Kidney Stone Diet

®

with Jill Harris, LPN, CHC

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Media Kit

Jill Harris has been helping kidney stone patients prevent stones through diet and lifestyle change since 1998. She is available for interviews, expert commentary, and background on kidney stones, nutrition, and patient education.

For media inquiries: [email protected]

As Seen In

Fast Facts

  • Licensed Practical Nurse and Certified Health Coach
  • Preventing kidney stones since 1998
  • Co-creator of the Kidney Stone Diet®, developed with University of Chicago nephrologist Dr. Fred Coe
  • 12 years at Litholink Corp. Stayed on after the LabCorp acquisition as Nurse in Residence and Customer Service Director
  • Host of the Kidney Stone Diet® podcast, weekly, with more than 300 episodes
  • More than 40,000 email subscribers
  • More than 16,000 YouTube subscribers
  • More than 27,000 members in the Kidney Stone Prevention Facebook group
  • Also on Instagram, TikTok, and Patreon
  • Based in Chicago, IL. Available remotely and in studio

Bios

Short

Jill Harris, LPN, CHC, is a kidney stone prevention nurse and co-creator of the Kidney Stone Diet®, developed with University of Chicago nephrologist Dr. Fred Coe. She has been helping kidney stone patients prevent stones since 1998.

Medium

Jill Harris, LPN, CHC, is a kidney stone prevention nurse and patient educator who has been helping kidney stone patients prevent stones since 1998.

She began her nursing career at the University of Chicago, then spent 12 years at Litholink Corp, where she worked directly with thousands of kidney stone patients. After the company was acquired by LabCorp she remained as Nurse in Residence and Customer Service Director. With her mentor, University of Chicago nephrologist Dr. Fred Coe, she developed the Kidney Stone Diet®.

Today she teaches prevention through KidneyStoneDiet.com, her YouTube channel, her weekly podcast, and her courses, reaching more than 40,000 email subscribers and a Facebook community of over 27,000 patients.

Long

Jill Harris, LPN, CHC, is a kidney stone prevention nurse, patient educator, and co-creator of the Kidney Stone Diet®. She has been helping kidney stone patients prevent stones since 1998.

Jill began her nursing career at the University of Chicago, but realized early on that she wanted to keep patients out of the hospital rather than care for them once they arrived. That led her to Litholink Corp, where she spent 12 years working directly with kidney stone patients, teaching them how to collect a 24-hour urine and how to understand what the results meant. Doctors began telling patients to “just call Jill.” After the company was acquired by LabCorp, she stayed on as Nurse in Residence and Customer Service Director before starting her own coaching practice.

With her mentor, University of Chicago nephrologist Dr. Fred Coe, Jill developed the Kidney Stone Diet®. It sets six evidence-based goals: increase fluids, reduce sugar, reduce sodium, increase dietary calcium, eat moderate protein, and lower high-oxalate foods.

Her patients almost always arrive with the same problem. They leave a diagnosis frightened of food, holding an oxalate list nobody taught them how to use, and they cut so much from their diets that the plan becomes impossible to keep. Jill teaches a small number of doable goals instead, applied to the life the patient actually has. That includes patients managing diabetes, autoimmune conditions, fatty liver, and food allergies at the same time.

Website: kidneystonediet.com
YouTube: Kidney Stone Diet® with Nurse Jill Harris, LPN
Podcast: Kidney Stone Diet® on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

Story Angles

1. Why telling stone patients to cut calcium backfires.
Increasing dietary calcium is one of the six Kidney Stone Diet® goals, and it runs against what many patients believe they have been told. Oxalate needs calcium to bind to in the colon. Without it, oxalate is reabsorbed and urine oxalate goes up.

2. The oxalate list problem.
Patients are handed a list by their urologist with no instruction on how to use it, then cut out sweet potatoes, kale, and everything else on it. Jill’s position is that high oxalate does not mean forbidden, and that the list works as a budget rather than a set of bans.

3. Lemon water and the other advice that does not hold up.
Lemon water, apple cider vinegar, chanca piedra. Jill regularly takes on the remedies patients arrive with.

4. How much sodium matters.
Higher sodium intake increases urinary calcium excretion, an important risk factor for calcium stone formation. Yet sodium often gets far less attention than oxalate when patients are told how to prevent another stone.

5. The test most stone patients never get.
What a 24-hour urine collection shows, why so few patients get one, and what to ask a doctor for.

6. Kidney stones on top of everything else.
Diabetes, autoimmune conditions, fatty liver, food allergies. Much of Jill’s practice is reconciling stone prevention with the other rules a patient is already following.

7. High-protein diets and stones.
Keto and carnivore specifically. Patients on them often end up with more uric acid and calcium oxalate risk than they expected.

Additional Topics

Calcium oxalate stones, hydration and urine volume, added sugar, which stones can actually be dissolved, calcium and food-based supplements, potassium citrate, prevention after stone surgery, staying on plan while traveling, common kidney stone diet mistakes.

Suggested Interview Questions

Hosts are welcome to use any of these, or ignore them entirely.

  1. Kidney stones are known for the pain. What do people not know about them?
  2. What is the first thing patients are told after a stone that turns out to be wrong?
  3. Why do you tell kidney stone patients to eat more calcium?
  4. Oxalate lists are everywhere online. What is the problem with how patients use them?
  5. Nearly every stone patient has been told to drink lemon water. Does it work?
  6. Where does sodium fit in, and why does it get so little attention?
  7. What is a 24-hour urine test, and why should every stone patient ask for one?
  8. What happens when a patient cuts too much out of their diet?
  9. How do you help someone manage kidney stone prevention alongside diabetes, gastrointestinal disease, food allergies, or other dietary restrictions?
  10. Someone just passed their first stone. What should they do this week?
  11. What has changed in kidney stone prevention since you started in 1998?
  12. Why do so many of your patients stick with the dietary changes you teach?
  13. How do you personalize kidney stone prevention so that the recommendations actually fit a patient’s real life?
  14. Why do patients sometimes fail even when the dietary advice they were given was technically correct?
  15. How do you decide which dietary changes matter most for an individual patient?
  16. Why is “portion, not perfection” such an important part of your approach?
  17. Many of your patients also lose weight and keep it off while working on kidney stone prevention. Why do you think that happens?

Jill’s Approach

Kidney stone prevention should not make patients afraid to eat.

Jill teaches patients that prevention is not about perfection, restriction, or a long list of foods they can never have again. It is about understanding the few changes that matter most for them and learning how to make those changes fit into real life.

Every patient is different. Some are also managing diabetes, gastrointestinal disease, autoimmune conditions, food allergies, or other dietary restrictions. Jill looks at the whole picture and helps patients make all of those needs work together in a practical way.

Her approach is to break things into small, bite-sized steps, explain the why behind them, and meet patients where they are – with compassion, humor, and no judgment.

Kidney Stone Diet®

Six evidence-based goals developed with Dr. Fred Coe:

  1. Increase fluid intake
  2. Reduce sugar
  3. Reduce sodium
  4. Increase dietary calcium
  5. Eat moderate protein
  6. Lower high-oxalate foods

What Physicians Say

Fredric L. Coe, MD, Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago:
“Jill has devoted exceptional attention, skill, and energy to kidney stone prevention. It has made her one of the finest counselors a patient can find when they need to change their diet and daily habits to help prevent another stone.”

Robert Nadler, MD, Director of Endourology and Stone Disease, Northwestern Medicine:
“Jill Harris has the experience and communication skills to help people solve often complex dietary dilemmas. I highly recommend her.”

Available For

Interviews, expert quotes, podcasts, articles, television, radio, webinars, and panels covering kidney stones, nutrition, prevention, diabetes and kidney stones, and patient education.

Available remotely by Zoom, Riverside, or phone and in studio in Chicago, IL.

Press Assets

Photo may be used in any coverage featuring Jill.

Free Resources for Readers and Listeners

Useful if a host wants something to point their audience to:

Contact

Media inquiries: [email protected]

Website: kidneystonediet.com
YouTube: Kidney Stone Diet® with Nurse Jill Harris, LPN
Podcast: Kidney Stone Diet® on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube