What to Eat When Prone to Kidney Stones

Healthy Ways to Avoid the Condition with Proper Eating

Apr 21, 2009 Jennifer Marsh

Your diet will help you avoid the pain of kidney stones.

If you have ever dealt with the pain and anguish of passing a kidney stone, then you never want to experience it again. While medication and time help you pass a stone, diet will limit your chances of developing the same condition in the future.

What are Kidney Stones?

As the name implies, kidney stones are small mineral rocks that form in your kidneys. Although there can be several minerals responsible for the stones, their formation is painful due to the narrow tract in which they need to pass. The kidneys need to pass from the kidneys to the ureter, and from the ureter to the urethra which passes to the bladder. The stones then pass from the bladder and out of your urinary tract. These passages are narrow, and the kidney stones are hard, spiked rocks that cause pain as they squeeze through the passages.

Most kidney stones are made up of calcium oxalate, so it is obvious that limiting your diet from amounts of calcium oxalate helps limit the possibility of kidney stones. Nearly ten percent of women and ten percent of women are susceptible to kidney stones.

The Simple Diet to Avoid Kidney Stones

There are some simple ways to avoid kidney stones that are all controllable in your diet. Diet plays a huge role in the development of kidney stones.

Drink plenty of water. Drinking plenty of water is a part of any diet whether you want to lose weight or if you want to reduce harmful toxins. Water cleanses your body and keeps it hydrated for maximum health.
Calcium containing foods. Calcium enriched foods are perfect for an anti-kidney stone diet because the calcium binds to the calcium oxalate in the gut eliminating the creation of stones. Eating foods such as dairy products that are high in calcium, will lower your chances of stones.
Avoid oxalate foods. Some foods contain higher levels of calcium oxalate. Spinach is reported to be one of the highest calcium oxalate foods, so people prone to kidney stones should avoid this food as much as possible. Other foods to avoid are beans, beets, berries, green peppers, chocolate, coffee, colas, peanuts, peanut butter, and wheat bran.

Kidney stones are an extremely painful condition, so anyone who has been through the condition understands the desire to avoid it even through diet. Follow these three simple rules, and you can lower the chances of developing stones in the future.

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Kidney Stones