Diet to Reduce Kidney Stones Risk

A kidney stone is a small, hard deposit that can form in the kidney from substances in your urine. A stone can be excruciatingly painful if it travels down the urinary tract, and can even block the flow of urine. Your diet can reduce the risk of kidney stones, but what you eat and drink depends on the type of kidney stones you develop. You will need different strategies for different stones.

Beverages

According to the Mayo Clinic, if you do not drink enough fluids, especially water, your urine is likely to have higher concentrations of substances that can form kidney stones. If you have a history of kidney stones, your doctor is likely to recommend that you drink lots of water. The Mayo Clinic says that can mean 14 cups of water a day, or more if you live in a hot, dry climate.

The Mayo Clinic says you can include a glass of lemonade with your water intake because lemonade increases the levels of citrate in your urine, and citrate helps prevent kidney stone formation. However, the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse, cautions that lemonade might not work for everyone. They say it might prevent calcium oxalate stones and uric acid stones, but lemonade could be harmful for people who form calcium phosphate stones.

The Clearinghouse and the Mayo Clinic say moderate intake of wine and beer should not hurt, and may even help reduce your kidney stones risk. The Clearinghouse says coffee and tea have been shown to reduce the risk of stone formation, but do contain oxalate, which some people may need to avoid.

Food

The Mayo clinic and the Clearinghouse recommend you reduce your salt intake. That can include avoiding foods such as hot dogs, lunch meat, fast food and canned soup, unless you find a low-sodium variety.

Meat, eggs and fish contain purines that can break down into uric acid in the urine. The Mayo Clinic says people who form uric acid stones should limit their meat consumption to 6 ounces a day.

If you get kidney stones, you might need to avoid spinach, rhubarb, nuts and wheat bran because they increase the amount of oxalate in urine and can lead to calcium oxalate stones.

Warnings

Before making any changes, you need to check with your doctor first. It's important to know which type of stone you have, because different stones react to different substances.

Overall, experts also recommend that you stay in shape. Studies have shown that being overweight can increase the risk of certain stones. But they are not sure if losing weight will help reduce the risk.