So, here's what I'm going to say. It's very annoying to me. So, Harvard did study dark chocolate, okay?
And it's high. It's very high. They listed under on the Oxalate Food list at kidneystonediet.com, it says chocolate, dark bar.
And 1 and 1/2 oz of that, of dark chocolate, is almost 68 mg of oxalate. That's the latest from Harvard. So, that's high because it has more cacao in there.
So, the higher the cacao level, the more oxalates are going to be in that candy bar. Now, milk chocolate, annoyingly so, they didn't study! Why, Harvard, did you not study milk chocolate?
I just I can't stand it. What they did study is if you look under candies, comma, milk chocolate, 1 and 1/2 oz of that is 17 mg. That was in their revised 2022 Harvard edition thing.
So, so milk chocolate has less cacao, so it will have lower oxalate. Now, if you're doing a consult with me, I can't tell you how common it is, if you heard my consult, most people are taking away all chocolate and they're really sad about it. A lot of people are like, "I don't even care about chocolate." So, it's not a big deal for them.
Now, my job as somebody who wants to maintain you being compliant on your lifestyle, the only way we can be compliant long-term is to work in treats here and there. So, of course, you can sometimes have some chocolate. What exactly does that mean?
Well, I have patients who say, "If I don't have two Hershey's Kisses a day, I'm I'm not doing anything, Jill." And they hold me ransom with that. So, I say, "Listen, if you talk to me in a consult, the best thing about those consults is I'm going to hear what you must have. And I'll say, 'All right, Doreen, I'm going to give you that, but here's what I want.' And then we work together, and I figure out the prioritize I'm prioritizing what's the most important thing for Doreen, not just because it's a rule and she ha- she has to do it and blah, blah, blah.
You have to work with people in order to get them to say, 'Okay, I don't mind getting up today, cuz I can have two Hershey's Kisses, as long as, Doreen, you do this for me. You get your calcium needs met every day.' I would even save a little calcium for those two Hershey's Kisses. If you're drinking milk, maybe just, you know, a little half a cup of milk, save some calcium for that, or have your chocolate kit- chocolate Kisses with your Greek yogurt.
Pair it with some calcium, okay? Now, for those of you who are drinking non-dairy milks, is two pieces of chocolate enough to help you absorb all that calcium? Because non-dairy milks, you should be eating with a meal, so I would not save it for that.
I would put your two little chocolates in with some real calcium, either from yogurt or from lactose-free dairy or whatever. Okay? I will tell you this, we do know it has oxalate in it, obviously, it has cacao in it, but I don't have any patients who are making stones because they have a little bit of chocolate, even each day.
Now, you may say, 'There's no way, old lady, that I can have just two little bips of chocolate and get on my day.' Well then, no chocolate for you. If chocolate is a trigger food, as many of you tell me it is, then you may not want to bring it in your house. Okay?
Now, many people do it that way. Many people just have chocolate when they go out. They save it for dessert at dinner.
Maybe you just want a piece of chocolate cake cuz it's your birthday. You're not making a stone because you had a piece of chocolate cake. That's never going to happen, I promise you.
Have your birthday cake. Have your father's birthday cake. Celebrate a birthday.
Get right back on track. If you're nervous by this advice, I don't know, Jill, that stone incident, I don't know, either that last stone incident will say I will never think about chocolate again, I do not care, or I'm still I do care a lot, but I'm feeling a little bit nervous, what I tell those people, the next time you do a urine collection, have your little bit of chocolate, get your calcium needs met that day, and you'll see exactly what your oxalate level is on your urine collection.
So, you can feel confident, and you can feel calm, and you can feel okay with what you're doing. You don't have to believe me, that will be the proof in the pudding. Make a chocolate pudding when you do your urine collection!
As a matter of fact, a lot of people do like chocolate pudding, because that gets them where they need to go, and it's and they make it with their milk. Chocolate pudding has been studied, and well, this is a ready to eat, one snack cup for Jell-O chocolate pudding is 13.6 mg of oxalate, and it has an asterisk on it, which means that was another thing Harvard re-studied or it was new to studying this time around in 2022.
So, you see, you can still have chocolate things. It's what you were doing before, where you had a piece of chocolate, which led to 22 more pieces of chocolate, and then you're like, 'Screw it, I'm going to eat chocolate for the rest of my life for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.' That's what leads to it, mostly because you weren't paying attention to calcium needs.
So, if you've been an avid fan of this show, of Jeff and I doing this every week, then you know that it's always going to be the same thing. There is a theme: have a little bit of the thing that could be higher in oxalate, get right back on track with your next meal, and always, if you're unsure about the oxalate, make sure you're pairing it with a calcium-based food or drink.
That's how we do it. So, I have a lot of patients that absolutely have their chocolate, they're having it in moderation now, they're not making new stones, they're getting their calcium needs met, and it's always going to be about portion, not perfection. I'm I spend most of my days in private consults bringing food back to people, okay?
Because they've taken much too much foods away, and it's just not something you need to do in kidney stone prevention. It's just not. You can absolutely prevent kidney stones and still have little hits of chocolate here and there.
That's what I got to say about chocolate, right?
