What are the best foods to eat while passing a kidney stone? The general guidelines outlined below will help you choose and handpick the best food to eat when diagnosed with a kidney stone. It is very important to remember that depending on the type/composition of kidney stone you have your choice of food and recommended intake of the same would also vary.
Given below is a list of foods to avoid with kidney stones
1. Avoid meat, seafood, mutton, and chicken. In general stay away or limit the intake of any and all animal protein. This will help you a long way in preventing stone formation. You can instead eat plant-based sources of proteins like legumes, soybeans, lentils, and tofu.
2. Next, you must limit milk, cheese, and all other dairy products at least till the time you have gotten your stone treated!.
3. Now, here comes the interesting stuff!. If you have been specifically diagnosed with calcium oxalate stones, I would recommend you avoid the following food items altogether, since reducing the amount of oxalate in the urine can itself prevent stone formation
Here are the foods to avoid with kidney stones (Calcium oxalate stone more specifically!)
A. Peanuts specifically
B. Spinach
C. Wheat based products
D. Dry Figs
E. Black teas and lastly
F. Dark chocolate
4. Sometimes, a diagnosis of a cystine stone may be made. In these instances, you should specifically drink close to 4 liters of water every day!. Keep a filled steel bottle of at least two liters capacity both in your workplace and home and frequently sip it!. Water, after all, is the elixir of life.
5. Furthermore, you must keep your dietary salt intake restricted. Never take more than 2500 mg of salt per day in total. Did you know that one teaspoon of salt contains 2325 mg of sodium?
And one 14 inches regular pizza contains over 5000 mg of sodium. Why on earth do you think we doctors ask you to avoid junk food????
If you have been diagnosed with a kidney stone, strictly stay away from pizza, burgers, bakery products, puffs, pancakes and all other forms of processed foods that contain sodium. Learn to cook from scratch and use minimal salt wherever feasible. If you are in a situation where you cannot make your own healthy food, purchase and buy food that is labelled as low sodium, no sodium or low salt added items specifically.
6. Lastly, avoid all form of Cola’s and alcohol and other aerated beverages!. These are probably the worst things you can dump into your system and are definitely among the top of the top foods to avoid with kidney stones.
In general, you can follow our medical team’s recommendations below if you have been diagnosed with a kidney stone. We advise all our patient’s who visit our clinic for a kidney stone treatment.
1. Learn to drink at least close to 4 liters of water every day, just make it a practice
2. Moreover, avoid all forms of high sodium junk foods like pizzas, burgers and other processed crap
3. Walk at least one hour every day and try losing body weight
4. Stick to vegetable sources of protein and avoid animal protein wherever possible
5. Milk can be taken in small amounts, go for low-fat milk where possible
6. Avoid spinach, figs, chocolate, and peanuts specifically
7. Keep your sodium intake to less than 2500 mg per day. Do not compromise on this
8. Lastly, avoid alcohol and cola-based beverages. The truth is they are just not worth it!
Moreover, I hope this article gave you some idea on the foods to avoid with kidney stones. Do share this with all your friends and loved ones!
