Background My urine oxalate level has skyrocketed from 36mg/day to 71mg/day. Oxalate causes kidney stones, so I need to keep it low. The odd thing is that I was eating a lot of high-oxalate foods when my numbers were low, had stopped eating those foods, then my numbers skyrocketed. The only thing I can think of is that I stopped taking calcium supplements because calcium supplements can also increase kidney stones. But oxalate binds to the calcium and then gets escorted out of your system, so I think I need to get more calcium in my diet. Dietary calcium does not get processed the same way that supplemented calcium does. Looking for a Solution My problem is that the only food item that contains a significant amount of calcium is milk, and I do not like milk. I cannot put chocolate flavoring in it because chocolate and cocoa both increase kidney stones. I could blend in fruit & vanilla, but that means dragging the blender out all the time. Got any ideas on how to flavor milk without adding chocolate or using the blender. I think my only option is this:
If you like pumpkin, you can add some pumpkin puree and whisk it around in the milk to blend .Maybe add a dash of cinnamon too. Or...Heat it all up in a mug and you could have a pumpkin latte; sorta. Instead of chocolate, you can add Nestles Nesquik Strawberry powder to the milk.
I eat pinto beans, bananas, jasmine rice and russet potatoes every day, all of which contain ample amounts of calcium, and never eat dairy products. I'm healthy, exercise daily, and my kidneys are fine. It seems to me that high amounts of calcium from dairy products would increase uric acid and kidney stones. Pumpkin also contains ample amounts of calcium on it's own. However I would never mix it with cow's milk. Yuck. @John Brunner - Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite foods, which also contain ample amounts of calcium. I used to eat them every day. The prices are higher now but I still eat them quite often.
Thanks! I'll give that a shot. I looked at the classic milk flavorings today and don't want high fructose corn syrup or a lot of the other crap if I'm gonna be drinking this as a daily routine.
It's weird that calcium supplements are metabolized differently than dietary calcium, so the supplements give you stones while the dietary calcium helps diminish the likelihood, I'm assuming because oxalate binds to dietary calcium. Some folks kidneys create stones while others don't. Diet will not cause you to get stones if you don't already have the proclivity to form them. It's really a weird place to be in because lots of foods are high in oxalate. Dried beans are among the highest oxalate foods, as are potatoes (most of the oxalate might be in the skin...I've seen inferences.) I've attached a pdf of the oxalate content of foods in case you and others are curious. It's a bummer of a position to be in.
Yup, plain yogurt is a good option. As with milk, I need a way to flavor it (meaning I'd prefer plain yogurt to sugary fruit yogurt.) I do eat cheese.
Cheeses of all kinds work. Good ice cream has a lot of calcium. In case you haven't seen this: https://www.myfooddata.com/articles/high-calcium-vegetables.php
Seems like there is no way to eat your way to achieve the daily minimum requirement or even come close.
Buy a cow. But you ain't gonna come close with veggies. And then many of the ones with a high calcium content also have a high oxalate content, which is to be avoided if you get stones.
I take two One A Day Vitamins For 65+ Men & Women per the recommended dosage and each pill has 500 mg of Calcium.
The issue is that for some reason, our bodies metabolize dietary calcium different than they metabolize supplemented calcium. I was taking a calcium supplement, but the results of urinalyses (and continued stone formation) indicate that I should stop taking them. Dietary calcium, on the other hand, binds to oxalate (actually the other way around) and escorts it out of your system, thus preventing stones. So if your system forms stones (kidney or bladder): -Supplemented calcium is bad -Dietary calcium is good NOW the problem arises as to how get sufficient calcium via diet if you do not like milk. (The issue of weaned humans continuing to drink milk from an ungulate is topic for another thread.) This problem is further compounded by the fact that chocolate and cocoa flavorings contribute to stone formation. A subordinate issue is that any low fat/low sugar flavorings (or dairy alternatives) are full of additives, artificial sweeteners and/or high fructose corn syrup. Did you know that vanilla flavored low-fat yogurt (not fruit-on-the-bottom, but just plain vanilla flavored) has as much sugar per ounce as full-fat/full-sugar Breyers vanilla ice cream?
Get plain yogurt, not the flavored stuff. Good plain yogurt is fine to eat and doesn't need sweeteners of any kind. If you eat sweetened yogurt, you might as well eat ice cream I use plain Greek yogurt.