“Learn from my stupidity” – protein shakes and kidney stones

In this conversation, Jeff Sarris and Jill Harris discuss the implications of excessive protein intake, particularly through protein shakes, and its potential link to kidney stones. They explore the experiences of a young bodybuilder who faced health issues after consuming high amounts of protein powder without adequate hydration. The discussion delves into the complexities of kidney stone formation, the importance of balanced protein consumption, and the need for proper hydration and dietary awareness.

Takeaways

• Excessive protein intake can lead to health issues.
• Hydration is crucial when consuming protein shakes.
• Kidney stones can be caused by multiple factors.
• Not all protein powders are created equal.
• Sodium content in protein powders can affect kidney health.
• Bodybuilders often consume more protein than necessary.
• Natural food sources of protein are preferable.
• Understanding individual dietary needs is essential.
• Protein calculators can help determine appropriate intake.
• Moderation is key in dietary protein consumption.

00:00 Introduction to Kidney Stones and Protein Shakes
02:42 The Risks of Excessive Protein Intake
05:35 Understanding Protein Powder and Kidney Stones
08:30 The Importance of Hydration and Sodium Levels
11:22 Balancing Protein Needs for Health

Learn From My Stupidity: Protein Shakes and Kidney Stones

Jeff Sarris (00:00):
Learn from my stupidity. Let’s talk about protein shakes and kidney stones.

Today we are talking protein shakes, protein powder, all things protein. So I have a sort of a remark to read to you, I guess, not really a question as much, but yeah, someone’s in a sticky situation. So let me read that: “I ended up in urgent care yesterday from peeing blood and passed a kidney stone at the ripe age of 29. I started my bodybuilding journey seriously about 45 days ago and went straight to consuming five scoops of protein per day, every day, in shakes and clearly not drinking enough water to compensate. The doctor told me to temporarily halt the protein powder intake.”

Understanding Excessive Protein Intake

Jill Harris (00:53):
I mean, you know, people are like, people would never do that. You’re gonna be surprised what people do, I’ve heard it all. And I don’t even say that anymore because there’s always something new here that you’re like, I can’t believe it. I’ve had people tell me, well, you know, I eat, I mean, 10 fry pans, skillets of just mushrooms every day because they were lower in oxalate. I mean…

Jeff Sarris (01:00):
You…

Jill Harris (01:20):
I can’t even tell you what I’ve heard people say. Just crazy things. So this kid, because he’s 29 and I’m old as dirt, this kid says he’s eating five scoops of protein powder a day. That’s a lot. Did the protein powder itself cause the kidney stones? He also said he wasn’t drinking a lot of fluids. The doctor told him to stop the protein powder. That’s a lot of protein powder.

I mean usually the protein powders are between 20 and 25 grams of protein, right? So if we times that by five, there’s over 100 grams of protein. Plus he’s eating food, you know? And here’s the thing, I body build. Once you get in the gym and you’re body building and you’re learning about that and researching about that, and I’m a certified personal trainer, I don’t do anything with it, but I enjoy it so much, I said why not get certified?

They are telling you to pound the friggin’ protein. You know, you can still grow muscles and not eat half as much protein as people are pounding, honestly. So, and there’s a lot of research to say that. Now, he was getting over 500 grams of protein a day just from the powders. He didn’t say he was eating no bars or any of that. So who knows what else he was doing? And again, he was eating food.

He wasn’t just having protein shakes. So he’s pounding his protein for 45 days to gain some muscles. We get it. Did that cause his kidney stone? Was it the protein powder itself that caused the kidney stone? There’s so many things I would have to ask. Did he temporarily, because he was eating most likely even more protein than that, 100 grams of protein for a 30-year-old guy is not going to cause his kidney to shut down or anything. OK?

Multiple Factors in Kidney Stone Formation

I don’t know from just that much, 100 grams of protein, that’s not happening. I know a lot of bodybuilders at my gym, they’re having 200 grams of protein, okay, 150 grams, a lot of protein, not just from powders, from all the meat and everything they’re eating. So my questions would be this, what else was he eating? Was it the kidney stone? Was he eating spinach? These people also tend with their protein shakes, are putting a hell of a lot of spinach, almonds, all kinds of things.

So I don’t know if it was just the protein powder. I would ask this patient if he came to me, what else were you doing, Bobby? And then he would tell me, and then I could sort all this out. So there’s that. Number two, I don’t have a problem with protein powder. I use it. I use it in my baking. That’s mostly where I use it these days. I have these wonderful chai donuts on the website. Free recipe, chai donuts. Google it.

Jill chai donuts, low oxalate, Kidney Stone Diet. They are fabulous. 22 grams of protein. Thank you. Thank God for you. And I get so excited about these chai donuts. So 22 grams of protein in those. And so if you’re like me, sometimes I’m in a rush. Sometimes I’m just grabbing something on the fly. Sometimes I have too many calls and I’m getting, I got back from the gym, let me my donut with the decaf. I’ll do it. So that’s on the website.

Jeff Sarris (04:14):
Yeah, that’s, yeah, that’s kidneystonediet.com.

Watch Out for Sodium in Protein Powders

Jill Harris (04:41):
But so I use protein powder, but I use no sodium protein powder. Here’s the other thing with protein powder. So much salt typically. Sometimes they have sugar, but people are smart enough to watch the added sugar, especially if they’re bodybuilding. But they don’t know to watch the sodium. Too much sodium will cause you to pee less. Too much sodium might be pulling too much calcium from your bone, dumping it into the urine, and that’s a kidney stone risk. So turn it around, Buster Brown, and look at how much sodium is in your protein powder. A lot of these protein powders will have anywhere between 150 to 300 milligrams of sodium. If he’s doing that five times a day, holy brajole, that’s a lot of sodium, plus what he’s eating. So he’s not drinking enough water. He’s probably eating a heck of a lot of sodium.

He’s really not being a lot because of all that. Plus, he didn’t drink any water. So there’s that. Like I said, most people are educated enough to keep sugar down. So many of these protein powders nowadays are unsweetened or sweetened with stevia or monk fruit or something else. So there’s that. Some of these protein powders are high in spinach.

If you’re a vegetarian or a vegan, you’re getting a protein powder that has spinach in it. Some protein powders just have spinach in it. Or you’re putting spinach in your protein drink. So there’s that. There are protein powders that are collagen-based and they will increase your urine oxalate. That’s an issue. So that’s an issue. Do I think…

that these five scoops of protein powder themselves caused the kidney stone, they definitely could have been a factor. But there were probably other factors as well. I’ve never seen patients that have one thing wrong coming to me with kidney stone history, never. It’s multiple things. And that’s why preventing kidney stones is detailed. It has a lot of stuff going on.

It’s complicated. I make it real easy to understand, but when I’m looking at a urine collection, I’ve just done it for so many decades that I’m very good at it. I suck at so many things, folks. I’m not tooting my own horn. Well, I am, but there’s so few things I am good at, urine collections I’m good at. Because I’ve done it a long time. I better be. But they’re complicated. Multi-factor.

Jeff Sarris (07:17):
And the multi-factor, like you said, the multi-factor,

I was just going to say too, in only 45 days, the likelihood of a stone going from not existing to existing, how likely would that be solely in that 45 day window?

Timeframe for Stone Formation

Jill Harris (07:33):
Unlikely. Did it help a stone on the move? Did it help a stone perhaps grow? That’s enough time for a stone to grow. Did he make one stone in 45 days? Doubtful. It probably was there. He started working out. It started jiggling about and it moved. He could have had that stone for five years. So, excellent point. Was it the protein powder? I don’t know. Is the doctor wrong in saying stop it? No.

The doctor should say, first of all, the doctor may have said stop it because his kidney function is lower. Due to all the protein he was just, I don’t know. There’s so much we don’t know. The doctor could, I don’t have a problem that he said stop it, but he could say let’s give yourself a rest right now. Portion not perfection. You can have a scoop of protein powder a day, but when you’re slamming down protein powder all day long,

It’s not the best because typically they’re very high in sodium. I have a protein, an unflavored pumpkin protein seed powder that I have my patients use. It’s great. It’s linked below the video. It’s one of my favorite ones because it has no sodium, no sugar obviously. And I bake with it and it doesn’t have any flavor so it’s really great. I use it in lieu of like instead of a cup of my oat bran flour, I’ll use three-fourths of a cup of my oat bran flour.

That has protein and fiber, and then a quarter of a cup of my pumpkin protein seed powder. It’s wonderful. So I get to have snacks that have protein in it too. Most of you are overdoing protein, especially in the gym world, you’re overdoing it. And so I would watch out for the salt in these products. You don’t need, look, at some point, the amount of protein you’re taking every day, you ain’t getting more muscle growth from it.

Finding the Right Balance

Eventually that curve drops, okay? And you’re all taking this excess. And also, when we take excess protein, we don’t store protein. And it helps, of course, for muscle synthesis, but some people are taking so much protein and we can’t store it. So it then goes to fat, okay? So we pee it out or, and it stores as fat if you’re overeating this. Most bodybuilders are not.

Meaning because they’re really exercising a lot. They’re not storing it as fat as what I’m trying to say. They’re very lean. They’re into the whole scene. But the average person just starting a gym route, increase your protein. I have a protein calculator on my website that tells you how much total protein you should have and in regards to meat protein, anything that swims, runs, or flies, we do have a cap on that. It’s certainly sufficient. We just don’t want you to have access

Because that can create uric acid stones, that can create calcium oxalate stones, and it can do that by increasing urine calcium, lowering urine pH, lowering urine citrate. There’s many different factors. Again, it’s complicated. If you want to know if you’re eating too much meat, use that calculator. Also, get a 24-hour urine collection. Very important. So for this kid, for this young man, five…

Scoops of protein powder seems very excessive to me. You can get your protein through diet and you can have a scoop depending upon what your needs are but you know you go in the gym you want to grow those muscles real fast so you’re going to do anything and there’s so many social influencers that will say 200 grams of protein it’s crazy okay so I don’t know if that protein powder caused his stone he only did it for 45 days it’s unlikely.

He could have had an existing stone. He said he wasn’t drinking enough water. He wasn’t all of sudden not drinking enough water, most likely. He probably has a habit of not drinking too much water. He could have a family history of stones. He could be eating too much salt. He could be eating, bodybuilders are known for, too much spinach and almond products in their smoothies. Because I watch a lot of YouTube with bodybuilders, they’re all using the lower calorie almond milk.

With their smoothie preparation. You know, there’s so many factors here. One doesn’t know, but five scoops of protein powder a day. His doctor is right. He should not be eating that much a scoop of protein powder a day. I’m going to be very careful here, depending upon what you’re doing in the gym. The big time athletes, Mr. Olympians may be using more than that. Okay. But…

Protein Needs Vary By Age

For the average person, shouldn’t be having more than a scoop of protein powder a day. Our elderly patients, the elderly patients I’m looking at, as we age, we have a harder time meeting our caloric needs. You’ll see your great grandmother, your grandmother eat like a bird. She doesn’t have hunger like she used to. Some of my patients do use a protein powder. I do suggest the pumpkin seed protein powder, unflavored, because it has no salt and that has helped them greatly meet their protein needs.

Because many people aren’t meeting the minimum of protein needs, especially the older we get, or people who have been misinformed and they’ve lowered their protein needs to very little because they’ve made kidney stone formers. That is not what we want. We want moderate amounts, not too much, not too little. Think Goldilocks because you need it for strength. It’s always best by natural foods, but sometimes we have to supplement. And so,

Everybody here wants to get out of their chair. If you’re 70 in five years, you want to be able to get out of your chair. You need enough protein. KidneyStoneDiet.com, how do I calculate your protein needs? There’s two articles. How much total protein do I need? And then that one will take you to calculate how much meat protein you’re allowed to have on the kidney stone diet based upon your specific weight. Okay? So those are important articles. I think that’s it, I’m pretty sure. Do you think, Jeff?

Jeff Sarris (13:50):
Yeah, yeah, that’s perfect. And you can find everything Kidney Stone Diet related to the Kidney Stone Diet goals and steps through the diet itself at kidneystonediet.com. And you can sign up for Jill’s free weekly newsletter where she sends you an email every weekend to keep you on track. But that and everything else is at kidneystonediet.com.

Jill Harris (14:05):
Yes, yeah, and I want to say one more thing. Also, the flavor you’re choosing. If you’re a kidney stone former, I don’t know if this guy was housing on five chocolate protein drinks a day. So that chocolate will also increase. Also, some of the protein drinks that people are drinking, like Fair Life, Core Life, Core Power, they all have so much calcium, too much calcium in one serving. That can be an issue. Guys, this stuff is so complicated, so many things.

We’ll talk about protein drinks again in another video because there’s a lot to cover. And have a great day everybody. Bye.

Jeff Sarris (14:40):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. See you next week.