Can I eat peanut butter on a low oxalate diet?

SPYR.

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.

Hi, there. Yeah, so, we have you in a different spot today because the lighting was just a little a little funky in the window there.

The lighting was terrible. Usually, it's good. I mean, you know, you get the light right in front and that's how you want it, but no.

For whatever reason, it's the way it's hitting. And to bring up light, not that anyone asked, but I'm so super happy that it's lighter out longer. It just gives you what you feel.

You know, in the winter, you're like, "It's 4:30. It's pitch black." You're like, "Well, I guess my night's done." You know, in the summer,

I know it's only spring, but you get like four extra hours where you feel like you're alive. It's amazing.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it is so important. I mean, and today the sun sort of came out a little bit just a little while ago, which is really It just It changes the day because I mean, they talk about like seasonal affective disorder and things like that where you wake up just

Emotionally down and not feeling well, but like, yeah, when that sun comes back, it's it's huge, and having more time in the in the light, whether you're able to get out in the sun or not, it's yeah, has a huge impact.

Yeah, best thing ever. And I don't know, but anybody watching this, who ever has, they'll always say, "Oh, get this SAD light. The seasonal adjusted, like, it'll take your blues away." I've never found a light that's going to take my blues away in the deep dark of a winter.

So if anybody has one of those great SAD lights and you swear by it, put it in the comments, please, 'cause I'm buying it.

Lighting is very important.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, all the light therapy stuff I find very fascinating. I don't know enough about it to even like really bring it up here at all, but there's things with red light and this and that I'm very curious to dive in, but I haven't haven't taken the time yet to do so.

Well, you know, lighting has changed. People are like, "Really? They're talking about lighting, Henry?

Shut up. Listen. I got a light over here that you know, now everything's remote control, too.

So, I can change that light to blue or green or, you know, amber, and it just it does. It's just lighting is super important, right?"

Definitely. Yeah, it's fun because the lights behind me, too, same thing. I have little lights shining down on the sound panels there, and, yeah, depending on what I'm up for, like usually at night, they're kind of like purple, cuz I just like purply tones and things.

But, yeah, it just helps set the mood however you want it to be at any given time. But, yeah, anyway, enough about lighting. We were going to do

What are we here for?

Yeah, we were going to do an FAQ type episode today, all about peanut butter and peanut butter, oxalate, and yeah, just sort of where it falls for kidney stone formers.

Okay, peanut butter. Man, everyone always asks me about peanut butter. So, here's the deal.

I'll be on the Facebook page and I'll see somebody post, there's like almost 13,000 members on that page, so it's a very robust community, and everybody's always posting pictures of the food they're making or saying what they did or talking about the obstacles they're going through. I'm the admin of the page, Jeff is there, too, and, you know, we're always writing things on there.

And answering questions. So,

Peanut butter. So, somebody may say post a picture of peanut butter, maybe they're having peanut butter toast, and then there'll be 52 comments, "No peanut butter, you can't have peanut butter on a low oxalate diet. You can't have, what are you thinking, what are you, nuts?"

Well, you can have peanut butter. You can have peanut butter, people. Here's the problem.

I'm going to show you what the problem is. I'm going to show you what the problem is right now. Let me tell you, Jeff's like, "Where the hell?

I can't keep her in place for nothing." Here's what people did. Here's what people did. Here's what people did.

They got their jar. They got their jar of peanut butter. They got their spoon.

Why? Because peanut butter's high in protein.

Why? Because they're on the keto diet and they can eat as much peanut butter as they want.

Peanut butter, peanut butter,

Peanut butter,

Along with not having any calcium. Peanut butter, you can have two tablespoons, two tablespoons, and that's about 26 milligrams of oxalate. So for each tablespoon, divide that by two, 13.

13 milligrams of oxalate.

We're giving you 100 milligrams of oxalate a day. That's what you get. Here's your bank account.

Here's your bank account, opening it up.

Here's your debit card, that's for you. Now you're grown,

Eat responsibly.

And if you want peanut butter, have it every day if you want, couple tablespoons. Put it in your smoothie.

That's fine.

Have it with a dairy or non-dairy calcium source,

Even better.

But there is no food that you should get a jar and a spoon and stand up in your counter, stand up in your kitchen, and just eat because it's high protein. I can't tell you how many people came to visit me with their stones because that's exactly what they did, or the almonds all day long or spinach all day long. We need to eat I didn't even know where I just put this shirt on, so because I'm always saying this to people, we need to eat responsibly.

There's no food you should be eating as much as you want all the time, no food, because your body wants a bunch of different nutrients. And so it's very important to mix it up, mix it up, buttercup. Have all kinds of different foods in normal portion sizes.

A jar of peanut butter because you're on a high-protein diet

Is not the best thing for you. Also, it's so high in saturated fat, and also two tablespoons, 200 calories. Well, that's a lot of calories, people.

Most of us don't have room for a whole jar of peanut butter. It's hundred hundreds and hundreds of calories, so pay mind to that, too. But,

Can you have peanut butter on a low oxalate diet? Darn tootin'. You better believe it, you certainly can.

So, again, it's always going to be about portion, not perfection.

You can absolutely have peanut butter on a low oxalate diet. 2 tbsp is 26 mg of oxalate. You still have, you know, whatever, 70 something, 74 milligrams of oxalate to still play with and getting your calcium needs met every day, that's how we do this, people.

Now, if you're like, "I don't care what she says, I ain't eating no peanut butter."

There's sun butter made from sunflower seeds, lower in oxalate. There's Somebody posted on the Facebook group today, an oatmeal butter or an oat butter, something like that. It looked delicious, but again, high in calories, you know, 180 calories for two tablespoons, which is fine, I'm just saying.

Just because something's healthy don't mean it don't have no calories, people, so you got to pay attention to that.

So there's there's there's other different alternative butter, too. Pistachio,

Pistachio nut butter people like, and pistachio nuts are safe to have on a lower oxalate diet, too. I think you can have like 50 nuts for like, I don't know, 20 mg of oxalate, something like that. Look at your Harvard list at kidneytonediet.com to see exactly.

But it's about there. So, there's alternatives that you can have, but

If you're a purist, have your peanut butter, it's not a problem.

And

So you never think, "Boy, she's kind of glib.

I don't think she understands what I've been through." I do. I do. I've been listening to the harrowing stories for the last 23 years, so I know what you've been through.

And so if it makes you, "Ugh, I don't know about this,"

Here's what I tell my patients, when you're doing your follow-up urine collection,

Have your peanut butter. If that's something you're doing a lot, on the day you're doing your urine collection, your follow-up urine collection, have the peanut butter so you can see what your oxalate value is. And so you so you don't have the anxiety that often accompanies this whole diet or any diet, cuz you don't want to make a stone again, and you'll see that if you're meeting your calcium needs and you're eating like a grown-up and not a whole jar,

Your oxalate will be absolutely fine, I promise, because I look at these follow-up urine collections daily, so I know. And so I'll always tell people, vegan vegans especially, "Jill, I'm eating this, this, and this, I'm worried about the oxalate." "Do your urine collection when you eat those things and see."

They're always fine. So, I have a lot of data to go by before I open my mouth and give you advice on to do you know, how to do something or do it. I see what I see, so I know that it's safe.

I wouldn't I wouldn't misguide you.

Yeah, and I think that's also huge, just how you said you can have these things that you otherwise think you can't have, because a lot of times you say, other than spinach and almonds,

Almost everything is still on the table. It's it's just the portion, the quantity that you're having.

Yes, and people will say, "Well, what about buckwheat groats, Jill? Why don't you just say Why don't you Why don't you just say spinach and almonds." Well, that's mostly what people Not everyone's eating buckwheat groats, whatever the hell they are. They're very high.

Wheat berries, very high in oxalate,

But for I say that as what the average person coming to me, not many people out of the thousands I deal with are saying, "Boy, girl, let me tell you how many wheat berries I was eating." I'm not saying it never happens,

But for the most part, if people just start If they're paying attention to that, they're going to be mostly okay. Yes, there are other higher oxalate foods like buckwheat groats and wheat berries and, you know, there's some you've got to pay attention to, but mostly anything you eat, I mean spinach is 600 mg per cup, so anything you anything you want to eat typically, except those two things, and yes, be careful of buckwheat groats and wheat berries 'cause I'll get comments about that,

It's always going to be have that. You can have sweet potatoes once in a while, just don't eat a whole one. Get your calcium needs met.

It's a portion problem. We tend to find foods that either work for us or we love or we're limited because of other medical conditions, and then we eat as much as we want of those 10 foods.

I'm here to ask you to please vary your diet, try new foods once in a while, eat things within portion size. You know, it's

I'm making it sound easy. I know that's difficult, but that's where you need to start wrapping your That's where you need to start wrapping your brain around these notions: portion, eat responsibly, we're not 12 no more, we're not 12-year-old boys eating whatever we want at the going to the movies and eating Jolly Ranchers and all Jujubes and popcorn as much as we want, we're grown.

We need to nourish our body in the best way possible, so it works for us. Does that mean you can't have no Jujube or a Scotch sometimes? Of course not.

I'm I'm asking you to look at what you do day-to-day,

Week-to-week, month-to-month. Are there some things that you need to bring it on back home? Are there ways in which you should expand your nutrition, a food group?

Do you really not want to eat bread for the rest of your life, or do you want to learn how to eat it responsibly? Or, you're like me. Jeff was saying a little while ago, he was saying, "Girl," my words, of course, not his, "Girl,

Have you tried plantain chips?" And I said, "Oh, honey, they can not be in my house because they're c-" He said, "They're super crunchy." I said, "Exactly why they can't be in my house. There's no way I'd be in an addict with them." So, also knowing your triggers. Jeff can limit himself on that, at least I think.

I don't know if that's what you were saying.

I didn't say that, but.

Right.

So, yeah. I That's such a slippery slope, and we all have those trigger foods where they just don't come in my house. I'll have people say, "Jill, I'm eating so much sugar lately," and I'll say, "Grace, what the hell is it doing in your house?" "Well, I've been baking." Well, that's a problem.

That's a problem. I'm not having crackers and chips in my house for the most part because I'm an addict. I'm not above any of this.

And the reasons I know what to tell y'all is because I have screwed up many times in my life, and that's how we learn, and then we teach from there. We don't teach because we're perfect and we've done it all right. We're like, "Oh, screwed that up.

Let me make sure other people don't do that." And that's how we become good educators by falling up and picking oursel- falling down and picking ourselves up. That's That's That's life. That's just life, right?

Yeah, and just sort of along the lines of what you were saying about changing it up, I just want to remind everyone that on the website, there are a ton of free recipes, kidneystonediet.com, that Jill has I mean, you've made some amazing recipes over this time, and you've talked about it before, but before this, you didn't really cook much.

But, really, the stuff you've come up with is really phenomenal, and

There's so many free recipes on there. You just go to the website and I think just kidneystonediet.com/recipes. But then, also, if you wanted to dive deeper, sort of see what can I eat throughout a week, a month, whatever it is, whatever sort of scale you're looking at, what are what's this sort of vibe that of the meals that I could follow to stay within the Kidney Stone Diet recommendations and sort of guidelines, but also to see that, yeah, you can throw in peanut butter.

You can throw in these other things. There's the meal plans. So, Kidney Stone Diet meal plans that every Sunday you get an email to notify you that your meal plan's been updated on the site, then you go over to the website, you can see four meals a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack, 7 days a week, and you can sort of see what does it look like to follow the Kidney Stone Diet.

And that's a premium service, but there's also all the free recipes on the site if you just want to go over there. Sometimes on

It's a, you know, Jeff, too, it's a premium service, but it's $19 a month. It's ridiculously cheap, as we like to keep all of our prices cheap because, as a patient myself, I know what it's like also to get medical bills coming to my house. So, we keep these things very cheap.

The best thing about the meal plan is it gives you inspiration. It allows you to see, "Hey, she's making stuff with sweet potatoes. Can you believe it, Henry?

I didn't know we could have." You can. And it comes with education with each recipe. I write out a lot of stuff, a lot of free education, and what you care about, it's simple.

They're damn good, because this is food I eat. But, the best thing for you, because I know how overwhelming it is for new patients, is I have calculated the oxalate, I've calculated the added sugar and the salt, so you understand that the this meal inspiration is safe for you to eat as a kidney stone former. And by the way, if you're a diabetic, too, there it will fit everybody, hypertension because it's low salt, so it's a very valuable service.

The reason I think I'm I'm not a good sales person,

But I love my product so much and I have seen what they do for people, people are so successful with them, I feel proud of them, and I feel proud that we keep the prices so low. It's very important to all of us who work here at Kidney Stone Diet. So, that's why I can talk about it, because I'm proud.

I'm proud of it, and I and I like helping people, and those services help people, guaranteed, guaranteed. I've never in 23 years said, "Boy, that service sucked," never once, never once. So, yeah.

Yeah, and to even just touch on the course real quick while you're there, the prevention course is there's a whole collection of videos that dives deep into everything that we talk about here, but also all collected in one spot, so you know the exact guidelines and things as you'll find on the site, too. But then the group calls, the actual the community side of things where you have access directly to Jill, and you're working in a group setting with other patients and talking through the things that they maybe are dealing with that maybe you also are dealing with as well, and maybe just listening to someone else discuss that and Jill sort of work through it can be huge to help along your journey.

Yeah, the people in the in the group calls, the accountability calls, you know, there's people last night lost 90 lb, they stay in those calls for accountability, they lose 90 lb, 30 lb, they're there. You know, it's easy to pay attention to lifestyle when everything goes as planned, but that happens maybe once a week, maybe an afternoon a week.

Otherwise, everything's always being thrown at us. It's when, you know, when things don't go our way, how do we stay compliant to our lifestyle, and that's difficult. And that's what the group calls are for.

We laugh, we cry, we're friends, it's a community. Again, I like building community because we all need to feel like we're not alone. Everybody needs support.

Everybody needs help with lifestyle changes. I wish I wish every disease state had a program like this, and I hope that someday it does. And a lot is, it's very important to get on a call, it's like a Zoom meeting, and you know, you hear what other people go through, so you know you're not alone and you have a safe place to put all your concerns, ask your questions, get better doctor office visits by what you learn there.

It's an awesome, it's an awesome service, the Kidney Stone Prevention Course, self-guided, learn at your own pace, you have it access, we give it to you for the rest of your life, you'll always have access. But the group calls are, they're my favorite part of it, because it's, we all get together and we talk about everything, it's awesome, you know?

Yeah, for sure. And yeah, and there's other resources as well on the website, not to dive into everything, but you mentioned better doctor visits, there is an actual guide right there free, sort of one-page sheet that breaks down sort of the things you want to ask, and about your urine collection and urine analysis, and different things like that to make sure you get the best out of your doctor's visit for the limited time you're able to go there.

But, yeah, not to get too much in the like advertising side of things, but I just wanted to mention it because it does it connects with the idea that yeah, peanut butter doesn't have to just be completely vanquished from your diet if that's something that you love and something that really gi- brings joy or value into your life.

So yeah, I think it's just it's important to mention these things.

I think mostly what we do here is we're bringing foods back on your plate. People come to us and think they can never have so many foods again, and my job is to bring foods back on your plate, but to teach you how to eat reasonably like an adult so that you don't form new stones. So, I'll always say, "Look, I'll give you peanut butter, I'll give you peanut butter back, but you got to put that spoon in the drawer, okay?

Get a knife and put it on a piece of bread,

I was hoping you were going to say fingers.

And, yeah, no, no fingers, yeah. So, you know, it's it's about there's you can eat most things, people. We're not in the business of taking things away.

As a matter of fact, our business is bringing things back so you can safely eat your food and know that you're not going to make a kidney stone, but you got to learn how to do that.

Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, I think this is a great spot to wrap. If you have a question that you would like answered on a future episode of the show, the number again is 773-789-8763 and we will feature you on a future episode.

We love hearing from everyone. I mean, it's awesome. We like throwing in these FAQ questions now and again, just because yeah, everyone has their own question particular to them.

But things like peanut butter come up so often just broadly speaking that we want to be sure that we touch on that for the podcast audience, the YouTube audience, the people who maybe aren't already in the Facebook group, aren't already on the email newsletter, and the things that where that's already being discussed. But, yeah, I think that's a good spot to wrap.

What do you think?

Awesome. Yeah, I'm ready. That's it.

Sweet. Well, yeah, thanks again, everyone, for listening, and we will see you next week.

Thanks for joining us, everybody. Have a good day.