# How much animal protein should I eat? Source: https://kidneystonediet.com/ep/how-much-animal-protein-should-i-eat/ Published: 2020-12-15 --- [![Kidney Stone Diet Podcast](https://kidneystonediet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Kidney-Stone-Diet-Podcast-1-1024x1024.jpg)](https://kidneystonediet.com/podcast/) [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECGjiqfkO28)[Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-much-animal-protein-should-i-eat/id1528474326?i=1000502467177&uo=4)[Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4NtpPmOBoUf5Kr4xxPLuIv)[Amazon Music](https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/0868148d-adfd-411d-b3f2-71a0ad1461ec) December 15, 2020 --- ![Jeff Sarris](https://kidneystonediet.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Jeff-Sarris-150x150.jpg) Jeff Sarris Host ![Jill Harris](https://kidneystonediet.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Kidney-Stone-Diet-Jill-Harris-150x150.jpg) Jill Harris Host In this episode of the Kidney Stone Diet Podcast Jill Harris answers a listener question about animal protein.\ \ • [Kidney Stone Diet](https://kidneystonediet.com/)\ • [Kidney Stone Prevention Program](https://kidneystonediet.com/kidney-stone-prevention)\ • [Oxalate Food List](https://kidneystonediet.com/oxalate-list/)\ • [Free KSD Resources](https://kidneystonediet.com/resources/)\ \ Find the full transcript at [BYLT.co/show/kidney-stone-diet](https://bylt.co/show/kidney-stone-diet) ## Chapters - 00:00:00 Animal Protein Portions and Kidney Stone Risks - 00:03:32 Calculating Daily Protein Requirements for Stone Formers - 00:06:15 Purines, Uric Acid, and High-Purine Foods - 00:09:03 Kidney Stone Diet Community and Educational Resources ## Transcript ### Animal Protein Portions and Kidney Stone Risks 00:00:00 Jeff Sarris Welcome back to the Kidney Stone Diet Podcast, the show about reducing your risk for kidney stones and living your best life. I'm your host and fellow student, Jeff Sarris. And I'm here, as always, with Jill Harris. How you doing, Jill? 00:00:25 Jill Harris Hello, Jeff. Good. I'm feeling pretty good considering it's COVID time and everything. Feeling good. 00:00:31 Jeff Sarris Yeah, I never know how to like transition into talking. You know, it's funny because this is like a such a silly, like conceptually what we're doing. We're talking to each other, but we're trying to talk to an audience, a community of listeners, so it's always funny, right? Like where do we even start? 00:00:48 Jill Harris Well, I think we do a pretty good job of just starting. Because, you know, because here's the thing, you kind of have to be aware that this is, even though we're just talking to each other, we are talking to an audience, right? So, it's kind of like, you know, you just got to you just got to be honest about what's going on. Just say let's start, okay? So, you know, there's no fake in what we're trying to do here, right? 00:01:15 Jeff Sarris Yeah, for sure.. So, on that note, we'll just dive into the questions. 00:01:19 Jill Harris Let's just start. 00:01:21 Jeff Sarris Yeah, we'll dive into the questions. So, this comes from someone on Facebook again. "Hey Jill, What does it mean to watch our animal protein? Does it mean we could eat one animal protein a day? Is it even less than that? And what do people do to get their protein in for the day?" 00:01:38 Jill Harris Yeah. This is a very common question, so Lots of times when patients, when doctors refer patients to me, the patient will say, "My doctor told me to watch my meat." "Well, Jill, I don't even eat red meat." First of all, everybody, meat is meat. Meat is meat. So, the doctor's not just talking about red meat. Chicken is meat, turkey's a meat, Fish, we're going to put that in here, you know. So, pork, it's all meat. I know you're going to say fish is fish and seafood is seafood, but you all know what I'm saying. So, don't think somebody's just talking about red meat. Meat is meat. "Jill, I don't eat red meat. I eat chicken all day. What's the problem?" It's meat, Okay? So, for kidney stone formers, there's a couple things with that. You can get an increase of uric acid, and you could be a uric acid stone former if you're overeating meat. The other thing is too much meat protein can make you a little hypercalciuric, which is a big fancy word for it could pull some calcium from your bone into your urine, and that could be a problem for bone disease, of course, but also kidney stones. So, the treatment plan of watch your meat is not really the most helpful thing, right? Because the patient doesn't understand what watch your meat means. If the patient's eating a side of beef every day, does it just mean it can have a quarter of a side of beef? Or does it just mean they could have two spoonfuls of beef? What does it really mean to watch your meat? There is and so, here's the thing, you guys are going to be like, "Oh my god, she's just terrible. I'm going to shut her off right now," because I always forget the equation. I believe it's 0.8 to 1 kg per pound per day, but to be sure 00:03:30 Jeff Sarris Yeah, it is, it's not an easy one to just remember offhand. ### Calculating Daily Protein Requirements for Stone Formers 00:03:32 Jill Harris It's not It's not it's not rolling off one's tongue, and even though I've done this for decades, I suck with numbers. So, here's the deal. I wrote an article, How To Calculate Your Protein Needs, so put that in Google and then Jill, and you'll find it on my website. And I wrote the article because if you're like me, you're not that great with math. Yeah, I know I'm a nurse, I still suck at math, okay? So, it's written for a baby. We'll say do this, do this. I use my weight as an example, so you can plug all your numbers in. And then the protein, it's a protein calculator in that article, and it will tell you how many grams of protein, meat protein, not yogurt, meat protein you can have for a day. For most of us, It's around 4 to 6 oz. "Jill, what happens if I'm a bodybuilder? I work out all the time. I have some nice muscles for an old broad, okay? I'm lifting weights a lot. I don't overeat meat. There's some fitness people, they're vegans, okay? So, and they're getting their protein through other ways." Stop, listen, I'm not telling you don't eat meat. I do. I just eat normal amounts, and normal amounts are going to be dependent upon your weight. Also, do you have other medical conditions like CKD, chronic kidney disease? Have Do you have you had a gastric bypass? You may need to eat more protein. So, that is for kidney stone formers, but if you have other medical things going on, whether you need less protein than that or mo- more protein, that is when you talk to your doctor. "Hey Doc, I am watching my protein, watching my protein because of kidney stones, But I also remember you saying because I have diabetes, you want me to eat a lot of protein." So, hang with me, everybody. Just say you're a diabetic, so my diabetic patients come to me, "Jill, they're telling me to eat protein all day, so I get off carbs." Or they're telling me to eat almonds and spinach all day cause I got to watch my carbs because I'm a diabetic. Again, you can do that, but always eat normal portion sizes. It is when we eat too much of one thing that leads to stones and other stuff as well. So, the article that I wrote will give you exactly what you need. Read the article. Just don't be putting your weight in there and doing, you know, read the article. It's short and sweet. All my articles are short and sweet. I know nobody wants to read, so I make them really simple. And then you can figure out your meat protein. Other protein counts in your day, but we're talking specifically for uric acid stone patients, ### Purines, Uric Acid, and High-Purine Foods 00:06:15 Jill Harris That's why we're talking about meat protein. And fish and seafood are also higher uric acid foods. By the way, I know most people don't send other people to other websites, but I'm going to. Mayo Clinic has a nice, little purine list. So, if you want to Google low purine foods Mayo Clinic, there's a nice, little list besides just meat, okay? There's some vegetables that are higher uric acid as well, so you can check their list out as well. 00:06:48 Jeff Sarris And what is purine then? Is that what comes in vegetables that can produce uric acid? 00:06:53 Jill Harris Well, purines come from, so what happens is you eat meat protein, it breaks down into purines and that breaks down into uric acid. Some vegetables do that though, too, a few of them, like mushrooms. So, and you'd be surprised, some people say, "Look, I eat mushrooms all day." so, then that could be the reason, right? Oatmeal can be a little higher in purines, so it goes, it's protein that breaks into uric acid that breaks into purine that breaks into uric acid. And so, the yur- excess uric acid in your blood and urine can then make a uric acid stone. So, Getting portion sizes, if you guys listen to any of these podcasts or if you listen to these watch these on YouTube, you're always going to see a very familiar theme. When we eat overeat foods, that's when we have problems, whether it's kidney stones, whether it's diabetes, whether it's obesity, hypertension. So, when we get our portion sizes in check, things start getting better in our bodies, so. 00:07:56 Jeff Sarris Yeah, it's funny, the actual the effort to go in is sort of it's relatively simple. Like you make simple changes, but the mechanisms underneath are so complex that all these things played together takes it takes a lot of knowledge and experience, like which is why you're here, and just figuring out what's happening, why are these things doing this, and now how can we how can we create a plan for someone to get to a better spot. 00:08:24 Jill Harris Yes, right. Yeah, my job is to take, you know, this, I always say I bring this down home in a very friendly way, but all this stuff is drenched in science and my mentor and lots of science, not just Dr. Coe's site, but the science will say all these things will affect kidney stones, will affect other diseases. So, my job is to just sprinkle some common sense into your life, right, right onto your plate. So, I'm trying to do it in a way that's approachable, in a way that everybody can do and really be honest, too. We eat too much and we've got to calm down with our portion sizes. When we get that in check, you'll see you can eat your favorite foods. That's a promise. ### Kidney Stone Diet Community and Educational Resources 00:09:03 Jeff Sarris Yeah, I think that's a good way to wrap on protein. So, if people want to learn more, what should they Where should they go over to Kidney Stone Diet and what should they look at? 00:09:16 Jill Harris Well, if they want to learn more, particularly about protein, they can go to kidneystonediet.com, go to my blog, and you'll see things on protein. Can also join my Facebook group. It's a closed group, and there's thousands of people on it, and it's called Kidney Stone Diet. And I am the only admin there and I make sure everything's beautiful and kind and funny and clinically sound. So, I'm always I'm on there every day throughout the day. And you know, subscribe to this podcast. Look, Jeff and I are going to be doing a lot of these shows. Our whole goal is that you get the right information in a way that you can hear it so you can make these lifestyle changes and they're not terrible for you. You actually turn your health around. That's the goal of this, free. So, subscribe. Everybody knows a kidney stone former, tell your friends about it, please, so you can learn. And then if you want to work with me, go to my website at kidneystonediet.com. Got lots of offerings there for every price group, by the way, every price group, cause I'm sensitive to that. 00:10:16 Jeff Sarris Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think that's the perfect recap of everything right there. So, I think we'll wrap it there this week. And thanks again, Jill, and we'll see you next time. 00:10:27 Jill Harris Thanks, Jeff.