Fact or Fiction: Tap water caused your kidney stone

So this week on the show we're diving into more kidney stone myths. So the question is, is it a myth that tap water caused your kidney stone?

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 am your kidney stone prevention nurse, Jill. And I am so, I'm just so excited to be here.

Absolutely!

I love it, and I love these myths.

Yeah, I think it's really good to touch on all these and really just dispel anything that isn't accurate, or maybe it's not even myths. Maybe sometimes it is going to be something that, "Oh, this is helpful." It's something that people talk about sort of in, I don't know, wives' tale or whatever, but, yeah, I think it's good to dive in and really reveal what the truth is about so many things, the truth about kidney stones, really.

You know, as a patient with all my illness, I think you're always, as a patient, we're always bombarded with a lot of things. And the problem is, when you're sick, you're anxious, you don't know what to believe, you want to believe stuff that seems really too good to be true, and in the back of your mind you're like, "I know this is too good to be true, but please, dear God, I want this to work," because you're sick!

So believe me, as somebody who's been really sick in her life, I get the mentality of it. There's also part of me that just wants the sift, because I'm a very I get emotional, so I can't say I'm just always rational, but I'm the kind of person that just I want to push that bullshit away so I don't have to I just want the focus to be what can I do?

What's real here? 'Cause that's what I want to focus on. I do not want to waste my time on tomfoolery.

I just don't, 'cause that's a waste of my time. And so when you're really sick, you don't have time to waste. So that's why these myths, this is why I get so excited about these, because even though there's always slack in the comments, "Well it worked for me, worked for me," that's wonderful it worked for you.

Alls I can tell you is what I've experienced in 25 years. And, if that worked for everybody, there would be no kidney stones in the world. And it's one of the most expensive diseases we have in our country, right?

Because there's so many visits and surgeries, and it's a lot. So, I like getting rid of things that are absolutely not true, and then you can focus on the things that you can do. So you're empowered with real stuff, not fake stuff.

So that's why I get excited with doing the myths, and there's, yes, plenty of them in the kidney stone world, as there is in any. Go to TikTok, you'll see all kinds of potions and fads and all kinds of things they tell you can do with cancer, with stones, with everything. So, yeah..

Yeah, it's how we're wired. We want that magic pill, that magic solution to our problems.

Yes. Yes. What are we doing?

Which one Oh, the hard water.

All right, so tap water.

Tap water.

Tap water caused my kidney stone. Is that Is that true, or is that a myth?

That's a myth. That's a myth. A lot of people will say Here's how a lot of kidney stone patients will ask me.

This is what they'll ask, "Jill, my town has well water." "Jill, I heard tap water caused my kidney stones, so I'm buying my water." "What about soft water?" So, Dr. Coe and I both believe please just drink your water. Dr.

Coe and I drink tap water. That's what we do. There You're not going to make kidney stones because of tap water.

If anything, if anything were to increase your stone risk, it would be soft water, 'cause there's salt in the soft water. But, but, and we always say, you can go have your water analyzed if you want to trouble yourself and pay for that, but honestly, people will ask that, meanwhile they're eating 6,000 mg of salt a day.

So let's not discuss water. Please drink water. Drink your water, whether you get it from your faucet or you buy it, drink your water.

Tap water is not going to cause kidney stones. That is a myth. What we care mostly about is you get proper fluids.

Proper fluids are enough to pee out 2.5 to 3 L. All fluids count. Doesn't have to be just water, but water is best because water has no sugar, no calories, no salt, unless you have soft water, that will have a little salt.

But again, folks, I'm not worried, even if you have a soft water tank, I'm not worried about that. Start with your food! Start with your food.

Don't be worried about silly things like water. That's the least of your problems. Drink water.

Work on your added sugar and salt consumption. That's where you want to focus. You want to focus on food, not what's in your tap water.

That did not cause your kidney stone, I promise. So get enough fluids to dilute your urine and flush those crystals out of your kidney. Eat within the Kidney Stone Diet goals: your sodium 1,500 mg a day, your calcium 1,000 for men and women a day, 1,200 for postmenopausal women, eat meat protein enough for your body weight, but not too much.

You can see these goals at kidneystonediet.com/start. Eat under 100 mg of oxalate a day, unless your doctor has told you otherwise. Bariatric patients, people with malabsorption issues, may have to go down to 50 mg a day of oxalate from food.

And then added sugar. We got to get our added sugar 25 g for women and 38 g for men. We This is sugar that is happening in candy, cakes, and cookies, not fruit.

Of course, diabetics have to watch their total sugar, so they too have to watch fruit, and any simple carb, obviously. But that's what we're talking about. The least of your worries is your tap water.

I promise, please trust me on this. I've never had a patient in 25 years that had a kidney stone because of tap water. Never.

Thousands of patients I've talked to. So that's never happened. It is all the other things.

And you may say, "Well, you don't know." I do, because my patients don't get new stones for the most part, unless they have a medical condition that's predisposing them. Once the average kidney stone patient changes their diet and sometimes may have to go on a med for hypercalciuria, too much calcium in the urine because of genetics, then there's no more stones.

But this is a lifetime change. This ain't for the 6 months. You got to do this for a lifetime.

And I don't feel bad about it, because it's a healthy way to live. So Jeff eats this way, I eat this way, we care about what we're putting in our body. The only way our body works well is if we nourish it properly, and as grown-ups we need to be responsible for that.

I always talk to my in my group calls with Jill, I'm always like, "Why are we eating like we're going to a 5- a 5-year-old birthday party? What are we doing?" I mean, you know, you go out to dinner, you go, you have a potluck or whatever, there's candy, there's cakes. I'm like, it looks like a 5- a 5-year-old's birthday party here.

We're all 50, what are we doing, and 60, and 70? It's so interesting, right? So, I don't know.

I'm just I'm I'm just on a mission for all of us to eat like grown-ups, eat responsibly, take care of this machine, because without it, we don't have a life. So nothing else matters, right?

And eating like grown-ups also doesn't mean depriving yourself. That's something that's important, because you're not taking a lot away, you're not You're not making a restrictive diet. Like, it's a remove a couple things that are the worst offenders, and now let's look at these goals that can help you live a better life.

I mean, the whole sort of premise of this show is reduce your stone risk and live a better life. They both go hand-in-hand. And if it's deprivation, can we can we honestly say it's a better life if you just deprive yourself of the things that might bring you some joy?

Jeff, it's so true, and that's such a big part of our teachings here at Kidney Stone Diet. It's like, you must So, so normal diets in the world, we are a set of goals, so you can do whatever lifestyle pleases you and works for all your medical conditions. We're just telling you to get rid of spinach and almond products for the most part, okay?

All those other higher oxalate foods, have within a portion size. Make sure you get your calcium needs met every day, and you can do that. But the reason our culture goes up and down with their weight, every woman I work with, every man that I work with, will all tell me, "I lost weight, but then I gained it back.

I lost weight a million times, but I always gain it back." Well, first of all, it's not tagged with a really important why. And when you're sick, you will change your lifestyle real fast. So now you have an important reason why instead of looking adorable in a blouse.

You're sick. You're scared. You'll change.

The other thing is, because we've been so indoctrinated into, you know, you have to give up a whole group like carbs, or you can never eat a muffin again, who wants to live if they can never have a muffin again? I'll tell this all day long, I'll tell you this all day long, too. Have your thing, no one gives a damn.

You want a scone? Have a scone. You want a burrito?

Have a burrito. Get right back up with your next meal choice and get right back to work. So consistency is key.

That doesn't mean every single meal you have is going to be 100% Kidney Stone Diet compliant, but it means that if it's not, you just get right back to work. There's no shame, there's no guilt, there's no negative self-talk, which is just sabotage to keep on cycling with the overeating then. To me, it's just an excuse.

You beat yourself up, you feel crappy, and then you want to eat another, you know, unhealthy food to lift your spirits until you do that whole cycle again. So don't you dare do any negative self-talk if you want a peanut butter cup. Who cares?

Just get right back on track. See, when you do that, emotionally you'll feel happier, because you got that thing. You know, when you don't have your favorite foods here and there, we're nothing more than toddlers having a tantrum.

"I want it! I want it! I want it!

I want it!" That's what we all think. "What the hell! Why can't I have it?

I should be able to have that if I…" We're like a toddler screaming in the middle of the street in our head! Have it, Irene! Have it!

Pick yourself up, enjoy it, lick it, love it, and move on. No negative self-talk. You simply ate a Reese's Cup, who cares!

Nobody cares. You do not gain weight when you get right back on track. Just doesn't happen.

But the mind, the mindset, you feel so happy, you don't feel deprived, because we as human beings, as soon as we say we're not allowed to have something, the only thing we want is that! That's it! When you go shopping and it says one left, you're like, "Oh, shit.

I didn't know I wanted it until it said one left." And then underneath it says, "And by the way, we don't know when we're going to get it back." Well, holy shit, now I need it! There is just this depravity, right? We really We really have a love-hate relationship with that, mostly hate.

And it doesn't matter if I'm 60 years old, if you tell me I can't have it, that's exactly what I'm going to want. Even though I may not even really want it, don't tell me what I can do and what I can't do. That's that other side of me that ain't cute.

So, that's why part of this, a big part of the teachings here are, you're grown. Please have something that makes you happy. Life So, one of my patients said this, that I think they were a teacher and they taught their kids this, "There are sometimes foods and there are always foods." So the always foods are fruits and vegetables and healthy foods, and sometimes foods are cooks- cookies and candies, and you're going to have that.

That's okay, that's all. Don't say bad or good, or it's just food, people. And sometimes you need to have an ice cream cone.

Lick it, love it, move on.

I really like that, and not judging that a food choice is good or bad.

Not judging. Right. Look at what diet culture has taught us.

"If we have it, we're off the diet." No we're not, we just had a freaking muffin. Shut up, diet culture! It's ridiculous!

Yeah. It's But it's hard. It's definitely hard, and not to minimize the difficulty of the negative self-talk and sort of beating yourself up over something like that.

We all do it. It's just how we're how we're wired.

Jeff. Jeff, this is what we talk about in those group calls with Jill, precisely these things, because that negative self-talk, whether you're dealing with diet or you or anything else in life, it doesn't just have We as human beings are filled with negative self-talk all the time. I was reading I was listening to somebody and they were saying, "What's more important, more positive self-talk or less negative self-talk?" And hands down, the science shows less negative self-talk is more important.

It's the most important thing. Even better, even more important than more positive self-talk. You could think more positive thoughts, but you're going to take it right away with all the negative thoughts.

So it's a minus, right? And so, you know, we I say this a lot, too, if you put your mind if you put your negative self-talk on a speaker in the grocery store, or you and put it on the loudspeaker, people would be like, "Oh, my God! Wow, there's a very scary person in this store." Or if you listened to what you're saying to each other Most of you don't even listen, it's so on autopilot.

If you are mindful and pay attention to what you're saying to yourself, would you say that to your grandbaby? Would you? You know, there's many times I've said things to myself, I'm like, "Oh, jeez, I would never say that to Nate." Just the mere thought of it broke my heart, yet I do it to myself every day.

And we don't even hear ourselves anymore, but if you think that doesn't penetrate every cell in your body, you are mistaken. So in those group calls with Jill, we are always talking about improving that, and that doesn't happen overnight, because so many of us are 50s, 60s, 70s in those group calls, and we're we're working against decades of talking to ourselves like a bully.

So it's going to take a hot minute to practice this. It does not All these things we talk about here are really hard to change, not just change, but to keep going, and that's why I made those group calls with Jill, because that support If you understood, guys, that is the cheapest thing I give. I give that I give that service away, but it is so much fun for me and for people there, because it's filled with love and support.

And the reason I push that service, and you'll note that's the only service I push, is because it's so affordable, so I don't feel bad about it, I feel really good about it. And the help and the support and love you get from that is immeasurable. I really suggest you check it out.

But there's that, there's just that. All this stuff is hard, and so I give away a lot of my time in those calls, because this is going to take a second, and I have a lot of compassion for that, because I need to work on this, too, quite frankly. So, I mean, it's really helpful for me, too.

So, it's just anybody, you don't even need kidney stones, some people are just trying to lose weight in those calls, and so they come to it. You don't You can just want to be a better human being and be on those calls. It's, you know, it doesn't matter about kidney stones.

We're learning and growing as human beings. So anyway, tap water, that's a myth.

Yeah, I think No, that's perfect, because it is it's so much deeper than just that. I think this is a wonderful episode, diving into so much more than maybe on the surface would have anticipated, but because those are the things. What we say to ourself matters, how much negativity we create or let in matters, it's It all plays into our overall health and well-being and our goal of living a better life, so…

Yeah, my whole MO here, our whole MO is, do you think I'm just talking about spinach for 25 years? When you get on a phone call with me, or you work with me in some capacity, or you take the course, the course is talking about stuff like this, too. This is about a whole mind shift!

That's what this is about, it's not about a stupid oxalate list. It's about a whole mind shift. It's how to be a better human being, and that's why our tagline is living your best life, 'cause that's what we're trying to do here.

It's not just about kidney stones. There's so much, as you see on the length of this video, it's so much that goes into this, and people wonder why it's so hard to change, because it's all of this, folks. But when you get to it, when you get to all of this, it's really exciting.

It's really interesting. It's all about growth. I mean, a lot of us are at retirement age here, Jeff is not, but a lot of us are.

And it's like, do you really want to sit in the chair and watch Wheel of Fortune every day at 6:00? Is that what you want to do with the rest of your life? Because I don't!

I mean, I just started bouldering at 60 years old, and Nate and I go every week now. So, I mean, you know, there's always time to do things, and you may not want to boulder, but what about tap dancing? In the group calls I have students, they're tap dancing now, they're boxing, they're doing all kinds of things that they always wanted to do, but didn't have the balls to do it.

I'm saying, "Come on, people, get some balls and let's try things!" And if you don't I'm not good at bouldering, but I'm in there, man, step-by-step until I get where I want to go. That's what life is! So, you know, this is much more than just kidney stones.

This is much more about oxalate. This is, how do you live a better life, physically and emotionally? And when you decide to make these changes that will bring great things to both, well, my god, is your whole world going to open up.

And I'm super excited to be just a little bit a part of it. Jeff and I really are excited to do these videos, because we get to help you think about things in a broader way, not just about the kidney stone stuff, right, Jeff?

Absolutely. And I think that's the perfect note to wrap on this week. So you can find everything again at kidneystonediet.com.

You can find the group coaching calls with Jill, you can find everything that you'll that you can need there, free and premium, but so many free resources. Plus, this is episode 183 of the show. For those of you who have been there since been here since day one, we appreciate you.

We appreciate everyone brand new. Maybe this is the first episode you're encountering us and the show, and Jill and all the information. But if you enjoy it, give it a thumbs up.

It means a lot. It really helps us reach more people. And if you haven't subscribed already, you can subscribe on YouTube.

Also, I know there's a lot of listeners who are audio-only. If you want the video version, there's always YouTube, but we appreciate each and every one of you, no matter how you're here consuming the content and sharing it with people who can benefit from it, so…

Yeah, and if you're on Apple or Spotify or any of those podcast places, you can leave a review, and that also helps them show our podcast. Otherwise, we get lost in the shuffle of things, folks. So you can leave a review in the app and rate the show, and that also helps us.

We ask you to do those things so the algorithm will show us instead of us getting lost. So we ask you to subscribe and use reviews and press the thumbs up button, because otherwise these platforms don't show our videos, and then, you know, we can't reach people, and that's why we're doing these free shows, so we can reach more people for free.

Absolutely. Well, so, thanks again to each and every one of you out there, and we'll see you next week.

Bye, everybody!