In this episode, Jill answers a listener’s question about kidney stones. She discusses the importance of lifestyle management in preventing kidney stones and the lack of attention given to this aspect in the medical field. She emphasizes the need for urine collection to understand the causes of stone formation and the importance of the Kidney Stone Diet which includes goals beyond just low oxalate intake. She also provides specific advice on tomato consumption and the importance of variety in one’s diet.
Takeaways
- Lifestyle management is crucial in preventing kidney stones.
- Urine collection is necessary to understand the causes of stone formation.
- The Kidney Stone Diet includes goals beyond just low oxalate intake.
- Tomato consumption should be varied and mindful of sodium content.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Listener Question
03:07 The Importance of Lifestyle Management
04:03 Understanding Stone Formation through Urine Collection
06:19 The Comprehensive Kidney Stone Diet
07:29 Mindful Tomato Consumption and Variety in Diet
Jeff Sarris (00:00)
This week we have a listener question. Someone’s been a stone maker for 34 years and we might actually have some insight as to why.
Welcome back to the Kidney Stone Diet podcast, show about reducing your kidney stone risk and living your best life. I’m your host and fellow student, Jeff Sarris
Jill Harris (00:26)
Jill Harris your Kidney Stone Prevention Nurse.
Jeff Sarris (00:28)
So yeah, so we’re here with another listener voicemail. number is 773-789-8763 if you’re out there with a question. So why don’t we just dive right in to Sherry’s question?
Jill Harris (00:41)
Let’s go. Let’s go.
Sherry baby Sherry baby Sherry 30 years over 30 years. This is not uncommon folks. It’s just it’s not uncommon and It makes me crazy. It makes me crazy specifically because she said I’ve been making stones for 30 years What does that mean? Let’s break it on down because I get real hot when it comes to
Stones. She hasn’t said this particulars, but what I hear on the average, I’ve made stones my whole life, Jill. I’ve had 10, 15 surgeries. I’ve lost count. I am now laid off. I have no money. can’t. I mean, the list goes on and on, but the thing that I hear the most is exactly what Sherry said. I’ve made stones my whole life and I’m just being told something now. That’s
And this is why Jeff and I get up every day and we do this because there is or there has been, there has been a lack of help in this field. Why? Because we’re asking surgeons, the urologists to talk about diet. Well, they don’t have time for that. There was not the knowledge, maybe the research wasn’t there, wasn’t being disseminated. wasn’t, I don’t
But for whatever reason, kidney stone formers have been overlooked as far as the medical management and the lifestyle management, mostly lifestyle management, not medical, I take that back. Lifestyle management. And most of you can prevent your new kidney stones and prevent the ones you have currently from growing by making lifestyle changes. But you don’t know what you don’t know.
And if you have a doctor or you just have not been asked to do a urine collection, you don’t know why you’re forming stones. The number one thing is you need to ask for a urine collection. So Sherry said, in February she was told to go on a low oxalate diet. What does that mean? We have to be specific about that too. So here’s what I’m going to tell
I’ve seen people recently on the internet that says you don’t have to worry about oxalate unless you have high oxalate. Well, first of all, you need a urine collection. Okay? And then let’s be careful how we word things to patients because when they get that advice, because they’ve been given that advice, whether it’s on the internet, from their doctor, whatever, what we
as healthcare professionals and what patients interpret our words as are two different things. So I’ve heard that before. My doctor said I don’t have to worry about low oxalate. My dietician said I don’t have to worry about low oxalate. Look at my urine collection, it’s low. So patients, what do they do when they hear
They start eating high oxalate foods. Jill, that’s the silliest thing. I don’t care what you think it is. I’m telling you what people do. So when they see their results, they are not told this. So I’ll tell you what I do. I’m not going to surmise what other people do. So I’m looking at a urine collection, which I do all day long, to help people understand the results so they can be better prepped for their doctor office visits and get the best treatment plan possible.
The treatment plan is always going to be the Kidney Stone Diet, the goals of the Kidney Stone Diet, and they may need medications as well. But I will look at their oxalate and I’ll say, all right, Johnny, I see that oxalate’s low. I see it’s low! But I know by the time you did this urine collection, you weren’t eating no spinach and almonds. hell no, Jill, I took those right away, because that’s all over the internet. My doctor knew that too. He said don’t eat spinach and almonds.
Now we’re really supposed to do the first urine collection exactly, we eat exactly how we did when we made stones, but most of you are not going to eat spinach and almonds. I’m not dumb, I get that. But the advice that should come with that low oxalate value is not this. you don’t got to worry about oxalate because then people think they’re done. It’s fixed, no more. Well, that urine collection represents a one day look on how you ate and
If you go over tomorrow and eat two cups of quinoa, your oxalate is going to be super high. So we’ve got to be very careful of that. The Kidney Stone Diet and lowering your risk of kidney stones is not just about oxalate. It’s about all the goals, lowering salt, lowering added sugar, getting enough calcium, drinking enough fluids, not eating a side of beef all day
And yes, watching oxalate. But just because yours is low on a urine collection doesn’t mean you can go overeat it now for the rest of your life, because it was low that day. But if you do something different tomorrow, you got a whole different result. So I just, have to say that. It’s very important. I’ve heard this more and more lately. So we’ve got to be careful of what advice we’re giving. So back to Sherry. Sherry, I got to ask you, you need to call back, girl.
You need to call back, Jeff will give the number again, you need to call back though and tell me why you’re eating tomatoes four days a
You just said that you’re trying to get more vegetables. Tomatoes are fruit. I know we all think it’s a vegetable, but you’re eating them every single day. So the question is, is that cool? That’s what Sherry’s gonna ask, but I’m gonna give her more information. So Harvard studied them, and tomatoes, ripe red tomatoes, are three milligrams for two slices. Tomato sauce, half a cup, is 17 milligrams. So you eating
to, you know, it’s not low oxalate, but you can certainly have it. But I’m going to push back and say, why are you eating the same thing every single day? One of my biggest mantras is let’s mix it up people. Let’s eat a wide variety of food and mix it up. Many of you got kidney stones because you ate the same three foods over and over again that were really high in oxalate and that’s what caused the
along with not getting enough calcium and of course eating too much sugar and salt and not enough fluids. that’s the common scenario. Sherry may say, well what the hell Jill, I’m one person and I don’t want to throw out the soup so I’m eating the leftovers. Okay, I hear that, I hear that too. But can we put some other things in the soup maybe? Maybe we massage some kale and saute some kale and throw that in there. Maybe we put some onions in there, maybe we put in other vegetables that you may like, maybe a little corn, I don’t know.
whatever you like maybe some green beans let’s mix it up buttercup and get more veggies in there now could you have that absolutely so that’s just me going down a little nutrition trail we should mix up our foods and tomatoes are not vegetables they are fruits and the average American should have two cups of fruits a day two cups and three cups of veggies nobody’s getting that nobody’s getting that and you know
grapes and corn every day, mix it up again. There’s a lot of vegetables, a lot of fruits. So Sherry, maybe it’s just a week that you have leftovers and you’re eating that every day. It’s just not the most nutritious thing, is what I’m gonna say. Also, make sure those tomatoes, the diced and the other ones that you’re eating are lower salt. So turn it around, Buster Brown, and look at that can that you’re using. Make sure they’re lower sodium.
So lots of times when I get diced tomatoes, if you go into the tomato sauce section, you’re going to see five, six different brands of diced tomatoes. I always get the lowest sodium one. And when you’re looking at a can and it says low sodium, and then the one next to it says low sodium, turn them both around. They may be very different in sodium, just because, know, so I’ll end that there. Look for the lowest sodium. So that’s another thing I’m going to point
The other thing I’m going to point out, the oxalate is the least important thing. Pay attention to salt, added sugar, go to kidneystonediet.com, look at all the Kidney Stone Diet goals. You can Google what is the Kidney Stone Diet. Okay, so you understand all of it, not just an oxalate list. So at the beginning of this video I said we should be, you know, we should be a little bit careful. We should be paying attention. Sorry folks, pay attention.
to how we’re wording things about the oxalate. Just because you don’t have oxalate on at urine collection doesn’t mean you should still not pay attention to that goal. 100 milligrams of oxalate a
However you want to cut it up. You want tomatoes? That’s wonderful. Like I said, tomato sauce for half a cup is 17 milligrams of oxalate. Minus that from 100, you still have plenty to eat. Get your calcium needs met every day. I want you to call back and tell me a little bit more about your diet. And actually we can talk about it in a video. How to change a diet so it’s a little bit more well -rounded. Maybe you say in the call, Jill, these are the three vegetables I
Okay, and we can do something with that. And also I like this, how do we make, you know, so, but I want you before you call back, I’m happy to help you, but before you call back, I want you to Google what is the Kidney Stone Diet, Jill Harris, and you’ll see what the goals are and ask some more questions in your call when you call back, like what about Losal, what about, we’ll talk about it. Because I want to help you because you’ve had stones for 30 years, over 30 years, and you’re just getting help now.
And this is so very common, folks. Now I think more people are talking about it. I’ve been the longest one screaming about kidney stones on the internet. More people are now doing it, so that’s great. the more people, the better, as long as the sources are good. And when we have good sources on the internet, then doctors can learn and get more focused and give.
give the right information out and again they’re surgeons so they’re focused on getting those stones out as safely as they can from your body. But I want you to call back Sherry we got a lot more to talk about I want to know why you’re eating the tomato sauce four days a week is that going to be your lunch like for the rest of your life like what are you thinking how can I help you call back and we’ll help you
Jeff Sarris (12:43)
And that number again is 773-789-8763. And you can find everything at kidneystonediet.com right on the homepage now. You scroll down to the Kidney Stone Diet goals. You’ll see all of them right there with details. And then if you want to dive deep, there’s the kidney stone prevention course, but yeah. huh.
Jill Harris (13:00)
and Jeff, me tell you, Sherry, Sherry baby, Sherry, there is an Oxalate food list and you can just go on the kidneystonediet.com website or just Google Oxalate food list Jill and it will take you right to the page and you can type in tomatoes and you will see the Oxalate value and for all of you folks that are looking for a reliable Oxalate list, go to my website and Jeff has made a beautiful searchable engine where you can just put
what you’re looking for and it will come right up. You can also put that on your phone and it will act like an app. So Jeff also made that, you can get that at kidneystonediet.com, help. And that’s very helpful for
Jeff Sarris (13:42)
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s all based on Harvard research. So it’s not anything we didn’t make up these numbers. They’ve been researched multiple times and used for decades by Jill with thousands of patients. So we know that they’re valid and exactly what you need. So with that, we’ll wrap. If you’re watching on YouTube, YouTube thinks you’ll like one of these videos here and we’ll see you next
Jill Harris (13:45)
Yes, sir. No. Yes.
Thanks Sherry. Please call back. Tell us more. Tell us more.
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