In this episode, Jill Harris discusses the relationship between diet, particularly the consumption of fruits and vegetables, and kidney stone prevention. She addresses misconceptions about microwaves, emphasizes the importance of a balanced diet, and provides practical tips for incorporating more nutritious foods into daily meals.
Takeaways
- Microwaves are not harmful if they help you eat vegetables.
- A balanced plate should consist of fruits, vegetables, protein, and complex carbs.
- Many people do not consume the recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables.
- It’s essential to focus on the bigger picture of health rather than just individual food items.
- Dietary myths can hinder progress towards healthier eating habits.
- Incorporating fruits and vegetables can help manage chronic diseases.
- Practical cooking methods can make vegetables more accessible and enjoyable.
- It’s important to challenge elitist thinking around food accessibility.
- Small changes in diet can lead to significant health improvements.
- Eating more whole foods can reduce reliance on medications.
00:00 Microwaves and Kidney Stones: Debunking Myths
02:39 The Importance of Fruits and Vegetables in Diet
05:34 Addressing Dietary Misconceptions and Health Risks
08:28 Practical Tips for Incorporating Healthy Foods
11:13 Challenging Food Shaming and Elite Diet Culture
14:03 Natural Foods vs. Processed Foods: A Call to Action
Jeff Sarris (00:00)
Did your microwave cause your kidney stones? Let’s talk about
So where did this one come from today? We’re talking about the microwave and kidney stones and what’s going on here?
Jill Harris (00:14)
Well, so I’ve been all over my little social media channels today, Facebook, Instagram, and responding to somebody. So in the newsletter this yesterday, I send out a newsletter every Saturday folks, it will have special deals in it. It’s always about kidney stones, general nutrition stuff, all kinds of great things in that newsletter. Every single week goes in your inbox on Saturdays, check it. So yesterday, go sign up for it at KidneyStoneDiet.com.
Yesterday an email went out that was trying to explain to people what their plate should look like. Because we can sit there and write and write and write, but people are like, Jill, give me a visual. What should my plate look like when I’m sitting down at dinner? What’s it, what’s it, what am I looking at? So roughly half of your plate should be fruits and vegetables. Really should be, maybe just vegetables, little bit of fruit. Doesn’t have to be fruit on your dinner plate, but
Throughout the day on your plate should be fruits and vegetables. Half the plate. A quarter, that’s been in the background. A quarter of your plate should be a protein. I don’t eat meat, Jill. Well, if you don’t eat meat, get your regular non-meat protein source. That’s a fourth of your plate. And the other fourth of your plate is complex carbs. That means you don’t want just white rice all the time, but you want a whole grain where it hasn’t been refined and stripped. So there’s fiber in it.
things like lentils, like sweet potatoes, they’re high in oxalate, Jill, a portion of perfection, folks, you know, things that are nutrient dense like that, okay? So, and then I was talking about, you know, people don’t get any vegetables, they’re just not eating enough vegetables. We’re supposed to get the minimum one cup of fruit and three cups of vegetables a day, and none of you, many of you,
Most of you ain’t getting that much, and that’s the minimum. So I was giving an idea, lots of ideas, but also get the steamable microwave bags of vegetables in the frozen food section. Five minutes you have vegetables on your plate. Well, I got some emails that said, my God, you’ve lost all your credibility. I’m following you. There’s no way microwaves are going to kill us with the radiation, with the whatever.
So microwaves are killing us. So I wrote these people back and I said, you know, you don’t have to, you don’t, if you’re not using the microwave, that’s just fine. I don’t think people are dying from using a microwave, but you’re allowed to believe whatever you want. And as far as my credibility, you’ve got to rise up. I’m trying to look at the bigger picture and show people
They’re not eating any fruits and vegetables. And people are getting larger and sicker as the months and years go by. 75 % of adults are obese. Kids, I think it was something like three and five, one and three, whatever, obese. And so, you’re fat shaming, Jill? I don’t care how large you are. I care how sick you may most likely get.
That’s what I’m trying to do here. So if Bobby eats more vegetables because he puts them in the microwave because they’re done quicker and he doesn’t have to worry about how to prepare them, how to season them because they should be low salt. Now what should I do? And all the things we’ve just won folks because there’s trillions of dollars leaving our country every year.
in just healthcare costs, healthcare costs that we can control. We are so out of control, trillions and trillions of dollars every year go to our medical system just to manage chronic disease, which can be managed if we eat more fruits and vegetables. I’m diabetic Jill, I can’t eat fruit, you can eat some. Count your carbs in them, berries are good for you, put them in yogurt, you too can eat some fruit. But again,
Don’t get mired down. The point is, all of us, me, Jeff, Finn, everybody should be eating more fruits and vegetables. We don’t. I’m going to tell you right now, Jill, how do you know? Because I’m talking to thousands of people a year and they tell me, Jill, I’m not eating any vegetables. Jill, I don’t like vegetables. Well, how long have you been saying that, Kathy? Well, I’ve
Listen, I’ve been saying that since I’m five because my mom used to make me eat vegetables and I hated them. You’re now 72. It’s time to rethink and maybe open up your eyes to the produce section in your grocery store. I cannot tell you how many people get a kidney stone. They come to me, we talk about their urine collection or we deep dive into an hour consult and we’re talking about how to change their diet.
Not just though it makes me happy, but they’re happy too. And we actually work on getting more vegetables. I have helped thousands of people change their mind on vegetables. Once you learn how easy it is to just roast them on 400 for 20 minutes in a baking sheet, put a little herbs on there. I have so many no salt seasonings on my website. Super easy. You’re done. Make a huge batch. You got them for four days.
You don’t have enough to worry about a vegetable or a side dish. You got them. So what I’m saying here is we have to look at the bigger picture. I’m not afraid of microwaves. I’m afraid of people having diabetes, having hypertension, having heart attacks. That’s what I’m afraid of because that’s what’s going on because people continually eat crap. That’s what they’re eating. Jill, I don’t have money for fruits and vegetables because
I can’t afford organic, no one’s saying anything about organic. I don’t care about that. I care about whatever vegetable and fruit you can eat and afford, please do that. Again, the bigger picture, because see, there will be people also that say, I can’t believe, Jill, that you’re not talking about organic fruits and honey, people don’t even have a car to go to the store and get fruits and vegetables.
Do you know how many people in our society are shopping at the corner store for their food? Because they’re on food stamps? There’s not a lot of extra room for fruits and vegetables. So, certainly not organic. Again, we’ve got to rise up. This is very elitist thinking with this food shaming. I loathe it. And a microwave? If we have people not eating fruits and vegetables, I think that’s way more detrimental to their health.
then what’s going to happen to them with a microwave? So, or people who are like, Jill, I can’t believe you’re letting people, or you’re making things in your meal plan that has stevia in it. I’m just getting Bobby Sue to try to get rid of four cokes a day. So if she uses some stevia here and there, big picture. Maybe her A1C will go down. Maybe she’ll get off her diuretic. Maybe she’ll stop wheezing because she’s so obese.
and get to the gym eventually. So you see, there’s so much going on behind the scenes on what Jeff and I are trying to do here. So much more. What bothers me is not that people aren’t thinking out of the box. What bothers me is they’re not thinking outside of themselves.
We’ve got to knock it off.
Here’s what I hear every day. I don’t know what to eat. Guys, stop lying to yourself. You’re giving yourself an excuse every time you say that. Everybody knows since you’re four years old, you’re supposed to be eating fruits and vegetables. We’re taught that.
We may not eat them when we’re four, but we are taught that. We know that. But there’s so much industry, diet, industry chatter and bullshit that we don’t know how to eat anymore. Do keto, do carnivore, do paleo, do anti-inflammatory, whatever it is, anti-inflammation, the anti-inflammatory diet. Look what I do for a living. I can’t even say it.
Jeff Sarris (09:15)
Mm-hmm.
Jill Harris (09:17)
Okay, so all these diets do the CIRC diet, do this diet, count points, counting points is just another way of counting calories by the way folks. Listen, there’s a million ways to skin a cat. My job is to keep this simple so it’s doable for you. Not something every January 1st you gotta do a new diet. No. You wanna prevent kidney stones? You wanna eat lower salt and added sugar?
You want to get more fluids? Eat more fruits and vegetables. You’ll get all of that. If you crowd out your plate, I’m not going to tell you what you can’t have Doritos, you can’t have, that’s not my job. What I’m asking, what I’m asking you to do, let’s bring so many new things on your plate that there’s no more room for the crap that was there. So let’s not focus on what we can’t have. Let’s focus on what we’re going to bring in.
And like I said, I’ve worked with folks for years that never, I hate fruits and vegetables, I hate them. We sit, we talk, they’re coming to me because they’re scared they got a stone. They never want to go through that again. So now they’re more open-minded. Instead of saying the same thing and repeating the same thing in their little neural pathways that they’re digging deeper and deeper, deeper and deeper, now they’re like, maybe I will go to the produce section and visit that.
instead of bypassing it and just go into the rice and Doritos section. Okay? There’s so many fruits and vegetables. Just try one. I’m not asking you to have 20 fruits a week. I’d like you to get there eventually. But I’m not asking for that. saying could we incorporate one fruit this week and one vegetable two times this week? That’s all. We got to start somewhere.
Nobody’s going to become a vegan tomorrow, and I don’t even ask that you do that. But I am asking, can we open our minds to that? Can we stop being so close-minded on both ends? People need to be more open-minded about eating fruits and vegetables, and other people with their elite food thinking and shaming need to open their mind that they’re not the only person in the world and that they need to rise up and see the bigger problem in our country.
obesity which leads to chronic conditions. And people will say, well Jill, it’s not a big deal. I got my Losartan, I got my statin, I got my pills, I got my metformin. I’m good girl, why do I gotta pay attention to you? Because those drugs are not healthy for you. Jill, also, this is another one. Jill, why aren’t you talking about Oshokawanga for a long time?
Why can’t we take that? Why can’t we smoke that? Why can’t we take this pill? Why can’t we do this? Why can’t we do that pill? Why can’t we do that supplement? I want natural things, Those pills ain’t coming out of no bee’s ass, people. There’s nothing natural about them. They were made in a factory. Wake up. What am I doing every day? I’m talking about the most natural thing in the world that was grown.
In the ground, fruits and vegetables, don’t get more natural than that. So stop telling me about your pills and potions, too. I’m trying to get you off pills and potions with fruits and vegetables. Whole foods. Whole foods mean it came out of the ground, basically. Also, if you want to do meat, that’s fine. It’s natural. It hasn’t been.
really tampered with and mutilated and transformed into a food-like substance. That’s what we’re talking about here. So the microwave comment really got me mad. Not for me. don’t… You think I care who follows me and who doesn’t? It’s nice because we like to help people. That’s what we’re doing here. But you don’t need to tell me you’re not following me. Bye-bye. That’s fine. You’re not… Obviously, you’re not… You don’t need my teachings if you’re so worried about red dye too.
And by the way, there is always one more thing with me. I love it when people are like, Jill, I would never do stevia. Meanwhile, they’re drinking a freaking martini. Alcohol is freak, is, is ethanol. It is toxic. But you’re going to sit here and try to tell people they should never do an artificial sweetener because they’re going to die from it? People have lost their mind. And the hypocrisy runs rampant. I can’t tell you how many social influencers
I know social media influencers with their diet stuff and you see them in the next post they’re having three glans
And I can assure you that when they get home, they’re not chomping on kale, because nobody does when they’re buzzed. That doesn’t happen. So, just like Jesus, Jill, I know I’m going all over the place, but we’ve got to be mindful. People, you’ve got to start eating more fruits and vegetables. I’m on a mission this year for it. I’m just on a mission. It is, well, and things that are high in oxalate, stay away from spinach.
Jeff Sarris (14:17)
you
Jill Harris (14:33)
Honestly, it’s really there’s so few vegetables I take away you all know that so don’t even start barking about the oxalate Take away spinach don’t overeat beets. Some of them are a little high within portion Don’t eat them every day get your calcium needs met Don’t use oxalate as an excuse to get rid of all your fruits and vegetables It’s really important if you can just get a couple fruits and a couple vegetables a week in the entire week
If you just start doing that, you’re gonna feel so much better about yourself. just things like put some berries in your yogurt, you know? It’s just a natural sweetener, then you don’t have to get the artificial sweetener’s one if you don’t wanna use that or added sugar. Use real fruit. Well, Jill, this is Dan and it has raspberries on the bottom and a bunch of shitty syrup. Get some plain, good old yogurt, Greek yogurt, plain, non-fat if you’re into the no fat.
Get some berries, put it in there. That’s natural. factory didn’t make that. Okay? So just think about it. And microwaving people, don’t waste my time with telling people they shouldn’t microwave. If that’s what gets them to eat a vegetable, please microwave your vegetables. That’s absolutely fine. Everyone’s gotta start some.
Jeff Sarris (15:54)
Yeah. And if you’re ready to start, go to kidneystonediet.com where you can find the kidney stone diet meal plans where Jill maps out every single day of the week, exactly what you can eat. You don’t have to eat each of these meals. These are inspiration. You can always tweak and adjust to your, to your liking, but it shows just the expanse of how many things you can still eat.
while eating a rounded diet, a little bit of everything, portion, not perfection. And Jill has all the instructions, all the recipes, and she breaks down the why and the oxalate and everything behind each recipe. So you can find that at kidneystonediet.com. And if you have a question, the number is 773-789-8764. We’d love to feature you on a future episode. And with that, I think we’ll wrap and see you next week.
Jill Harris (16:24)
sleep.
Eat your fruits and vegetables, folks. Have a great week.
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