The worst food for kidney stones

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 here by myself today with

Kidney Stone Prevention Nurse Jill Harris. Oh my goodness, Jeff. I just the light just went out for just one second.

Just went out.

Went out. So, so today, we're going to talk about

I said it was the kidney stones worst food. That's what I'm name that's what we're going to label this, the worst food foods for kidney stones. And another way to say it, too, is the highest oxalate foods.

It could be both.

Yeah. Yeah, what do you want to avoid?.

Yeah, what you want to avoid when you want to lessen your kidney stone risk. And so,

Here's what I want to say, though, first. I want you guys, please, can you please subscribe to the channel? I'm I'm so desperate.

I will do anything because what I want is more kidney stone formers to get reputable information

From a YouTube channel. That would be us. What we're trying to give you here is the best information to prevent kidney stones.

All of this is based upon Dr. Co, Fred Co, COE, his work from University of Chicago. He's been doing this for over 50 years and so all based in science.

Even though I sound like a street urchin,

This stuff is drenched in science from his website over there. His website is

Well, and you're a nurse, you've been doing this for over 20, 22, 23 years, so yeah, it's there's a lot of credentials here that unfortunately are lacking in a lot of other spaces.

Yes, yes. So, we want people to find us quickly. If you Google kidney stones, we don't show up and I want us to show up, so subscribe, please.

Also, I'm giving a raffle. I'm going to pick two winners

For all of you who subscribe, but you have to tell me. So, email me at [email protected]. Let me know you subscribe, so I'll save that email, and then when we get 5,000, we're at 4,500 now around, when we get up to 5,000 subscribers, I'm going to pick two winners of the raffle and give you, I will contact you through email and give away

Two consults, one each, one each. That's worth $225, thank you very much, right?

Yeah, definitely. But yeah, because it just means a lot and subscribing, hitting that bell, or telling your friends, anyone who you know who is suffering through kidney stones, or has had them in the past and doesn't want to form them again, which is anyone who's had kidney stones.

Yes. We just want to help as many people as we can, so that's the whole goal with everything we're doing here. But, yeah, so, yeah, a lot of times, we have call-ins, so if you have a question, the number is 773-789-8763, and we'll feature your question on a future episode, but we wanted to do some of these more FAQ, really nitty-gritty specific aspects of reducing your kidney stone risk.

So, yeah, today, we're going to go into the worst foods for kidney stones.

Yes, or otherwise known as, what are the highest oxalate foods and things you should avoid in the kidney stone diet? Number one, the worst foods for kidney stone diet is the worst foods for kidney stones is not following the kidney stone diet. There's that.

So, you want to decrease your sugar and your salt, that's added sugar. You know, you want to follow the goals of the kidney stone diet,

But the highest oxalate foods that people tend to overeat

And can lead to kidney stones are found on kidneystonediet.com, the start page, but I'm going to also read it, so you can hear what I'm saying here. So, we all know that the number one worst food you can eat for kidney stones is spinach. Unfortunately, it pains me to take away healthy foods and the problem with

The low oxalate diet is when a doctor, when you have a kidney stone and you're in the doctor's office, he or she will say, "Stop eating fruits and vegetables, lower your oxalate."

And so, you Google oxalate, you see that there's so much misguided information or, you know, lists that say one thing, one list says another thing, so who do you believe? We deal with the Harvard list, that's who we promote, we've been using it for decades,

Our patients use it along with the other advice that we give, our patients reduce their urine oxalate, the end. Unless they have malabsorption issues, 95% of my patients will never have to worry about oxalate again, once they understand the oxalate list and how to use it, and so,

Here are the highest oxalate foods or foods you should avoid, the worst foods for calcium oxalate stones. Number one is spinach. Rhubarb is really up there, too, 541 mg per cup.

Spinach is 755 mg per cup, so it's very high.

And for most of you, we want you to have a goal of 100 mg of oxalate a day.

Some of you may be told to even go less than that, if you've had a bariatric surgery or you have malabsorption issues, so it's 100 mg a day, unless your doctor has told you otherwise. Rice bran, look at your ingredient list, people, lots of things are have rice bran in it, very high at 281 mg a cup.

Buckwheat groats, what the hell are those? I don't know, they're buckwheat and they're groats, they're in things, look for it, look in your ingredient list, there's buckwheat flour, there's all kinds of stuff with buckwheat groats, so look and 133 mg

A cup, it's a lot. Almonds, 122 mg,

A lot, and so many of you come here, one of the worst foods for kidney stones, almonds, because why? Because if you have two almonds, you're going to get a kidney stone? No, because you were eating almonds like this all day long, because the dietitian or your dialysis nurse told you to eat almonds as snacks and you took that advice, extrapolated it out, and it became a whole new meaning of eat almonds, and so you were eating them all day long.

Keto people who eat almond flour, almond milk, almonds, too much.

Worst food for kidney stones, okay? So, we take them away.

Yeah, looking at the list there, too, that's only 1 oz. 1 oz of almonds is not very much. It's It says 22 kernels and, yeah, that is That's not a lot of almonds.

I mean, it's a handful, I mean, at most.

That's right. And so what do I hear all day? "Jill, I was eating handfuls of almonds."

Yeah, hundreds and hundreds, that's the problem. It's not that because you had two almonds, it's overeating them. Miso soup, 111 mg, that's a lot, and also, miso soup is super high in sodium, so that's not a good food.

Wheat berries, another one, 98 mg of oxalate,

Really high. And so, corn grits, baked potatoes with skin, soybeans, so we get lower and lower. Cocoa powder, hot chocolate, this is why chocolate is to be watched.

Brown rice flour, brown rice flour is used in a lot of things. Turn it around, Buster Brown, and look at your ingredient list and you'll see. Millet, cornmeal, very high.

Shredded wheat, the cereal, french fries. "Jill, I can never have a french fry again?" Now,

Once we get under,

So, spinach is 755 mg per cup,

So, spinach and almonds, I just take away. Of course, buckwheat groats, you should not be eating, either, but once we get down to things that are less than 100 mg of oxalate,

Here's where it gets tricky. So, you're going to see on my website at kidneystonediet.com, the start page, there is a download, the beautiful handout, called the High Oxalate Foods to Avoid. I'm sure Jeff will put it in the in the description, so you can pluck that out.

Now, although this is a nice, handy, little list of things that you should avoid, I want to teach you something that I teach my private patients and I teach my students in the Kidney Stone Prevention Course,

Especially when they have a hanky and they're wiping away the tear and they're like, "What the hell? I can never have a french fry," because french fries are 51 mg

Of oxalate, okay, in whatever serving. Jeff, do you Does it say what serving it is?

Oh, yeah, let me go back there and look.

Go ahead, look, french fries. And so, Jeff will look that up, but so, they're high.

And whenever you form kidney stones, you'll you'll one of the things they'll take away is french fries. Now, is it practical to think that you're going to live every day for the rest of your life and not have a french fry? If somebody told me I could never have a crinkle fry again, I would get a shovel, dig a hole, and jump in, and that's it.

And I'd ask Jeff to put the dirt on top of me and that would be the end of me. There'd be no point in having a breath. So,

Here's the deal.

French fries, they're not a healthy food, anyway. Does that mean you can't have them? 100%, no.

It doesn't mean you can't have them. Of course, you can have french fries. Did you find a serving on that, Jeff?

Yeah, so for french fries, it says 4 oz or 1/2 a cup.

Okay, so 1/2 a cup, ain't nobody eating french fries half a cup. That's four of them. Very small amount.

So, when we have fries, we typically have some fries. Now, for those of you who are eating fries over and over every single day with lunch and dinner, of course, it's going to add up real quickly.

Have some fries, have them once a week. Drink some milk with them, if you want, or whatever. You don't have to, you know, and if you don't have milk, it doesn't mean you can't have the fries, but make sure you get your calcium needs that day met.

Try to do that. It would be ideal if you could have some milk with it, because the milk, the calcium, or even a non-dairy source of calcium will bind with the oxalate that you're eating right then

And it won't be absorbed as much into your gut, it will leave through the stool, but it has to have some calcium to join with the oxalate in your intestine, okay? So, some of these things, when we get under, you know, 90 mg of oxalate, of course, you can You can have your shredded wheat once in a while. You could have You could even have raspberries once in a while.

I think they're 48 mg for like a cup or half I don't know if it's a cup or half a cup, look at your lists, the high oxalate foods to avoid, but they're also higher. When we eat things like raspberries, they're healthy, so we tend to eat a bushel.

So, even if you wanted to put a few raspberries in your Greek yogurt, of course, and then along with that, put some blackberries and blueberries, because those are low, or strawberries, those are low oxalate fruits. Sometimes, we just want to see a little bit of a food that is a no-no, just a little bit. It's always going to be about portion.

No matter what we're trying to do here in the diet world, when we eat too much, we gain weight. When we eat too much of high oxalate foods, we have a higher risk of forming kidney stones, so we want to limit our risk of kidney stones, so we want to limit the high oxalate foods. It doesn't mean you can never have them.

It means that if french fry is your favorite food and you want to designate one day a week of having some,

You're not going to form stone for that. It's what we do over and over without having any calcium in our day, that's what forms a kidney stone, and all the other parts of the kidney stone diet, hydration, salt, which, by the way, french fries are salty, obviously. You know, added sugar, all of those things.

So, but when we're specifically talking about the worst foods, they tend to be the higher sugar, higher salt food, but also the higher oxalate food, so get that list, download it. You'll see beets is on there and many kidney stone patients will say, "Well, I guess I can never have my beets again." But you really can if you have a smaller portion, split the beet salad with your partner, and have it with calcium, and

Have it once a month instead of every day. Is that making sense, Jeff?

Oh, yeah, it absolutely does. Yeah, and just to reiterate, everything you've seen on the screen is right on the website. So, kidneystonediet.com/oxalate-list, if you just go to the start page, you can find it from there, kidneystonediet.com/start, but yeah, I'll have the link in the description as well, and you're able to sort by the milligrams per serving, and obviously, we have the servings listed there, too, and some of the servings might be smaller than you may anticipate.

Just like with almonds, and when they come down to just an ounce or 1/2 a cup of something, like spinach, 1/2 a cup of spinach is nothing. It cooks down to

Nothing. Nothing.

Yeah, cooks down to absolutely nothing. So, it's and I guess that's So, a cup of spinach, then, is raw and then cooks down. And, yeah, so it's just stuff to think about that,

We're trying to make it as simple as possible for you because this is a lot of info. Just to say 700 mg, 56 mg, 1/2 a cup of this, 1/4 cup, like there's so much, so we have this here to try to help in the, hopefully, the most friendly way possible where you can just go, type in your word to search, and hopefully it's on the list, but, again, we've done a episode on this, not every food is going to be listed there, cuz as Jill mentioned, this is the Harvard list and this was done a while ago, and, not such a long time ago that's an issue by any means, but sort of new superfoods in quotes aren't going to be found on there.

Like, what are some of the things that people do ask about generally?

Oh, all kinds of things. Goji berries, or whatever the hell they are, goji berries, whatever they are, spirulina, you know, whatever new things are out there, oh, the collagen all the time, and there is research that says collagen is high, it converts over to oxalate. So, yeah, what Listen, I it really annoys me the whole superfood thing, and we need to do a video on that, too.

Superfoods and kidney stones or superfoods and healthy eating in general, all produce is a superfood, eat it all within normal portion size, except spinach for stone formers, it's just marketing junk. So, if you're going to eat a pear, it's just as super as if you're going to eat you know, a raspberry, except don't eat so many in kidney stones.

Now, look,

You know, grapes, are they a superfood? They have some little things, but they're also a lot of sugar in there. I hate the word superfood, because what does that mean?

People are going to overeat that food, and then that superfood, 5 months later, winds up in the in the HomeGoods or Marshalls reduced section, because everyone's sick of hearing about it and now there's a new superfood. That's how this goes, people, it's marketing junk. So, and I do want to reiterate, what I'm looking at is the high oxalate foods to avoid handout on the start page of Kidney Stone Diet.

So, what Jeff's talking about is the search engine where you can search for foods, that's also on the start page, and then I'm talking about the handout, the High Oxalate Foods to Avoid handout, so you can just put that right on your fridge if you'd like, where you can print it out and do that. So, there's so The point is, too, we don't even know what the hell we're talking about most of the time, because there's so many free tools at kidneystonediet.com start page that you can you can do, I mean, I don't know how much of our free time we spend making free things.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's just so much. And yeah, I just have it up on the screen right now, the Start Here page, and, yeah, you can find the food lists, and just everything else, there's a resources section, which I don't even have up right now, but, yeah, the different products, and, yeah, the goals, the grocery list, the here's the oxalate list down below here that, yeah, you can easily just, you click to download, enter your email address, I think, and then, yeah, you're ready to go.

Yeah. Awesome. Love it.

Oh, yeah, no, no email address, actually, I'm going to rewind that, because you don't have to enter anything, whatsoever. I will just go back to that screen there just so people can see. But yeah, you go to the Printable Oxalate List, go to list, go to download, and then it's right there, and it's printable.

No We're not asking for anything at all, but it is funny, because we've done so many things on there that it is hard to remember at times, because everything All of this info is forever valid. Like, this is all drenched in science, as you'll say, and it's not like it's changing. So, we made this list based on the Harvard, this graphic based on the Harvard list, but it's been out there for a little bit, so I haven't even thought about, "Okay, how did we set it up for people to download?" But, yeah, everything is right there on the start page, which acts also as the resources where you can find the how to better interact with your doctor at your doctor's visit and all sorts of different flyers and resources, printable grocery list, the Kidney Stone Diet goals,

But, yeah, we have so many things on there, and that's just kidneystonediet.com/start where you can find all that info.

Yes, use it. Use the resources. I can't tell you how many people ask me the same questions, I'm like, "You know, Jill, why do you keep talking about that start page?" Because, people, you've got to go to it, so here I am.

I am a vessel, use me up, here Jeff is, use us up. But, also, you've got to do the work. "That's kind of crabby, Jill." It's the truth, and we all know I'm here to spread the truth.

So, the diet won't work if you don't.

So, what we are here is to show you, to try to explain things to you as best we can in 15 minutes, but also to tell you, "Look, we are producing free tools for you to use." All the social media that is being done, we are trying to foster this message. Kidney stones can be prevented. Don't let anyone tell you're a stone maker.

You know, there's a few dibs of you that may be stone makers, but I promise you this, we can at least lessen your stones, that's a promise, if not eradicate them altogether.

So, we're here to do the work and give you the knowledge and to guide you where you need to go

To get yourself some help. And, also, if you want to get there faster, then you use my paid resources, my paid services, the Kidney Stone Prevention Course, the 15-minute urine analysis call where I'll help you understand your urine report, so you can have an excellent doctor office visit instead of going to the doctor office visit and it wasn't a great visit, because you don't know what you don't know, and, also, private consults, if you'd like.

So, everything on that website is going to help you get where you need to go. The end, the end.

Yeah, so we want to thank you for listening, and if you're not already subscribed, we'd love it if you hit that subscribe button and that little bell, and tell your friends, tell anyone who needs to know about the show and know about the Kidney Stone Diet, and just know how to reduce their risk. I mean, they don't even need to come to the show, they can go to the website, kidneystonediet.com/start, so many free resources, the weekly email newsletter, just everything.

And, like Jill mentioned, there is premium content, as well. So, if you wanted a deep dive into the course, if you wanted to have the one-on-one, not one-on-one, but the group calls that are involved in the course, hugely valuable to spend time with others going through the same thing you are. But I think that's a great spot to wrap, and if you have any questions, specifically, that you want answered on the show, the phone number is 773-789-8763 and we will feature your question on a future episode.

Yeah, thanks again for listening and we will see you next time.

Thanks for being here. Bye.