Fact or Fiction: Cranberry juice will prevent my kidney stones

This week on the podcast, we are doing another Fact or Fiction episode. Is it fact or fiction that cranberry juice will prevent my kidney stones?

The following is designed to entertain and inform, not provide medical advice. Always consult your doctor before starting any treatment.

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 Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse. Hello, Jeff!

Hi there! We're back at it again, and got a another Kidney Stone Diet shirt. I like the simplicity of the text just across the front, that always that always gets me.

I love the little icon, just in general. It's, I don't know.

Oh God, me too, the little kidney stone he put in there. So, Dave, I always like to say shout-out to him. There's Jeff and Jill and Dave.

The three of us run Kidney Stone Diet, and Dave is the one that makes everything beautiful: the website, all the graphics, the blog posts, the newsletter, the shirts, any- anything that has to do with our logo, he does all of it, and it's, you know, it's just beautiful. I mean, it's just beautiful. You know, and Jeff does all the coding and all how everything goes together and all.

I mean, if you guys knew what really goes beyond me just showing up and laughing and hooting and hollering, I mean, there's a lot of stuff that goes that goes into what we do. The meal plan service alone, you know, for only $24 a month, whatever it is, you get hundreds of recipes. It's like the photography, the coding of the website, all of it, just all of it, the recipes, figuring out the oxalate, the added salt, the sugar, the everything, all the notes, the educational with each recipe, all of these things.

You know, I, and the reason I bring it up is so people aren't like, "Well, they're amazing." The reason I bring it up is because I have this fascination in the world when you're looking at a business, you're like, " bip boop bap." But when you go behind the scenes of what it takes to do something, you're like, oh my god, it is amazing the work that it takes, you know?

So, yeah, I mean, you know, the T-shirts and the hoodies and everything that I'm always wearing, Dave does a fabulous job with them. He does. He's amazing.

He's amazing, yeah.

Well, yeah, we're a good team, the three of us. And I think the big thing is like saying like you see how businesses and things operate, but like it can feel it can look simple, but simple doesn't mean easy, you know? It takes a lot of effort to create the simplicity because we also want it to be simple for patients, for people with kidney stones.

We want it to be simple to get the answers, and to also get the support that everyone needs. So, yeah, we put a lot of effort in, so.

Yeah.

And I think I mean I know we all agree that it's worth it. It's worth all of the time to do everything we can to help as many people as possible.

Oh my god, it's worth it. And I've been so lately, I've always been like this. I'm very sappy in real life, and I've always been like this as far as grateful.

But the kidney stone community, the way that it embraces us, and above all, trusts us, I mean, there's, you know, almost 30,000 people alone just on the newsletter, and then there's another, you know, 25,000 on Facebook between the two groups, and Instagram, you know, all the things, right? And so, when I look at that, and this is free stuff I'm talking about, this isn't paid stuff.

I'm just saying free stuff, free people signed up to get information from us every week in some form, and I'm like, when I look at that, I'm like, "Wow, that many people trust us with what we're saying." And I just I'm so grateful for that, that people on the We're almost at 10,000 subscribers, so please subscribe, by the way.

So, there's another 10,000. So, you know, almost 80, 90,000 subscribers to all these resources that we have, and it's just amazing that, you know, people trust us. And as a cancer patient, myself, and somebody that looks outward to get some help on the internet, you know, I pick who I pick because I trust them.

And so, and it's very important as a sick person or somebody that has an ailment, you need to trust the people you're listening to. And so, I just want to say thank you. Jeff and I are, you know, we're just always kind of amazed how many people take the time to listen to what we're saying, and we value you just as much as you value us.

So, thank you for that. And I know people are like, "Just get to it, Jill, about cranberry juice!" But I got to say it, it comes on like my heart feels like a little bursty about it, and I got to say it. So, I said it.

That's it.

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, with that, we can dive into today's fact or fiction. So, does cranberry juice prevent kidney stones?

Which that's one that I feel like I've heard for a very long time. Like even before I knew anything about kidney stones, I don't know why, that just always has seeped in, I feel like since I was a kid. But I don't even know why I would have heard it then, but came from somewhere.

It's a very popular myth that cranberry juice will prevent kidney stones. I think people get a little confused, and rightly so. A lot of kidney stone patients will have UTIs.

Cranberry juice can help patients that have UTIs. They will not do anything for kidney stones. So, you know, I've written about this before in I have an article on the 28 Myths of kidney stone stuff on my blog at kidneystonediet.com, and I write about this and I say cranberry juice So, here's the thing if you're looking for cranberry juice, it counts toward your total fluid intake, so it's fluids, that's great.

That will prevent kidney stones, that will help prevent kidney stones, more fluids. But I want everyone to notice, turn it around, Buster Brown, and look at your label for cranberry juice. Make sure it doesn't have any added sugar, first of all.

And second of all, it has a lot of just natural sugar, it's concentrated in there. "But we don't count natural sugar in the Kidney Stone Diet, Jill." I know we don't, but that doesn't mean we should have 80 g of natural sugar from cranberry juice every day, especially if you're a diabetic, or somebody who has any kind of glucose intolerance or anything like that.

Plus, it's calories. Personally, I don't want to drink my calories. So, let's be clear here.

UTIs and cranberry juice, they go together. Cranberry juice and kidney stone prevention do not, meaning do not specifically reach for cranberry juice because you think it's going to prevent kidney stones. There's nothing magical in there that will.

However, it is added fluid, so that is helpful. I personally would not choose a juice for added fluid, but you may say, "Look, Jill, I'm just putting a little bip of it in a glass of water for flavoring." Perfect. I just am always very careful with my words and I don't want people to think, "Did that old lady say she Did Emma, did she say that we could have cranberry juice and that's going to prevent…" No.

I'm saying, have a little bit. It counts toward your total daily fluid intake. I wouldn't suggest drinking a ton of cranberry juice because it has so much natural sugar, and even though we don't count natural sugar in the Kidney Stone Diet, it doesn't mean we can have as much as we want, especially for people who have who are trying to lose weight, who have diabetes, who have to watch the amount of all sugar that they're consuming.

So, I just want to be very clear about that. There's nothing magical about cranberry juice preventing kidney stones, but it will count toward your daily fluid intake. Don't use it as a main thing, okay?

Anything Did I mess that up in any way, Jeff? I don't want people to mistake what I'm saying.

No, not at all. Yeah, and I was just going to say, just to reiterate, how do you quantify how many fluids you should take you should consume in a day?

Yes, so we're annoying, Dr. Coe and I. Fred Coe, make sure you go look at his website, it's just nothing but science on there for all my little sciency friends, at kidneystone.uchicago.edu.

I'm also on that website. So, people always want to say, "How much should I drink a day?" Many doctors will just generically say 100 oz, whether you're a 5-ft woman or a 6-ft man, that's what they're going to say. And a tiny little woman like that is going to have a heck of a time taking in 100 oz.

The man, not so much, but we shouldn't give that generic order, especially if somebody's eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, they may be getting a lot of fluids from that. So, what Dr. Coe and I say, and other people, too, we want 2.5 to 3 L of urine out of you.

And because we're all so very different, it may take me a lot more to drink to get that output than it does Jeff. We're all very different. If I'm on a high-salt diet, I'm going to have to drink a lot more because my body's going to have to will retain that fluid, right, to get the same output as somebody who's not eating a high-salt diet.

So, there's so many different factors. A total gym rat who's sweating all the time, they're going to have to drink more fluids to get that much output. Somebody who lives in Arizona, where it's hot, really hot in the summer and they're a construction worker and work outside, they're going to have to drink a lot more water because they're sweating their fluids out.

So, that's why we say here's the output. You get there how you need to, but that's what we're looking for, right? So, we don't say the 100 oz, but I will say, because then people push me, they're like, "I need to know." So, I will, when I'm talking to them, that's why private consults are so valuable, because I'm asking, "Do you work outside?

Do you eat Do you eat a lot of fruits and vegetables? Haven't had a veggie since 1976, Jill?" Okay, so you're not getting extra fluids from that, right? So, you got to talk to patients and find out what their lifestyle already is, and then you can say, "It seems like this much fluid would be right for you." But typically, we are sticking with the 2.5 to 3 L of urine output, that's what we want to see.

"How do I know, Jill?" Well, I tell people, if you've done, and you better have, if you make a kidney stone, you better do a 24-hour urine collection, people. I can't tell you how many things are on that test that you would never know is wrong with you unless you did the urine collection. That's a must if you want to prevent kidney stones.

So, you need to see what's going on. So, once you do the urine collection, you can you can see what is going on and So, and then you get these jugs, you collect your urine in them, and I always tell people, keep those jugs. Because once in a while, you may want to pee in your jug and find out, "Am I Am I lower than the 2 L?

It's months later, where you're not worried about stones anymore because you just forgot about the whole incident, you know?" So, once in a while, my kidney stone patients, they save their jugs and they pee in them to say, "Oh, good, I'm still there." "Oh, my god, only a liter's coming out of me these days. I better get my shit together," you know?

So, that's that's what I tell them to do. But typically, the easy way, without peeing in a jug, if your urine looks like water coming out of you, you're very hydrated. You're doing an excellent job.

The darker it is, the more you should drink, okay? Just like when you first get up in the morning and your urine's a lot darker, because, you know, it's concentrated from sitting in your sitting in your body throughout the night, you know. You want, that's why when you get up, you want a glass of water, start that process right away.

The darker your urine is, that's all waste, that's been sitting in there. The longer your urine is sitting in your kidneys and your body, the longer those crystals can are looking to hang out with each other. This is why we want you to drink, flush them out, flush them out, flush them out, flush them out, so they're not I think of them, just my own thoughts, as little magnets.

And when they're in your urine, these crystals, calcium oxalate crystals, calcium phosphate crystals, uric acid crystals, all of these crystals are looking to join together. When you flush them out, no chance of that. So, this is why we want patients to be hydrated.

That's That's the whole reason, not to be annoying. We don't want those crystals to find each other in your urine, in your kidney. We want them out of you.

That's what the kidneys are do- doing. They're filtering your blood, getting all that junk that we don't need, throwing it into the urine, getting it out of your body, that's waste, right? So, we want to keep that process going.

When you don't drink for long periods of time, those crystals sit in there and they're really they're not social distancing, they're not wearing masks, they really want to hang out together. So, that's why we want you to drink so much water. So, cranberry juice will not prevent kidney stones.

Yeah, I think that's a perfect encapsulation of all of it and the whole gamut, and the importance of fluids and everything.

Look at my mug!

Oh, yeah, that mug is so funny! We talked about it off camera, but it is huge! Yeah, if you're not on YouTube, if you're just listening, you'll want to hop over to YouTube and just see the mug is as big as Jill's head!

It's 30 oz! So, this is how I like to say I'm efficient, but I'm really just being lazy. What I usually do is I have my big thing, and I just keep filling my glass, but I'm just getting so bored.

Plus, I'm like doing weight resistance while I'm picking up this glass. I'm telling you! I think I'm getting carpal tunnel from it.

Oh, no! But, you'll have a nice bicep on that right side where you're drinking.

Nice.

Sweet. So, yeah, for everyone out there with a question, the number is 773-789-8763, but definitely head over to kidneystonediet.com where you can find all of the free resources and the premium ones. So, the Kidney Stone Prevention Course, where Jill takes a deep dive into all of these topics and really outlines it step-by-step, what you need to be considering, how you need to approach diet to reduce your risk by up to 80%, which is enormous.

And then we also have the Kidney Stone Diet meal plans, which every week, you'll get an entire week's worth of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack recipes to stay on track. They're inspiration, you don't have to follow them to the letter, or anything like that, but you can find all of that and more at kidneystonediet.com.

So, I think with that, we will wrap for this week. Thanks again to everyone for tuning in. Thank you, Jill, for all the all the info, and we'll see you next week.

I love you, Jeff. Everybody, have a great week. Bye, guys!

Love you, too. Bye.