In this episode, Jill Harris delves into the complexities of oxalate and its role in kidney stone formation. She discusses common misconceptions, the importance of using reliable resources like the Harvard Oxalate Food List, and practical dietary advice for managing oxalate intake. Jill emphasizes the significance of portion control and the need for a holistic approach to kidney stone prevention, including calcium intake and overall dietary balance.
Takeaways
- Oxalate is often misunderstood and surrounded by misconceptions.
- The Harvard Oxalate Food List is a reliable resource for managing oxalate intake.
- Calcium plays a crucial role in reducing oxalate absorption.
- Portion control is essential; it’s about balance, not deprivation.
- Lifestyle changes for kidney stone prevention take time and commitment.
- Many patients over-restrict their diets unnecessarily due to fear of oxalate.
- Different sources may report varying oxalate levels due to growing conditions.
- Managing expectations is key; dietary changes require patience.
- A holistic approach to diet includes monitoring sodium, sugar, and protein intake.
- Regular consultations can help tailor dietary advice to individual needs.
00:00 Understanding Oxalate: The Basics
02:29 Navigating Oxalate Lists and Resources
05:22 The Impact of Oxalate on Health
08:20 Practical Dietary Advice for Kidney Stone Prevention
11:41 Holistic Approach to Kidney Stone Management
Jeff Sarris (00:00)
You may think you know Oxalate. Well, think again.
today it’s everyone’s favorite, favorite topic, Oxalate.
Jill Harris (00:08)
Damn oxalate all the time. I know.
But you know, there’s just so many misconceptions about oxalate. And I think out of all the things, it just confuses everybody the most. It just does.
Everybody thinks that like there’s one definitive list or you know everybody thinks that Let me word it better. Everyone thinks that oxalate is so confusing and it is Because there are so many different lists out there and so you don’t know who to follow And so if you know me for five seconds, you know, I’m gonna say use the Harvard list
We have the Harvard Oxalate Food List on our website. Jeff has made it a searchable function on our website. So if you go to kidneystonediet.com, you will find the searchable Oxalate Food List where you just type in a food and the amount of oxalate in each serving is going to pop up. It’s very easy. We also, at kidneystonediet.com, the help desk, we have a way to put that on your phone so you can just find out.
how much oxalate from the Harvard list and right on your phone. And I have that on my phone and I use it all the time. So here’s the deal.
I’m going to tell you to use the Harvard food list because I’ve been using it for nearly 30 years. So I know it works well. I trust the researchers. And my patients always lower their urinoxalate. They just always do. I’ll see a patient and their oxalate level was 120 and now it’s 22 on their follow-up test because they listen to the advice I gave them. It’s not just about any one list, really.
Now I’ve only used the Harvard list and I see the results I’m getting from follow-up urine collections with my patients so I know it works. But it’s not just the list that they’re following. They’re following all the advice that I give on my private consoles. And so some of that advice, there’s so much depending on, I lost my thing. Hold on. It’s either that I’m gonna rock so I need my fidget toy.
Jeff Sarris (02:17)
You
Jill Harris (02:24)
It’s either, was I saying? Jeff’s like, I don’t know, I fell asleep after five seconds of hearing your damn voice. See, this is why I can’t, I just, my God, ADHD is something. Okay, so I mean, I just can’t ever get interrupted because it’s all over. Okay, so the Oxlade food list, who knows what I was talking about? my advice, the other advice. Okay, so the other advice I give, get the Harvard food list, get it.
Jeff Sarris (02:28)
No. I was just thinking about your fidget toy.
Mm-hmm. Well, yeah, but all the numbers. like, yeah.
Jill Harris (02:54)
download it okay from my website kidneystonediet.com but the other advice so it’s like
have all food except just a handful of foods. Get rid of spinach, get rid of chia seeds because you all eat it every damn day in your oatmeal. Stop that. Almonds, almond products, almond milk, almond flour, all my paleo friends. So stop overeating rhubarb. That’s something really high. But honestly, and I have get rid of these foods on my, my guinnessondiet.com. There’s a list of foods to watch out for.
But all of you come and you want to get rid of all the foods. You don’t have to do that. So I have built a career saying there’s plenty to eat. You come to me thinking you just got notebook paper and rocks, but you don’t. You can eat sweet potatoes. Just stop eating five of them a day, my bodybuilder friends. Stop overeating higher oxalate foods.
in any portion you want because they’re healthy, quote unquote, air quotes for you who are listening on Spotify, and get your calcium needs met every day because calcium helps us get rid of excess oxalate in our body. So there’s that. But the question remains, why are the lists so different? Well, first of all, number one,
There’s great researches out there and maybe some that aren’t so great. So oxalate numbers may vary. Where a plant is grown from one country to another country, the soil makeup it was grown in, all of these things vary. We are never going to have in black and white, solid, 100 % sure oxalate levels for one food. We’re just not going to have that.
But we as human beings want concise measurements of everything because we don’t ever want to go through that pain again. It makes perfect sense. And so when you go to the urologist with a new stone or you do a urine collection and your oxalate’s high, you’re like, what the hell is oxalate? You’ve never heard of it. And it’s the only thing you focus on because your stone was calcium oxalate. And so you’re like, my God, what is oxalate? And then when you go on the internet,
my goodness, there’s so much information and it typically conflicts with each other. So it’s very confusing for you and you come to me so frustrated. Also, so many of you come to me, I’m helping you gain weight back because you’ve taken so many foods away that you don’t have to take away anymore. I promise. Also, there’s all kinds of people on the internet that will be screaming about oxalate toxicity. And so that really makes you scared too.
I’m not saying that doesn’t happen. I will tell you as a kidney stone former, I’ve never seen that in almost 30 years. So I’m not saying it doesn’t happen. I just don’t have experience with it. But once you start researching oxalate, you really start getting scared. So I get patients that come to me very underweight. I have had patients come to me with newly diagnosed eating disorders because they are, and they’re working with a therapist.
because they’re so petrified of new stones and oxalate that they are eating like rice and oatmeal because both of those things have no oxalate all day long. People who are diabetics come to me and now their A1c has increased because they started bringing food in like rice that is zero oxalate but now they’re eating it all the time. So their A1c over the next three months goes high. There are so many things that I see.
that don’t have to happen. I promise you, if you listen to the advice I’m giving you as a calcium oxalate stone former, you stick to 100 milligrams of oxalate a day. If you’re a bariatric patient or somebody who has malabsorption issues, your doctor may tell you 50 milligrams of oxalate a day. If you don’t have any of those things and your doctor is telling you to go,
50 milligrams a day. Some doctors arbitrarily tell you a number and then when you meet with me I’ll say, do you have malabsorption issues? Do you have this? Do you have that? No, no. The only thing I have is kidney stones. That 50 milligrams per day is much too low. Some doctors just arbitrarily pull out a number. You can easily go to 100 milligrams of oxalate a day. And so get your calcium needs met.
stay under 100 milligrams a day, is super easy to do once you take away almond products all day long, rhubarb and spinach, because spinach has hundreds of oxalate in just one cup. So once you take away the highest culprits, you can eat all foods, even higher oxalate foods, just watch your portion size. And that is where the mantra portion not perfection comes in. So I have kidney stones in my family and I still eat sweet potatoes, but I’m having half the sweet potato.
Not a huge sweet potato, and I’m fine. And I pair that, because it is higher, I think it’s 28 milligrams for half a cup of sweet potato, I will pair it with my lactose-free milk. So I’m not worried about it. And so far, knock on wood, because I follow the diet I’m asking you guys to do, I haven’t made any new stones. And I have a lot of malabsorption issues, so one day if I get them, I’m not going to be surprised, because of all my bowel issues from my surgeries, from cancer. But I do everything I ask you to do.
I eat a low-salt diet, I eat a very low-added sugar diet, I don’t eat high oxalate foods, I stay under the 100 milligrams of oxalate, I get my calcium needs met every day because I don’t want bone loss, I get my fluids. That one’s hard. I mean, there are days that I don’t make it, but it’s never two days in a row I don’t make my fluid goals. And so, again, too, I do all the things. I don’t overeat meat, I do eat meat because I bodybuild and I like to get, it’s easy to get.
protein from meat that way. You don’t have to eat meat, but if you do eat meat, get it under control how much you’re eating. I have a calculator on how much kidney stone formers should be eating as far as meat protein goals on my website, kidneystone diet.com. so I also know that getting, doing these goals is hard when you first start, but once you start living this lifestyle, anybody that’s doing it,
six months to a year that will tell you it’s just the best thing they’ve ever done. One of the reasons I have the accountability group is I want you to know this. I’m going to insert this here. I don’t talk about this enough. Start managing your expectations. Lifestyle changes take six months to a year. Everybody in the diet industry will tell you it’s quick and easy, but it’s not. As you all know, you lose weight and you’ll gain it right back because it’s not quick and easy.
losing weight, maintaining dietary changes six months to a year, until you really get it under your belt. And that is when the magic happens. And that’s why I have a really cheap accountability group, or you can get it in an all access pass at kidneystonediet.com. It comes with that pass. But the oxalate portion of this is so easy once you get the right information. Download your Harvard Oxalate Food List.
Use that as your source. Even Harvard, they re-studied some foods and they’re different than when they studied them before because they studied those foods in the 80s. It could be different climate changes, could be the soil conditions. If you pluck a raspberry in one soil and two years later pluck it again in another soil, it could be different. It’s just different, folks. There’s no hard facts. A raspberry will never be
However many milligrams of oxalate, always. Okay, it may change. This is why if you listen to the advice, you eat foods within a portion size. Don’t overeat foods, even healthy ones. As so many of you have realized, spinach every day, almonds every day, getting no calcium, that’s what led to your kidney stone in so many cases. So when we eat foods, even healthy foods, within portion size, get our calcium needs met every day.
Follow the other aspects of kidney stone diet. Some people will say, Jill, I lowered my oxalate, I’m still making stones. Because you’re just focused on oxalate. It’s the easiest part of the diet. Now you’ve also got to focus on sodium and added sugar and meat protein fluids and getting calcium needs met every day. Those are the real goals. Lowering your oxalate, boom, like that you’ll do it. It’s not going to be a problem. But because when you go on the internet, everyone’s talking about oxalate with kidney stones,
That’s the only thing you focus on and you’re always focused on all the foods you can’t eat. Get the right list, the Harvard Oxalate Food List. Listen to the advice I’m giving you and that oxalate on your urine will plummet, I promise. And schedule a urine collection consult with me. I’ll explain everything to you.
Jeff Sarris (12:31)
Yeah. And just to reiterate, oxalate is just one part of the kidney stone diet. So go to kidneystonediet.com, scroll down to the kidney stone diet goals, and you can find all the details for oxalate, sodium, sugar, meat, protein, everything right there on the homepage. Absolutely free. There’s no paywall or email or anything you have to give. You can find everything at kidneystonediet.com. And if you want to dive deeper, we have the all access pass. As Jill mentioned, you can get the group coaching calls with Jill and
Jill Harris (12:35)
Yes.
Jeff Sarris (13:00)
fellow kidney stone formers, you can get the kidney stone prevention course, all access gives you meal plans as well. So you just get absolutely everything kidney stone prevention for one flat price. So I think with that we’ll wrap. Head on over to kidneystonediet.com, thumbs up on this video if you like it and thanks again, we’ll see you next week.
Jill Harris (13:19)
Thanks so much have a great week!
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