This week, Jill answers a listener question about consuming calcium with oxalate and if it can help reduce oxalate. She also answers a question about calcium timing.
Jeff Sarris
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.
Jill Harris
And I’m Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse. Hello, Jeff.
Jeff Sarris
Hi there. So today we are talking about calcium. We’re diving. right in with another question. We have a whole back home. Because we appreciate everyone who’s who’s calling in and wanted to get to as many of your questions as possible. And again, if you’re out there, the number is 773-789-8763. And we’d love to feature you as well. But let’s dive right in two choices question.
Listener Voicemail
Hi, my name is Joyce. I’m calling from Detroit area in Michigan. And I have two questions. I just heard your podcast on count on synth bass Deluxe. And they’re actually content so on. And my question is related to those like silk, almond milk, for example, or other foods that are high in oxalate, but also very high in calcium does that calcium just like extra calcium would bind with oxalates that we eat so that they are removed through the NAT into our urine, other other exit points. And wondering when with silk, for example, does that calcium which is a lot, it’s like almost 500 milligrams, does that not sort of cancel out or bind with the oxalate and therefore the milk become sort of an issue? Same thing with poppy seeds, which I happen to bake with a lot. They’re like 16 120 isolates, milligrams of oxalate in 100 grams, but they have 900 milligrams of calcium. So how do those two things? Does the body process them like oxalates, but also calcium that is binding and removing a lot of the oxalate? My second question is when eating foods with oxalates in them higher oxalate, and if I’m adding extra calcium, which I would get from coconut milk, that has almost 500 milligrams in it. Do I need to drink that? At the same time? I’m eating the high oxalate foods, for example, a snack or is it oh, if I just have three cups a day of that, of that coconut milk with that fortified with calcium? Is that going to cover me for the whole day? To help that make sense? So doesn’t need to be eaten at the same time as the excellent or can it just be over the course of the day that you have sufficient calcium?
Jeff Sarris
And I’ll put it right there just because she left her phone number but yeah, I think that’s a wonderful, wonderful two parter, but they really fit together sort of like one question.
Jill Harris
Okay, so we’ll take the first one. So Joyce is asking listen to see I’m having the coconut milk. This is what I’m gathering from all her words. I’m having the coconut milk because I hear you say stay away from them and products. But what about all the calcium in that almond milk? Why can I just have my almond milk back because there’s a ton of calcium in it. Isn’t that cancelling out the oxalate that the almond milk has? Yes, it is. Yes, Joyce. It is. It absolutely is. It will lower the oxalate but here’s what I’m so so I blanketly say and she says she’s listened to podcast before. So I say get away from almond products. You can eat this bone honey not stay away from almond products, and spinach and rhubarb. For all those of you who are eatin rhubarb every day, because it’s super high in oxalate. There’s some foods like miso it’s very high in oxalate So, but most people were over eating spinach Jama products before they met me. So I just say let’s get rid of almond products. Could you ideally have the almond milk still Joyce? Yes, you could. My question would be I push back and say Is that where you want to waste your oxalate budget? When you could easily go get ripple pea milk or flax milk or coconut milk that we know is lower enough late. So I would do that because basically all those plant milks taste junky anyway. They’re watered down nasty. They’re just not good. It’s not like everyone’s like ma’am I love it. I love it. Now out of all of them. Joyce may say I hear you Jill, but at all those plant milks are eaten and drinkin. I do like the almond milk best. So Joyce you may say as Matter of fact you it is worth me having that Oxalic oxalate in that almond milk, it is all mine is that from my 100 milligrams of oxalate they bank account fine. It’s anywhere between 27 and I think 49 milligrams of oxalate per cup. I would not waste it on there keep having that the coconut milk. But is it going to take away some oxalate that calcium? Absolutely do I know exactly how much No, I do not. Because every one absorbs things differently. So I don’t know how much you would lower it. And that’s why I say just get rid of almond products and spinach. Okay. We don’t know exactly cert Sure. If you put everybody in a lab and fed them and gave them calcium, we can see how much everyone is going to urinate on how much oxalate they’re going, that’s going to come out in the urine, and everyone’s gonna have different because me with bowel issues, I’m probably going to have more than you who doesn’t. So you know, I haven’t I can’t tell you how much it’s going to lower it by but would it? Yes, it would. The other question she has that? Do I need to have calcium containing foods or beverages with the high oxalate food? Yes, you do. Because all of this stuff is going down your pipes the same time. If you have something that’s higher and oxalate and then you have milk two hours later, that food of your oxalates already down yonder by the time you’re drinking that milk. Okay, so yes, you do need to have it at the same time. So what that means is, say you want I always use sweet potato for some reason, because I still eat sweet potatoes. My family has kidney stones. I don’t want them I haven’t had one yet. And so I do have higher oxalate foods, but I always pair my calcium with that and they’re not really high oxalate foods. So sweet potatoes, I’ll have some, I definitely make sure I am pairing my calcium there. And then maybe I won’t have calcium containing beverage with my snack later, because I already just had some with that sweet potato. So arrange your calcium products with your higher oxalate products. And say you’re not having something for lunch that’s high in oxalate, maybe you don’t want to waste any calcium there. But later on, you’re going to have a loaded half sweet potato as a snack, which is my meal plan and it’s delicious by the way, you might or sometimes I have that for desert. So and then that’s where you want to pair your calcium or great example sometimes I have fiber one cereal at night because I’m looking for something crunchy before bed. And that’s a little higher and oxalate. So I make sure I save my milk for that vent. Okay, so I know I’m gonna have something higher and oxalate right before bed or sometime in the evening typically that’s observed for me and I know you’re like oh, Fiber One cereal for dessert. But I like it. So I’m going to save my calcium beverage for that later on. So you can work it any way you want. Some people like that’s all too much figuring out Joe I’m have calcium for breakfast, lunch and dinner and call it and you can do that too. So however it works for you is how I want you to do it. So but so to answer to sum up your who these your answers. Yes, you have to have the calcium at the same time you’re having the high oxalate food, and if you wanted to, minus all that oxalate from that almond milk. And the calcium of the almond milk is going to help bind that. oxalate but how much? I don’t know. Let’s just say this. A lot of people were drinking almond milk when they saw me and they had a lot of kidney stone. So there’s that. So if I were you, I certainly don’t touch any almond milk. It’s not my house. If I were you, I wouldn’t think about bringing it up. If you wanted to have it once a week because it’s something you really loved. Sure. Every day No, I would say no, not if your kidney stone former just keep you safe. Joyce.
Jeff Sarris
Yeah, that’s what’s tough because it’s they’re both important to consider but the oxalate portion feels just that magnet. The the strength of that magnet of sorts is just so heavy and strong when we’re talking almond and spinach.
Jill Harris
And when you have other choices, why wouldn’t you just go to those other choices that we do know are safer? I mean, you know, I’ve that’s how so that would be my advice to her Of course, you know, I give advice, but everybody can make up their own decisions if she wanted to have you know, if you know she wants to add that to her diet and really watch everything else to me, it wouldn’t be worth that excess oxalate, it just wouldn’t be. I’d rather use my oxide on a sweet potato that I’m going to get a hell of a lot more nutrition from, you know what I mean? overall nutrition. Yeah. So if that’s how I look at it, yeah,
Jeff Sarris
And if you’re looking for other milk alternatives. You can check kidneystonediet.com. You can look through the this feed this podcast feed into the video on YouTube, or in the podcast and we’ve done episodes specifically on milks, we actually have some links in the description to like every episode, all of Jill’s favorite products, this isn’t. These aren’t endorsements, or sponsors or anything in any way. These are just things that Joe actually likes. And if you click those links to go through to purchase them, there’s a tiny commission that comes through because that’s just how linking to like Amazon and stuff works. That’s why you see a lot of a lot of links going out to products like that. But it’s pennies on the purchase.
Jill Harris
Why don’t we make like five cents? It’s yeah, it is. Yeah,
Jeff Sarris
It is so tiny. But yeah, it’s just just to say just so everyone knows, that is something that that does happen. But we appreciate when people do go through there, because if you click any of those Amazon links in the description, we do get a commission on your total purchase. It’s tiny, but all every little bit helps support the channel, which is also why we have a Patreon as well, the Patreon doesn’t have extra content. But for those of you out there who had asked, we appreciate you’ve several of you have signed up just to support the show. No additional anything, but it’s just patreon.com/kidney Stone diet, if you’re out there, and you’re interested. And I guess with that, if you have any questions, the number is 773-789-8763. And we’d love to feature your voice on a future episode or you can send a voice memo memo if you’re outside of the US it’s just a voice memo to podcast at kidney stone diet.com. Yeah, everything you could possibly want kidney stone diet related, you can go to kidney stone diet.com. Any questions you can work with Joel directly you can work on your own, we have a lot of a lot of different paths you can take. But we appreciate each and every one of you who spend your your time each week with us on the show. It really means a lot. It helps us reach more people, the likes the comments, subscriptions and the sharing of the show. So thank you to each and every one of you. I hope you’re having a wonderful week. And we’ll see you next time.
Jill Harris
Joyce thanks so much. Great questions. Very good. Thank you and write write a comment guys. If you have any questions below please comment. Happy to answer them. Everybody, have a great day.
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