Is milk bad for kidney stones?

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.

I always like when we get a little sneak peek of the glasses. I like how you look in them. They're They're good.

Well, I'm going to wear them. I am very excited because

I always got the readers like at Walgreens or whatever, but they never work for me. I'm like, "What's wrong with me?" So I went to the eye doctor, and he's like, "You have astigmatism, so you have to get prescription ones for $5,000." Oh, okay.

They're not 5,000, but they're more than the $19 at Walgreens. But, Jeff, I'm so happy with them because I can

I can see my words, so I'm just like I'm happy to have them. So, I didn't even know that.

Yeah, yeah, and we don't even know. Again, it's like checking in with our baseline. Like your baseline was a certain thing, and you didn't know there was a way to resolve it with a little more money, unfortunately, but at the same time, it's like it improves your life, so it's worth it.

Jeff, my answer is always like, "Well, I guess I'm old now, so this is what it is."

There's always a fix! There's always a fix. That's what I have learned in my old age.

There's always a solution.

Yeah, but, so, should we dive into this week's voicemail?

Yeah, let's do it.

Yeah, so this is from Mary. I zoomed through it a little just because she left her number, and yeah, when you guys call in, we love getting your name, where you're from. You don't have to leave your number or anything just because yeah, we don't want to put you on blast ever.

But, yeah, we really appreciate everyone who's been calling in, so we'll get right to Mary's question.

And I have a dietitian I've been seeing, and she told me a few months back that nobody should drink milk, that milk, in general, is really bad for the stomach, and especially people that have a very sensitive stomach like me.

And so I quit drinking milk, and I'm trying to make it myself with all these different milk products that are out there, and of course, we can't drink the almond and some of the other things. So, I'm racking my brain, trying to figure out how to do this,

So that I can get enough calcium in the milk, because I was drinking milk regularly. What do you say about that, about people that are have a sensitive stomach not drinking milk at all?

Thank you.

Oh, Mary, Mary.

I think it's a great question.

So, Mary says that her dietitian told her that nobody should be drinking milk.

Okay, so I don't agree with that. I don't think that nobody should be drinking milk, first of all.

I do not think that,

The end.

But for Mary,

Listen, if you can tolerate, there's no good research that says milk's going to give you anything, okay? So, again,

If you can tolerate milk, and you enjoy it, please get your calcium from milk. I am not a believer of that.

But for Mary,

She says that it bothers her stomach. She should absolutely not drink milk, absolutely not. And I do have a lot of patients that come to me and say, "I'm trying to drink the milk, Jill,

But I'm I have a casein allergy," which is a protein found in milk, "I have I'm lactose intolerant." I'm like, "Oh, my god! Do not drink milk! That's terrible for you."

Meaning, if you don't feel good drinking it. But, make, but, and Mary is one of those people that it bothers her stomach. So, Mary,

There's great research, and we have,

We have the latest research at kidneystonediet.com that a bunch of great nephrologists did

On the on, oxalate and nut milks. And, yes, almond milk was high, so we advise not to be drinking almond milk or cashew milk. But there's other milks that you can have that you do not have to be, you know, putting all those nuts in a sack and squeezing,

Squeezing all the milk out of it, so you make it at home. There's unsweetened coconut milk. These are all things found in your milk section, but it will be under the substitute milks, okay?

So, where you would find almond milk, you can also find these milk substitutes: unsweetened coconut milk. I like that, and I use a brand called Silk.

I like it only because it I also drink regular milk, lactose-free milk, I drink that as well. But I look at my milk a few different ways. If I'm watching calories, if I've had enough calories that day, I will drink my Silk milk for the calcium because it's only 30 calories a cup,

As opposed to if I'm having it, but, but,

But it has no protein in it.

So, if I have a day where I'm like cool on calories, but I'm looking to up my protein for my fitness goals, then I'm going to drink regular milk. You may say, "That's all too much for me, Sissy. I'm just telling you what I do.

You do not have to do that." But, I'm just saying each of these milks that I'm going to list definitely are lower oxalate, but some of them may not have protein in it.

Some of them may be higher in calcium. All of them I suggest you do lower sugar. So, you could use pea milk,

You could do flax milk,

You could do macadamia milk,

You could do the coconut milk,

Oat milk,

And what I Is there You see that study, Jeff? Are you looking at it? Is there anything

Yeah, yeah, so I just

On there that I'm not saying? Go ahead. Read the study.

Yeah, I think let me just scroll down here, but yeah, I think you covered most. There's enriched rice milk is on there.. Yeah, coconut, flax,

Dairy, macadamia, oat, hemp,

Soy, hazelnut, cashew, and almond are all what's on this list and gives the stats, the data around what's

Yeah, where they fall on the spectrum. But you can look at that and see because obviously almond is at the very top and not advised, but then coconut is the very bottom and dramatically different in terms of what you can expect.

Yes.

And with these nut milks, too,

I have you know, they so they have they a- they have a supplement added to them. And so we know if we take calcium supplement pills, that has shown that it can increase your ca- your stone risk. So, we advise not taking pills, now, calcium supplements in pill form.

Now, bariatric patients

Are, they will be on calcium supplements, and they must be,

They will be, their doctors will tell them, because they have malabsorption issues.

So, that doesn't go for everybody. Bariatric patients must take calcium supplements, in most cases, their doctor will put them on them. Now, when we're taking the nut milks, too, I mean, we really should be taking those with meals because it is supplemented, right?

I wouldn't just say drink your coconut milk like straight out of the straight out of the container without having food to help absorb that supplement, as well.

I think it's easy absorbed by those milks, so I don't have an issue with it. I have probably most of my patients are on nut milks, not almond, but the non-dairy milks for their calcium, and they all keep their stone risk at bay.

So I have no problem with them. I do use, sometimes I use pea milk, sometimes I use coconut milk, and then I use lactose-free, regular milk, like I said, depending on my protein needs. So, Mary, don't drive yourself nuts.

You can definitely have the milk substitutes that are available in your grocer's refrigerated section. Go to kidneystonediet.com, so you can see the study and the oxalate level for the various nut milks, and oatmeal and flax, it's not just nut milks, it's all kinds of different alternative milks.

Also, for people who are going on vacation,

Cause people will say, "Jill, I'm going on vacation. What, am I supposed to carry a cooler with me?" They also have, those types of milks in the shelf section. You could just get, they're just sitting there.

They don't have to be refrigerated. So, look at alternative milks

In the on the shelves inside your grocery store, too. They do not have to be refrigerated. A lot of my patients take those with them on vacation, okay?

So, it's an excellent question. You do not have to be making your own milk. You do not

Have to drink regular milk. You do not You can also drink Tropicana 50/50. I specifically talk about that brand of orange juice because it will have less sugar, and it's a good calcium source in there.

But for people who do not tolerate milk, do not use it. There are other sources available for you to still get your calcium. But if you can tolerate milk, I am not a believer at all that

Milk is, again, vilified. You can absolutely have milk. I know I know vegans will say, "Well, we don't drink any baby, and who's drinking," you know, "we're the only species that are drinking milk after we're five years old or whatever." Listen, people, you can drink milk.

I'm

Everyone is entitled to their beliefs, but I don't like this all fits one solution. I'm not a fan of it. I think it confuses people.

If you can tolerate dairy, it doesn't bother you, and your and, you know, there's no medical professional saying it's not right for you. I don't think a blanket statement that, you know, people nobody should drink milk, I don't agree with that. That's my thought.

You can definitely bang me up in the comments about it, but I don't believe that at all. Many, many of my patients love milk, enjoy it, causes them no issues at all. And it's a great calcium, natural calcium source.

So, that's where I stand on it.

Yeah, which I wanted to And I just wanted to throw that out there just to reiterate that naturally the calcium isn't coming from most of the nuts and everything that you're creating the milks from. So if you are making it at home, you're actually not replacing the calcium because the calcium was, as you said, added to the milk or it's added to the vitamin to the orange juice and things like that.

So it is really important that we can again think like, "Oh, I can replace it with

Oat milk. Like that'll be an amazing way to replace it. I'll make it at home.

I know exactly what's in it." But then, suddenly, we don't know what we don't know, that oat milk doesn't have the calcium that a store-bought oat milk has because it was not added to it when we made it ourselves. So I think just to reiterate that just so there's no confusion there. Yeah, I think it's important to recognize because, yeah, we're all trying to

Take the steps that are best for us, best for the planet, best for our perspective on whatever it is. If it is, again, like we're not going to consume animal products, that's that's definitely a path you can take. But we just need to know that, okay, if it's calcium, let's make sure we're actually getting the calcium and not making the assumptions that we are.

Yes, yes! And thank you for chiming in with that one. But, but, again, I do want to say, you know, I, I, our whole platform is about: you need to do the lifestyle that works for you.

But I also believe that we shouldn't be dogmatic about it because then it's confusing other people that are able to have other products, or want them, or whatever. So, there, there can sometimes be an elitist mindset, like, "My lifestyle is better than your lifestyle." And when people are trying to eat healthier,

There's a huge learning curve. And that's that's that's people's opinions, and that may not work for the person you're talking to, right? So, you know, I just want everyone to be comfortable and enjoy the food they eat.

A lot of doctors will say, "You've formed a stone. You must turn vegan now." oh,

Th- that's just unnecessary. You do not. Most of my patients, I mean, so many of my patients are vegan and vegetarian, and they have stones, so, again, we have to be careful about the advice we give people because e- e- everybody is so very different.

And so,

You know, Mary cannot drink milk, but maybe Sammy can, and really enjoys it. And now Sammy is being told they should never have milk again. It just doesn't make sense to me.

That's my opinion,

And I'll leave it at that.

Yeah, and I know we don't normally do specific recommendations, but you did mention the 50/50 and Silk. How do you feel about, in the description, putting just a few of the products that you Yeah, right. Sure.

You feel positive? Yeah, so we'll just link to them in the description, just the Tropicana 50/50, the Silk coconut.

Yeah, the Trop 50/50, these are products I use. I'd never suggest anything I don't use. So, I my patients use the Trop 50/50.

I have used the Silk Unsweetened Coconut Milk. I have used the Good Karma Flax Milk Unsweetened, and I have used the Ripple Unsweetened Pea Milk, cuz the pea milk will have some protein in it, too.

So, those are my the ones I use, but we can list all the ones in that study, too, if you'd like. That's fine.

Yeah, just to make it as easy as possible, but yeah, those'll be those link will be below.

So, people can look. Yeah, even if they look, some people are like, "Jill, take a picture of your phone and send." They want to see what the image looks like, so they find it faster at the grocery store. So, even if, yeah, you put a link there, then they could see the image and they'll they'll be able to see it a lot quicker.

Yeah.

Sure.

But, yeah, I mean, that was a great question and I think a really valuable one. And if you're out there, and you have a question, the number is 773-789-8763, and we will feature you on a future episode. But, yeah, you can find all the resources, everything we talk about, the free email newsletter, the premium stuff, the course and meal plans, or just the little handout for having a better doctor's visit and things like that, all at kidneystonediet.com.

And

Oh, and that snack book!

Yes, we haven't talked about that.

In a little bit.

Yeah, the eat So, there's a snack book with 30 kidney stone-safe recipes for snacks, sync pro- low-oxalate protein bars, people. We're giving it away

With the meal plan service, or you can get the snack book just by itself for $9.95. It's ridiculous. 30 recipes, it's a downloadable eBook, all the protein, all the salt, sugar, all oxalates all figured out for you, tasty desserts, all most of them all under 200 calories, cuz I like lower calorie snacks.

And, yeah, it's a it's a great resource for people who are like, "Well, I got no snacks anymore. What?" So, and again,

The low-oxalate protein bar, that thing took me months to figure that out, and so I'm really proud of that one. There's a There's some really good, cool recipes in there that you can feel safe eating, but also enjoy eating. So, you got to like what you're eating, so 30 recipes for the snack book, and you can get it free if you join the meal plan, and if you don't want the meal plan, you can just get the snack book by itself for 10 bucks.

There you go.

Yeah, absolutely. So, with that, we will see you guys next week.

Thanks, Mary!