this model because we want we want people to have access.

And again, this is why we do the YouTube channel, why we have the Facebook group. The more people that understand kidney stones can be prevented, the less people that are sick in the world. And guess what?

By the way, I get to talk to you about diet. Kidney Stone Diet is just a it's just a healthy diet, people. Low sugar, low salt, get calcium, drink enough fluid, don't overeat anything, portion, not perfection.

And you'll your A1C will go down. Your cholesterol can be lowered. You'll get off your blood pressure medications.

Am I making this up? Ask the patients that have worked with me, because they work that hard. And that's why I can do this for so many years, because I have seen the success in my patients.

They lose weight. They're so motivated by the kidney stones that they will do whatever they can, and they take this, the Kidney Stone Diet, and they work it, and they're on the road. So, you know, it's very important that we get the word out.

And by the way, please like and subscribe to our channel, because we get lost in the shuffle when people search for kidney stone stuff. So, if you can just click that subscribe button, it would mean so much to us. And also, if you enjoyed the video, please comment or click the like.

If you didn't like it, that's okay, too. But subscribe. Well, I don't know, Jeff, if they would subscribe if they didn't like it, but I'm just going to throw it out there.

People are always like, "Jill, what could we do for you?" Subscribe to the channel, people. That's what you could do. That would be very helpful to Jeff and I.

Yeah, definitely helps. And there's a lot of free content as well. It's not just the meal plans and the prevention course and everything.

There's all the recipes on the site, there's the weekly email newsletter that you can find at kidneystonediet.com, and the prevention group on Facebook and everything. Just there's so many areas to help. And then we have the premium stuff as well.

So, just a little help with, giving a thumbs up to the video, it means a lot. But if you're out there and you have a question we haven't touched on, or even if we have, but you would like the perspective on your specific scenario, the phone number is 773-789-8763 and we would love to feature you on a future episode. But yeah, I think with that, we can wrap for this week.

Again, everything is found at kidneystonediet.com where you can find meal plans, prevention course, and whatnot. But thank you, everyone, for tuning in, and we'll see you next time.

Thanks, Joyce.