Marie, a plant-based diet patient, asks about getting enough calcium without supplements. Jill advises against calcium supplements and recommends getting calcium through food sources. She suggests using supplemented plant-based milks like coconut milk, flax milk, and pea milk. Jill also emphasizes the importance of doing a urine collection to determine urine calcium levels and to check for any underlying issues like bone disease or parathyroid hormone imbalance. She encourages Marie to follow up with her doctor and get a blood test to monitor calcium levels.
Takeaways
- Avoid calcium supplements and get calcium through food sources.
- Supplemented plant-based milks like coconut milk, flax milk, and pea milk are good sources of calcium.
- Do a urine collection to determine urine calcium levels and check for underlying issues.
- Follow up with a doctor and get a blood test to monitor calcium levels.
- Check Jill’s blog for a list of calcium-rich foods.
Chapters
- 00:00 Introduction and Listener Question
- 01:59 Understanding High Urine Calcium Levels
- 02:57 Getting Calcium from Plant-Based Milks
- 03:55 Checking Blood and Parathyroid Hormone Levels
- 04:50 The Role of Vitamin D in Calcium Absorption
- 05:50 Following a Low-Salt, Low-Added Sugar Diet
- 06:44 Exploring Calcium-Rich Food Options
- 11:01 Conclusion and Call to Action
Jeff Sarris (00:00)
This week we have a listener question about getting enough calcium on a plant -based diet without supplements. Let’s talk about that.
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
Jill Harris (00:24)
And I’m Jill Harris, your Kidney Stone Prevention Nurse.
Jeff Sarris (00:27)
And we’re back at it again with a listener question. The number again, if you’re out there with the question and you’d to have it answered on the show, the number is 773-789-8763. And I think with that, why don’t we just dive right in to Marie’s question?
Jill Harris (00:43)
Okay.
Well, we love you, Marie. And also, I’m going to tell you something. have two favorite, maybe because I’m so very Italian, two of my favorite names are Angela and Marie. And somehow, with my Italian mother, I was named Jill. You go tell me how that makes sense. You know, anyway. So Marie, so here’s what I heard Marie say. She’s plant based. She’s taking calcium supplements. We have a video on this, actually, but.
Jeff Sarris (02:26)
Mm -hmm.
Jill Harris (02:27)
This is particular for, it’s called calcium, how to get calcium on a plant -based diet. We have one just like this. But it’s so frequent that I’m like, let’s roll with it again. This is, what do I do? I need to stop supplements. My doctor told me I have high urine calcium. Now, Marie knows this. Why does Marie know? Because Marie did a 24 hour urine collection. Sweet baby mama, please, please listen to me when I say get it done.
Jeff Sarris (02:34)
huh. Yeah.
Jill Harris (02:57)
Because Marie is like 95 % of patients that I see. If they didn’t do a urine collection, they would never know they had high urine calcium. And guess what? Jill, my doctor says I’m a stone maker. Tammy, have you done a urine collection? No, Jill, he ain’t ordered one for me. Well, are you a stone maker because you’re leaking calcium from your bones and now you have bone disease and you keep making stones because you have the excess calcium in your urine?
And now you’re not peeing a lot and that calcium is looking for phosphate oxalate. All these crystals are joining together forming stones. Well, no reason to ever be a stone former once you get a urine collection done and get on a treatment plan. So Marie’s doctor is good enough that says two great things to Marie. Hey, Marie, let’s do a urine collection, see what’s up. And also, hey, Marie, let’s get off those supplements because we know the pill form of supplements absolutely increase stone
We don’t absorb them that great. Now, let’s talk about this. Let’s talk about this. Number one, there are some people that have to take pill form supplements of calcium. They have to, very rarely, but they have to. How can we make it so they can absorb it better, those pills? Eat them with food. A lot of people just suck down supplements and don’t even know how to take them right. It’s not their fault. They’re not told.
There’s no directions on the label like vitamin D. You should be taking it. It’s a fat soluble vitamin. You should be taking it with, maybe you’re to have some avocado, a healthy fat. So you absorb the vitamin D. Anyhow, I digress. So if you have to listen to me by have to, I am not recommending it, but talk to your doctor about this. Some of you may have male absorption issues, bariatric surgeries, Crohn, colitis, whatever.
You may have to take Piliform. It is so rare. I’ve seen maybe five patients in 25 years that needed to take supplements. That’s how rare. For the rest of you, get your calcium through food. Jill, I only eat plants. Then you’re going to have to use the milks if you can. That’s what most vegan and vegetarian people do. Plant -based people will have coconut milk. This is the non -dairy coconut milk in the refrigerator, not
full fat one sitting on a shelf. Flat seed milk, pea milk, not almond milk, no. Cashew milk, no. Some people do macadamia milk. I’m looking at you, Pam. So there’s other milks. Go to kidneystonediet .com. What milks can I have as a vegan and vegetarian? The blog has everything there. Okay, you could also Google here.
But anyway, those are the milks you can have. For more on that, go to my blog. Now, it’s very, very easy, Marie, to get your calcium needs met if you’re using those supplemented milks. They have like 400 milligrams of calcium. You have two cups of that. A cup is eight ounces. You don’t want more than that each time. So you have two cups a day. There’s 800.
then you’re eating a little bit of that, a little boob. She’s not vegan because she said she uses goat cheese. Maybe you want to use swiss cheese, very low sodium. About 180 milligrams of calcium. Or you have another half of coconut milk. Whatever you want to do. Slice it up either way. But once you know what you can have, it’s not hard at all to get up to the 1200. Now, here’s the other thing. Your doctor said let’s check your blood in six weeks. I’m not quite sure why he said six weeks.
But I will tell you, whatever, do what your doctor says. I don’t override a doctor’s order. But I will tell you, please make sure you get a follow -up urine collection to see if your calcium goes down after being off of those supplements. Also, also, if everything’s cool, if you have high urine calcium, the doctor might want to check your parathyroid hormone, not thyroid, parathyroid. Your thyroid’s here.
and then these four glands around the thyroid, so it looks like a butterfly, your thyroid and then these glands around your thyroid are called your parathyroid, para meaning four, two here, two there, and parathyroid hormone regulates calcium. Some of you are running around with your PTH, parathyroid hormone, messed up, so the doctor may want to check that as well. Also, a lot of you are running around with your vitamin D, as in David, too low.
is too low or too high because you’re taking a crap load of vitamin D supplements and you don’t need them. So vitamin D helps us absorb calcium. you’re taking, if you have your vitamin D is too high, it can mess up your calcium. Maybe you’re absorbing too much of it and that excess, the kidneys are like, I don’t need all this calcium, dumps it back into the urine. The body’s like, I don’t need all this calcium, dumps it into the urine and we pee out the extra, right? So it shows on your urine collection. It’s complicated for a little YouTube video.
but there are avenues to search for. Her question was simply, there’s avenues to look, why is this patient’s urine calcium high? You gotta rule all that stuff out. And I know she said I’m on a low salt, no sugar, so I would be interested in seeing that urine collection. Is her salt really as low as she says it is? Because lots of times,
The reference ranges on the urine collection results are much too generous. A lot of results I see said the reference range says you could have 5 ,000 milligrams of salt. No way in hell, that’s too much. So I’m just saying, she says she cooks everything and she’s on low salt, low added sugar, so I’m gonna go with what she says. But a lot of times people say, Jill, I eat like a nun, I don’t know what to tell you. I look at the urine collection, I’m like, well, Sal, you know, not so much. Jill. I bust a lot of bubbles, man. So anyway.
Jeff Sarris (09:01)
Hahaha
Jill Harris (09:05)
It’s so easy on my blog. Guess what? Go to my blog or just Google Jill Harris vegan diet, you know, foods high in calcium. You’ll get a whole list of foods. You’re going to see it, know, broccoli, kale, all these things. But I would go with we need up you and I because we don’t get our periods anymore up to 1200 milligrams. Listen, even if you’re just getting a thousand a day, I’m thrilled with that because there’s always about 200 milligrams of calcium. You’re
seeing in your English muffin or this or that, you know. So the key is you don’t go over as well and you don’t take more than 500 milligrams of calcium at the time. Research shows at one time, research shows that we have a hard time absorbing all that at one time. So to wrap this up for Marie, yes please get off your supplements. Tell whatever doctor and many bone doctors will say get on supplements. I encourage all of you if you have been told
tell the doctor, dear doctor, I’d like to get mine from food. Is that okay? yeah, of course. But they automatically will put you on supplements. You don’t have to get your calcium from supplements, folks, and you shouldn’t if you’re a kidney stone former for sure. So you want to get it through foods. And even though the milks are supplemented, seems so far that we’re tolerating that pretty well. And the excess, so many of my patients drink the plant -based milk. I’m looking at their urine collections. There’s not excess calcium. So it seems like you shake those
You shake those milks up big time. I shake up everything because everything settles. if you’re eating a plant -based milk, don’t just take it out of the fridge and start sucking it down. You got to shake it up because everything settles. I even shake up my regular lactose -free milk. I just do. So shake that up well. And that’s how you can get some calcium. But please look at my blog. There’s a lot of natural sources you can get it from that. You’d be surprised how much calcium is in some foods. So check that out too.
Jeff Sarris (11:01)
Yeah, for sure. And then the fortified again, like not the can of coconut milk. That’s the important thing because coconut isn’t filled with calcium naturally. So that is very important to note, but yeah, I think
Jill Harris (11:06)
Yes. No.
Yeah, one of my favorite brands for that is Silk Coconut Milk. And so check that it’s it’s with your lactose milks, your almond milk, your cashew milk. Do not have those two macadamia milk, flax milk, all your alternative milks, non dairy milks tend to be in the same refrigerated section with the overall milk section.
Jeff Sarris (11:36)
Yeah, so thank you again, Marie, and for the nice comment too at the end, like we really appreciate everyone and it’s so nice to when we get to hear from people. And again, we have the phone number 773-789-8763 if you have a question. But with that YouTube thinks you would like one of these videos and we’ll see you next week.
Jill Harris (11:54)
Thanks guys, please subscribe to the channel. helps YouTube show our videos sooner instead of, you know, quackery. Okay, so thanks guys. Have a great week. Thanks Marie. Love your name.
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