Does a low oxalate diet prevent kidney stones?

A low oxalate diet alone does not prevent kidney stones. It is important to pay attention to other goals of the kidney stone diet, such as getting enough fluids, calcium, and reducing salt and added sugar intake. The order of importance for these goals is: fluids, sodium, added sugar, calcium, meat, and oxalate. Following these goals can help lower the risk of kidney stones. The Kidney Stone Diet website provides resources and information to help individuals follow the diet.

Takeaways

• A low oxalate diet alone does not prevent kidney stones.
• It is important to pay attention to other goals of the kidney stone diet, such as getting enough fluids, calcium, and reducing salt and added sugar intake.
• The order of importance for these goals is: fluids, sodium, added sugar, calcium, meat, and oxalate.
• Following these goals can help lower the risk of kidney stones.
• The Kidney Stone Diet website provides resources and information to help individuals follow the diet.

Sound Bites

• “Does a low oxalate diet prevent kidney stones?”
• “Low oxalate is not going to guarantee that you’re going to stop making kidney stones.”
• “You have to get enough calcium that’s even more important than giving up the spinach and almonds and chia seeds.”

Jeff Sarris
Does a low oxalate diet prevent kidney stones? Let’s talk about that.

Jill Harris
And I’m Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse.

Low oxalate diet. It’s a very confusing thing in the kidney stone world because everybody has a different list. We use the Harvard list here at Kidney Stone Diet. I’ve had success with it in the last almost 26 years. So you can go to kidneystonediet.com and look for the oxalate list there or just put Jill Harris oxalate food listing Google and you will come right to it.

A low oxalate diet alone folks is not preventing any kidney stones. I’ve never seen anybody in all these years prevent kidney stones by just doing a low oxalate.

The oxalate part of the diet is really the easiest thing. It’s the most confusing thing because everyone has conflicting advice, but it really is the easiest thing once you sit down and talk to somebody that knows what they’re talking about. But low oxalate is not going to guarantee that you’re going to stop making kidney stones. You must pay attention to the other goals of the Kidney Stone Diet.

We want you to get enough fluids. All the goals are listed at kidneystonediet.com. We want you to get even more important than lowering your oxalate from restricting some foods. We also have a list of oxalate, high oxalate foods to avoid. That’s also at kidneystonediet.com on the start page.

You have to get enough calcium that’s even more important than giving up the spinach and almonds and chia seeds. If you don’t get enough calcium, oxalate builds up in your body. That’s just a very easy way for you to understand it. But the only way oxalate can leave your body is to bind with calcium in the intestine and leave through the stool. If you’re not getting your calcium needs met, which nobody does until they start learning about it, then oxalate can be higher just because of that.

The oxalate looks around, says, hey, there ain’t no calcium in here. I’m going back in and gets reabsorbed back into the bloodstream. So it’s really important that we get our calcium needs met. We don’t overeat a bunch of meat every day because that can lead to calcium oxalate stones and uric acid stones. And that we lower our salt and added sugar. All of these things are important. When you take my kidney stone prevention course.

There’s a set of videos, the reason I’m bringing up the course is there’s videos. Oxalate is the last one, and I’ll say in that video, I know you probably looked at this one first, but if you noticed, I put it last because it’s the least important thing to prevent kidney stones. You must take away things like are really high, like 700 milligrams of oxalate and one cup of spinach. You have to take spinach away.

And you have to take things like eating almonds or cashews all day long or chia seeds. People overeat those all the time. They’re really high in oxalate. Buckwheat growth.

What is it? Rhubarb? Was someone I always forget? Rhubarb, okay. Yeah. Yeah, I always, yeah. So there are a handful of foods we don’t want you eating anymore, but honestly, folks, I’d rather you really micro focus on salt and added sugar because the salt and added sugar part and fluids, that’s going to get you so much more health. don’t even know. You got diabetes, you got hypertension, you got cardiovascular issues. Lower your salt, lower your added sugar, get fluids obviously. That’s always the number one thing with kidney stones. But God, folks, you have to pay attention to those goals. A low oxalate diet itself is not going to lower your stone risk. It may a smidge.

But it’s not the main factor why you made kidney stones. People always say, made kidney stones because I overate almonds and spinach. You may have. But all those patients also didn’t get any calcium, and they were eating a hell of a lot of salt and added sugar, one or the other or both. So because the internet just hyper focuses on oxalate, that’s all people hyper focus on. And it’s really not where the attention should be. It should be on fluids, number one.

Number two, sodium. Number three, added sugar. Number four, calcium. Number five, the meat. Number six, oxalate. That’s how I would want you to do it. That’s the order of importance, really. So you can stop eating spinach and almonds, folks, but if you don’t get your fluids and lower your sodium, you’re still going to make kidney stones if you’re a stone former. It’s just that important.

Jeff Sarris
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that’s the big thing is having these goals as a framework. We have them all listed right on the homepage where you can see with an explanation. You don’t have to buy the course to learn how to follow the kidney stone diet. That’s just where Jill dives deep to explain all of it. But yeah, if you go to kidneystonediet.com, you can scroll right down to the kidney stone diet goals and know how to dial in your own diet, your own lifestyle to fit these goals.

Jill Harris
Yes, and please, the blog, people are like, why do oxalate lists vary? There’s an article that says, why oxalate lists vary? I mean, that blog has so many short and sweet and right to the point, I’m a simple kind of gal, I like it right to the point, practical, just common sense stuff. Go read all of those articles.

Just put Oxalate in the search bar in the menu on Kidney Stone Diet and you’re just going to come up with so much stuff if that’s what you want to binge. All of these videos now on YouTube we have organized into a playlist. So if you want to learn about Oxalate, that’s what you’re hyper focused on, just go to that playlist and you’ll see everything and we’ll play right after the other. But if I were you, I’d get away spinach, almonds, chia seeds.

Whatever I said at the beginning of the video get your calcium needs met and that and get fluids and lower your salt and added sugar those things are really the most important and of course don’t you decide to beef every day pay attention to what I’m saying folks what I say works not because I’m a genius it’s just what I see every day I see follow -ups people call me to go over there your own collections they’re a hot mess but the urine collection results and also the patient because they’ve been through such hell. And so we talk, they change their diet, they do the follow -up, and it looks like a non -stone former. So what I’m saying works, not because I think I’m Queen Mary, but because of what I see every day in results, results in my hand. So go to the website, too. See all the testimonials. Go under the praise section. Hundreds. So, but those people are working. I’m going to expect you to work too, but you got to put in the work and you’ll get the results. promise hard work always pays off.

Jeff Sarris
Yeah, absolutely. That’s a perfect note to end on the number. Again, if you have a question I want to be featured on the show is 773-789-8763. You can leave us a voicemail and you can find everything else at kidneystonediet.com. So with that we’ll wrap and we’ll see you next week.

Jill Harris
Have a great week guys, bye.