Are Mango and Pineapple High in Oxalate?

Are mango and pineapple bad for kidney stones? Let's talk about that.

Ay, ay, ay.

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. Hello, Jeff. Hello.

Hi. So, now we're talking about some tasty, tasty fruit. Mango, pineapple, what are we looking at when it comes to both of those?

Is there a few areas that I know you want to touch on with them?

Yeah, I mean, I love mango so much. I mean, who doesn't like pineapple and mango, right? Well, there could be some people, but they're delicious, el tropical kind of smoothies, right?

I love that. I have some really good smoothies with them in the smoothie cookbook at kidneystonediet.com. And they're just delightful.

It's summer in a glass, those two things. Now,

What about them as far as oxalate? Can you still have those? I can't tell you how many people are unnecessarily taking away delicious, wonderful foods that they can absolutely have.

And I talk about this a lot. It's something that we do need to talk about in the kidney stone world is that we really wind up taking so much joy out of kidney stone patients' lives

Because of all the misinformation out there on kidney stone prevention, on foods, the all the different oxalate lists out there. And so patients are petrified to eat. This is not me being Italian and dramatic.

This is what I'm hearing every day in my private consultations. So much of my private consultations are bringing foods back on people's plates. I want you to understand that.

My job

And Jeff's job is to give you the correct information and bring joy back on your plate, nutrition back on your plate. So many of you are taking away healthy plant foods because you're petrified of oxalate, and you needn't be. The further you dive into this channel, the further you dive into the website at kidneystonediet.com, you're going to hear this repeated theme over and over.

You're taking away too many foods.

Many of you did not even form kidney stones because you ate too much oxalate. A lot of people I'm talking to every day, they haven't had a plant food since 1972. They're eating too much sugar and salt.

They're not getting their calcium needs meet, met. They're not drinking enough fluids. So, believe me, folks, get a 24-hour urine collection to find out what's going on.

Now, mangoes and pineapples, let's talk about them.

Can you have that? How can you have mangoes and pineapples, and in this case, talking about oxalate, keep your oxalate levels low? Well, yes, indeed-y.

There's your answer. You don't have to wait for it. Here's If you go to kidneystonediet.com, Jeff made a searchable oxalate list.

I can't tell you the thousands and thousands of people that use this list.

We even have on our help desk, you can put this on your phone and it will look like an app. And you're just at the grocery store, you type in a food, bada-bing, bada-boom, it comes right up on your phone. Okay?

So, kidneystonediet.com, the oxalate list, and it will take you to the Harvard searchable list that he made for us. And if you put pineapple in there, you'll see half a cup

Of raw pineapple is 5.2 mg of oxalate. Of course that can fit in your day! You guys get 100 bucks of oxalate a day, so you can easily fit that in unless you have had a stomach surgery or an intestinal surgery and your doctor has told you lower, which is 50 mg of oxalate a day.

But, even so, you can certainly eat pineapple. Now,

For both of these fruits, I'm going to remind diabetics: check your sugars, okay? I don't I always am thinking about my diabetic kidney stone formers, too, so I'm not telling you to eat these fruits. We're just talking about them in regard to: are they Kidney Stone Diet compatible?

Absolutely! And, by the way, I don't take any fruits away at the Kidney Stone Diet, absolutely do not. Now, let's go in Jeff's beautiful, searchable oxalate list, and we will type in mango.

Mango, one half of a mango is 0.3 mg. So, mangia on the mangoes, people! You can certainly fit those in.

Now, for my diabetic friends: Mangoes are very high in sugar, so I know some of my diabetic friends are like, "Jill, don't forget about us!" 45 to 46 g of added not added sugar, regular sugar. And so, for kidney stone formers, you may say, "Jill, you tell us don't worry about the sugar in fruit."

That is correct, but please know that some fruits are super high in sugar. And if you have diabetes, you have to pay attention to that. That's all I'm saying.

It doesn't mean you can't have a mango, it just means pay attention to that if you're diabetic and you have you're paying attention to blood sugar. That's all. So, mangoes and pineapples are two fruits you can absolutely enjoy on the Kidney Stone Diet.

And, again, there's no fruit I take away. Now, you may say, you know, "Blueberries, Jill, for half a cup is 18 mg of oxalate. What about that?

That's high, I'm afraid." I hear you, Christine, but you don't have to be. If I have so, again, if you have 100 mg of oxalate a day and that has 18 mg of oxalate in it for half a cup, put that in your Greek yogurt.

Put that in your lower-sodium cottage cheese. Pair it with some calcium, or do like I do. So, every day, I have one cup of frozen berries.

In that cup is strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries. There's not enough room for a lot of blueberries cuz I'm stuffing all the berries together, so that's another way to do it. And I use frozen fruit

Because it keeps in my freezer. It doesn't go bad and get that mold on it, which I hate, so it can stay there for a while. But I put it either in my cereal, or I put it in my Greek yogurt, and so I'm pairing that with calcium.

So, when we're pairing the higher oxalate foods, in this case, fruits, with a calcium source, calcium and oxalate, when taken together, eaten together, or when you drink milk with anything or a plant milk with a higher-oxalate food,

The oxalate will be transported out through your colon instead of getting recirculated into the blood. Not all of it, but a nice amount of it. So that is why we care so much about calcium in the Kidney Stone Diet.

Number one, you have bones, you have to make sure you're getting calcium each day to feed that, maintain strong bones, but also this is how we keep our oxalate in check, because when you have calcium and oxalate at the same time

With higher oxalate food You don't have to be having like a mango is not even 1 mg. Half a mango is not even 1 mg of oxalate. Don't be running for calcium with that.

It's if you're having something like 20, 30, 40 mg of oxalate, start looking for calcium there, okay? But that's it. You know, no fruits are taken away here.

Portion not perfection, again, applies.

I always get so sad when people come to me and, you know, they're like, "I haven't had fruit in a year, Jill." And I'm like, "Oh boy, that's that's not good." We need fruit! There's so many vitamins. There's great It's They're nutrient-dense.

Also, they provide extra fluids for us, okay? Once in a while, you may want a smoothie. So, live a little, folks!

Bring some of these foods back. Pineapple and mango, you can absolutely enjoy them.

Diabetics, again, pay attention to the sugars. Portion not perfection. Okay, that's it.

Yeah, absolutely. And when you're ready to prevent kidney stones for good, you can go to kidneystonediet.com, where you can work directly with Jill, one-on-one, to prevent future stones for good. Her space is limited every month, so if that's something you're interested it in head interested in, head over to kidneystonediet.com right now and you can book your appointment.

With that, we'll wrap and we'll see you next week.

I'm so happy you're here, guys, learning and taking care of yourself. Have a great week!