In this conversation, Jill Harris discusses the misconceptions surrounding oxalates and kidney stones, emphasizing that diet plays a crucial role in kidney health. She explains that while oxalates are often blamed for kidney stones, they are just one part of a larger dietary picture. The conversation highlights the importance of maintaining adequate calcium intake, managing sodium levels, and incorporating a variety of fruits and vegetables into the diet to promote overall health and prevent kidney stones.
Takeaways
- Oxalates are not the primary cause of kidney stones.
- Overall diet is more important than just focusing on oxalates.
- Calcium intake is essential for kidney health.
- High sodium levels can contribute to kidney stone formation.
- Dietary changes can significantly impact urine composition.
- Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables is beneficial.
- Healthy eating habits can prevent chronic diseases.
- Moderation is key when consuming high oxalate foods.
- Regular exercise and strength training support kidney health.
- Consulting with a healthcare professional is important for personalized advice.
00:00 Understanding Kidney Stones and Oxalates
02:25 The Role of Diet in Kidney Stone Prevention
05:19 Healthy Eating Habits for Kidney Health
08:11 Maintaining a Balanced Diet and Lifestyle
Jeff Sarris (00:00)
oxalates aren’t causing your kidney stones, but this is.
Jill Harris (00:04)
Mostly oxalates aren’t causing your kidney stones. They really aren’t. It’s a very small part of this. It’s your overall diet. But here’s a scenario that I get. like to bring forth the scenarios in which I get that are common scenarios. Jill, my doctor told me not to worry about oxalates. He looked, or she looked at my 24-hour urine collection.
And don’t worry about oxalate. They’re not causing your kidney stones. Okay. And I don’t think oxalates, once you take away spinach and almonds that you’re eating and eating and eating and eating and not getting any calcium, do you hear the familiar ring? It’s always the same thing with oxalate. Stop eating the highest oxalate foods.
Get your calcium needs met every day and you will have a lower oxalate reading on your urine collection. Now, why are doctors saying don’t worry about oxalate after they look at your 24-hour urine collection? Doctors are saying that because when you did the 24-hour urine collection, you stopped eating spinach and almond products.
So what the doctor really should say, because then when people come to me, this is what I’m dealing with. Jill, they come with their second urine collection to me. Jill, my doctor told me not to worry about oxalate. And so I didn’t. And now their second urine collection has high oxalate, still has high salt from the first urine collection, right?
The never said anything about salt. The doctor just said, you don’t have to worry about oxalate. But the patient is being told that because the doctor’s not asking, hey, were you eating high oxalate foods before this urine collection and stopped? Because if the doctor had asked that, then the doctor could teach off that. Well, your urine oxalate is low now, but that doesn’t mean I want you eating high oxalate foods.
you still have to maintain, get rid of the spinach and almond products. So that first urine collection, they were told don’t worry about oxalate. So the patient thought they didn’t have to anymore. Remember folks, your 24 hour urine collection is one day of the food and fluids you put in your mouth. If you do something, when I see urine collections, I say to people, this is what I’m looking at, I’m the day of your collection.
But if you do something food and fluid wise different the next day, I’ve got a whole different report I’m looking at. So this varies from day to day depending upon what you eat and drink. So if the first urine collection says lower oxalate, that’s great. But the doctor needs to say, Timmy, I see you have a low urine oxalate value on this day, so obviously you gave up some high oxalate foods, which is awesome. And you need to continue doing that. OK.
Because when doctors say, not an oxalate problem, people go back to spinach and almonds. They’re not understanding, right? They just think that, I don’t have to worry about oxalate anymore. Not for that day, because it’s low. But you have to continue doing that. other reasons why you’re still making kidney stones. The doctor never talked to you about sodium. Well, the sodium is in the normal range. Jill, I have my urine collection right here.
But that normal range is too high, it’s too generous. That normal range is saying you could have over 5,000 milligrams of salt, and it’s not being flagged.
That’s why you made the second stone now. The salt is too high, which makes the calcium too high, which lowers the urine volume because the salt is too high. When we eat too much salt and added sugar, and sugar in general, it will lower our urine flow. will, oops, strike that. It will lower the amount of pee we’re making every day. You know that when you have something really salty, you bloat. Your body keeps that fluid in because it’s following the salt, okay?
So you don’t have to worry about oxalate. Oxalate’s not a problem once you take away the very few foods we ask you to take away. Chia seeds, almond products, spinach, rhubarb, cashews, those kind of things. Everything else in moderation. I guess that’s it, Jeff. mean, I don’t know. Am I missing anything here?
Jeff Sarris (04:54)
No, I mean, basically we just want to look at the kidney stone diet goals, which you can find at kidneystonediet.com, but there’s a set of goals for a reason. It’s not just oxalate. Oxalate is one component. And of course, so many people have calcium oxalate stones. So that would be sort of that direct, easy connection, that simple thread. But there’s so many other reasons that one will create those.
Jill Harris (05:13)
Yes. Yeah.
Right now on Instagram, I’m doing a series, all the other, here’s another reason why you made kidney stones that has nothing to do with oxalate. And there’s gonna be so many of those. it’s doing, it’s focusing on two things. Kidney stones are not just about oxalate. Like I said, in a lot of instances, it’s just the least important thing. Everybody pay attention whether you have kidney stones, diabetes, heart disease, whatever you got, you wanna lose weight.
It’s going to be right around the holiday time now. Everyone’s overeating a little bit. It’s okay. Enjoy those foods. Get right back on track with the next meal choice or the next day. Nobody gets fat. Nobody gets diabetes by having one of Anne Irene’s pecan pie pieces. It doesn’t happen. We get right back on track. Eating fun foods is also part of a healthy lifestyle, so we don’t deprive ourselves.
The salt and the sugar overall for most of your days, eating more fruits and vegetables, you can’t do anything happier for your body than that, really. And then moving it. There’s hundreds of fruits and vegetables that are very low in oxalate. You can fit most of all of them. Again, I’m really only taking away spinach. There’s just not many. Beets are higher. Just eat a little less of them. Get your calcium needs met every day.
Folks, we’re killing ourselves with all our chronic disease states. We really are. If we bring more things on our plate that are healthy and lower the unhealthy things on our plate, forget about, stop thinking about what you can’t have. Start thinking about what can I bring on my plate to make it vibrant and colorful and full of fiber and full of nutrients and vitamins. Instead of taking all this vitamin C.
Dig it, make sure you don’t have a cold. How about eating it? How about getting fruits and vegetables? Boost your immune system by eating really healthy foods more times than not. Everybody needs a cupcake here and there. I’m all for it. But then fruits and vegetables aim for the minimum is one cup of fruit a day, three cups of vegetables a day. Pick all the low oxalate fruits and vegetables. There’s plenty of them. Start acquainting yourself with the produce section in your grocery store.
Just one fruit a week, one vegetable a week. Just try two things out of all the meals. Out of the meals of what, 30 meals a week? Just have one piece of fruit and one vegetable. That’s it. Then the next week maybe you bring in a couple. Just put some berries in your yogurt. Mix fruit with your cereal or your oatmeal. That’s just an easy way to do it, okay? And it doesn’t have to be a damn apple all the time.
There’s plenty of fruit. Think about nourishing your body best that you can most of the time. That’s what I want for you. Oxalate is not, it’s just not that big of a deal once you get away a few foods. And when your doctor says oxalate, don’t worry about it, he means keep it low. It’s not high on this test and keep doing that. It doesn’t mean that you can bring back all these high oxalate foods.
because a lot of people think that that test means that’s the answer for every single day. No, that’s the answer for what you did that day because the urine collection is measuring, calculating, measuring and figuring out out of all the things you ate and drank that day, here are your results. But if you do something different, if you ate spinach and almonds the next day, that oxalate level would be through the roof. That’s what I got.
Get your calcium needs met folks to lower your oxalate. Make sure that happens. You’re also feeding your bones. Because a lot of my patients have bone disease. Osteopenia, osteoporosis. And also do resistant exercising. I know I’m shoving it all in here, but my god, we’re going to do a video on that soon too. Strength training. Yeah.
Jeff Sarris (09:24)
Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, for an overview, make sure you go to kidneystonediet.com and sign up for the email newsletter. It’s free, absolutely free. And Jill will email you once a week with a little inspiration and little, just a nudge to keep you on track for the rest of your week. So with that, if you have any other questions, the number is 773-789-8764. We’d love to feature your voice and we will see you next week.
Jill Harris (09:48)
Bye everybody.
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