Is turmeric safe for kidney stone formers?

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 Jill just swooped into the frame!

I swooped in because I had to get my water!

Of course, you need enough fluids.

Yeah, hi, I'm Jill. I'm Jill. What'd you say?

Yeah, always have enough fluids. I mean that's such a key part of everything.

My goodness! If I'm talking all day long, I definitely need my fluids. And you know, since we're talking about kidney stone prevention, we need our fluids.

So, I'm Jill, your kidney stone prevention nurse. Happy to serve!

Yeah, so we're back with another listener question this week. And yeah, I think this is this is going to be a really good one for people. Do you want to dive right in?

Let's go, baby!

All righty.

Hi, this is LaVerne in Atlanta. I just discovered you guys. You're wonderful.

Thank you so much for providing what you provide to us. In any event, my question is what about turmeric? I've been taking a fair amount of it before I had kidney stones and I've stopped taking it, but it has so many anti-inflammatory and other benefits.

So, what is Jill's thinking on that? Thank you.

Yeah, that's a tough one. I mean, that one got me for sure. Like turmeric and just coming from like the paleo space like we've talked about before, it's like spinach, almonds, turmeric has great anti-inflammatory properties.

I was I was personally having sort of a high dose of turmeric regularly. So yeah, where does where does that fall?

I hate She's a party pooper, man. I know. I really am.

So, studies show that these high doses of turmeric that everyone is sucking on and ingesting and taking, converts over to excess oxalate in our body. So, for kidney stone formers, we say it's a no-go. Now, for somebody who's watching and their naturopaths or

Somebody, a doctor has said, another doctor has said, "You know, take this for anti-inflammatory properties," please remind that medical professional that turmeric can be very high in oxalate, it converts over to oxalate in your body, so this may be a no-go for you. So, that's what I have to say about it. Now, there It falls under that category, too, where, "I heard this was good for me,

So I'm going to take lots of it, because more is better." No, not for kidney stones. The kidney stone people, I mean, this is It's just such a bummer because there's nothing worse than when you've eaten healthy or changed your diet to a healthier one, and then you get sick because of that. That is so frustrating.

I mean, you know, for somebody who eats healthy and then also gets, you know, cancer, like I did, you know, it's I understand how frustrating that can be. So, you've changed everything. You're a diabetic, you went to your nurse your nutritionist.

He or she said, "Eat, you know, get rid of carbs, but eat this stuff." And then you take that advice and extrapolate it out, and you eat as much as you want of it, and then it's higher in oxalate. So, again, I'm going to be super boring and say, "Everything within moderation." The turmeric, though, look, if you want to use a little bip in your food, I don't have a problem with that.

I was waiting for the bip or the boop.

Yeah, the boop's coming. And but make sure you're getting calcium with it. Make sure you're getting your, you know, RDA of calcium every day.

But again, this is a this is a portion game, people. I would not advise taking the supplements at all. If your doctor has suggested this, please remind the doctor that it can convert over to oxalate.

"Is this still a fine thing for you?" Have that conversation with the doctor. If I have a patient that comes to me and was not, they just saw it on Marshall's, you know, clearance sale and they read something about it as anti-inflammatory properties, so they started taking a bunch of it, I'm going to tell them to stop. Because if they have high oxalate, obviously I'm looking at a urine collection, I'm like, "Not the best idea for you." So, you know,

I'm going to say if you eat a well-balanced diet, lower your added sugar, eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, eat less junk, get your fluids, you'll have less inflammation. Now, that doesn't mean There's other reasons why people get inflammation. I am aware of that.

But I'm talking about

We normal folk that's just eating a junky diet. They want to be They're reading about inflammation, do the Kidney Stone Diet. You'll be get healthier because of the low sugar, low sodium, eating everything within normal portion size.

So, that's also anti-inflammatory. Again, I recognize that there's autoimmune disease and stuff like that, people. I get that.

I'm not talking about that. I'm just talking about people who have no other medical conditions.

Yeah, and what's interesting, too, is I mean when we look at inflammation, it comes from several of the things that we would be avoiding on the Kidney Stone Diet, such as nuts. Like almonds and things do have inflammatory properties. It's weird.

It is actually really strange how they balance out. That like sort of the healthy foods tend to tend to have higher oxalate and things that make them almost unhealthy then, depending on the person.

For kidney stone formers, right? And so all plant foods have oxalate. So, that's just the deal.

So, that's unfortunate. I have a lot of vegan and vegetarian patients, obviously. Do I tell them to go start eating meat?

Absolutely not. What you find out, again, it's always about a portion. People are overeating the highest oxalate foods.

I mostly eat plant food with a little bit of meat thrown in. Maybe about Some days no meat whatsoever, other days I can have up to 6 oz of meat. So, you know, but mostly my plate is filled with fruits and vegetables, so but all low-oxalate ones.

And how much would you say is typically on your plate? I think that's a good sort of frame of reference, too, for people because you talk about portion.

About how much oxalate is on my plate?

Oh, no, just in general. So, like for a meal for a given dinner or anything.

Yeah, so everyone's going to be a little bit different. We'll have to do a day in the life of Jill eating. Well, if you want to see how I eat, buy the meal plans!

What I eat every day, right? That's what I eat.

Oh, yeah.

But kidneystonediet.com. But I, typically, I will have, let's just say I'm eating meat. I'll have like 3 oz of meat on that given meal.

So, it'll be, you know, a palm of my hand. And then the rest of my plate is vegetables. Yeah.

Now, I don't eat Sometimes I just have like, you know, I'm not filling up my plate. I don't overeat.

It's not a buffet line!

Yeah. And sometimes like for lunch I'll just have a dessert plate, you know? So, I don't have like a 14-inch plate I'm filling up.

But typically, if I'm having meat, it's 3 oz of meat on that given meal, and then 3/4 of the meal is fruit or vegetables, mostly vegetables. Fruit is a lot of times a dessert for me or an in-between snack. High-fiber fruits.

I don't like I like grapes, but there's not a lot of nutrition in those as far as, you know, they're low fiber and stuff. And if I'm going to have a snack, I want to keep full. That's the main goal, right?

But, you know, that's how I eat.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I mean and that is the thing. The Kidney Stone Diet is sort of at by nature anti-inflammatory.

So, speaking back to the turmeric, like a bip or a boop here or there, but other than that, like it's we're already helping people get down that path. So, it is I think it's a good a good route to take, but completely understand why someone would be looking at something like turmeric because it has such high anti-inflammatory properties.

And like I said, like I was taking a high dose of turmeric for a little while just because I was like, "Oh, let me give this a try and see." And then shortly after that we met, I started learning about all of this and I was like, "Oh, wow, all of the time, everything that I've learned, all the health coach training and all this stuff I've gone through, knew nothing about oxalate." So, it's so important to meld the two areas.

So, that's why I don't know, that's why I think this podcast and the platform's so valuable because no matter where you are in your journey, if you're just diving in to learning about health and wellness, or if you're all the way like to the point where you're like, "Oh, I discovered turmeric, I discovered this and that," all these different tweaks, it's so important because this is an area of health that somehow has been I don't want to say overlooked, but it just it hasn't made it into the mainstream, unfortunately.

Yeah, it is unfortunate. And then, you know, I think it's getting there more and more. So much, I mean, you know, a lot of things have not been studied.

It's very difficult to get people in a lab and feed them specific food and then take blood and urine samples all day long. People have to lose work and, you know, it's complicated, right? You can't trust people.

This isn't a negative thing, it's just a fact. You can't trust people to, you know, eat exactly what a doctor or the researchers are telling you to do at their home. You know, they're going to have snacks or whatever.

So, it's it's very difficult. People have to be locked in a lab and they have to be, you know, fed. So, it's hard.

And again, our bodies are also different. We're going to absorb things differently. Jeff and I are not going to absorb the same exact way, right?

So, it's so complicated. If whenever I feel a little I really don't, but I mean, there's always I don't really feel overwhelmed ever with diet. I always go back to basics.

Is what's on my plate healthy for me and my body? Is there an ample amount of vegetables on my plate? Is there protein on my plate?

Do I feel like having carbs today? If I do, it's typically like, you know, just a simple white rice in small amounts, cause that works okay for me. Not a lot of great nutrition in that, people.

I understand that. But for me, that's what works. Turmeric or anti-inflammatory pills, again, always go back to your diet.

Are you starting there before we pop pills, really? So, I'll have people I know people that'll, you know, their plate is junk and they're taking turmeric. Really?

What do you think you're doing? I mean, start with food first. Then see if you need to supplement.

Let's start there, okay?

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and if you're if you want to get a good overview of inspiration on what you can eat on the Kidney Stone Diet and a bunch of recipes, we have the Kidney Stone Diet meal plans along with a bunch of free recipes on the site at kidneystonediet.com. So, you can you can definitely dive in right there to everything that's free, or if you want a weekly meal plan sent to your inbox, we also have that as well.

We have the Kidney Stone Diet course, we have tons of episodes. I don't even know what episode we're up to right now. We're we're pushing 50, I know, of this show, which is amazing!

Oh, wow!

Yeah, like but, yeah, we're getting close there. So many episodes there, so much content on the website. We have the weekly email where Jill sends you a little personal letter about sort of to keep you on track and maybe a little bit about your life, but also about you, Jill, your life, and also about keeping everyone yeah, moving forward.

'Cause that's really what we're all trying to do, right? We're just trying to every day move forward and progress in a positive way.

Yeah, I think I think Yes, my other mantra is progress over perfection. I if you're in the game and you're progressing and practicing like you want to, that's good enough, people. No one here is going to be perfect.

I'm going to take a second and just if you guys could do me a favor and subscribe to the channel because that helps other people find us easier. Also, please comment. I love finding I love seeing some of my favorite Facebook page people commenting and I love interacting with you here on YouTube.

Look, I'm all about Jeff and I are all about building a support and community, so don't worry about being too verbose, you know I'm not, so just please comment in the section in down below and subscribe, that really helps us rank up there in the ratings.

Yeah, and to reach more people and really get the get the news out. And there's never a question that is too new. Like if you're new to the space, don't worry about it.

Like Jill is here to answer everyone's questions. Even if it's been answered before.

Yep, don't care.

Yeah, we're we're here to say I mean, we're saying a lot of the same things each and every week, but that's just because sometimes it takes something said in the right way, at the right time, for an individual person, to have it really connect and help them make progress. So, we're just week in, week out, going to keep doing this, and we want to answer all of your questions.

And actually, on that note, the phone number is 773-789-8763 where you can send in your questions. And yeah, big or small, we're happy to answer all of them. Jill, Jill's here to answer all of them.

And yeah, if you're watching on YouTube, we would love if you liked the video, subscribe, hit that little bell to be notified, and leave a comment. Actually, below this, if you just said like just if you do a little emoji, just waving your hand, just saying, "Hey, I'm here," just so we know.

Yeah, I love that!

Yeah, 'cause we don't we don't know who's out there. Like we know from the Facebook group, from the email list, from all of these things, but I don't know, it's always nice to just have that little like, "Hey, like, we're here, we're watching."

Oh, it tickles me! I get so excited when I see that, makes me very happy.

Yeah. So, that'll do it for this week. Thanks again, LaVerne, for your question and we will see you all next week.

Thanks, LaVerne!