Dietary taboos for kidney crystals

One is Depending on the type of crystal you have, avoid high-risk foods and do not continue to feed the crystal with raw materials. , the second is Don’t try to keep your urine concentrated , most other things don’t need to be excessively taboo, if you stick to these two cores, 90% of the kidney crystals can be slowly eliminated, and you don’t have to end up not being able to eat anything and growing bigger and bigger.

In the past two years, I have helped more than a dozen people who were diagnosed with kidney crystals to make dietary adjustments. Some of them were obedient and disappeared after a follow-up examination as soon as 2 months. Others were disobedient and refused to drink water. They developed 0.7cm kidney stones in one year and were rolling on the floor in pain and had to undergo gravel surgery. To be honest, this thing is very reversible. As long as you don't step on the big thunder, you basically don't have to suffer from gravel.

First of all, you have to figure out what kind of crystal you have, otherwise it will be a waste of time to avoid eating. Nowadays, the most common type in clinical practice is calcium oxalate crystals, accounting for more than 70%, followed by uric acid crystals. The remaining calcium phosphate and cystine crystals account for a small proportion, and the taboo directions are completely different.

I met a young man before who discovered calcium oxalate crystals and put all green leafy vegetables on the blacklist. He ate white rice and chicken breast every day, and he became constipated to the point of crying for half a month. The urinary oxalic acid did not drop at all during the follow-up test. Speaking of which, this is also a controversial point: in the past few years, popular science indeed said that high oxalate foods should be completely avoided, but in recent years, the clinical nutrition community has recommended "quantity control + pretreatment". If you do not eat green leafy vegetables at all, you will lack dietary fiber, vitamin K and other nutrients, which is not worth the loss. For vegetables with high oxalic acid, such as spinach, amaranth, purslane, and water spinach, you can remove more than 60% of the oxalic acid by blanching them in boiling water for one minute in advance. It's okay to eat only half a bowl at a time. Instead, be careful not to eat raw spinach directly in salads, and don't drink freshly squeezed spinach juice as a "health drink" because the oxalic acid content is so high that it can kill people. There is also a lot of debate about strong tea. In fact, light tea is okay. Just don’t brew half a kilogram of tea a day and drink the kind of strong tea that is so bitter that you will frown. The same goes for coffee. Black coffee without sugar or milk can have a diuretic effect if consumed in moderation. On the contrary, avoid latte and cappuccino with a lot of syrup added.

If it is found to be uric acid crystals, you must control high-purine foods, such as animal offal, shelled seafood, thick broth, etc. Don't show off your weight in one meal, especially don't drink it with cold beer. There was a sales user who ignored the discovery of uric acid crystals during his physical examination. He ate crayfish with cold beer with his colleagues after get off work every day in the summer. He suffered a gout attack in 3 months. He went to check for a 0.5cm uric acid stone, which was so painful that he couldn't even go to work. Here I have to mention a pitfall that many people step on: many people say that uric acid crystals should drink more soda water, which is true, but only if it is natural soda water without added sugar, or take sodium bicarbonate tablets as directed by your doctor, the kind of "soda flavored drink" with added fructose syrup and flavors. Drinking too much will increase uric acid, so it is better to drink boiled water.

Oh, by the way, no matter what type of crystal you have, there is one thing you should touch as little as possible - free sugar.

The fructose syrup in milk tea, cola, and bottled juice has a much greater negative impact on crystallization than eating two bites of spinach. There was a little girl born in 2000 who didn't like to drink water and drank at least two cups of pearl milk tea a day. She was so scared that she cried when she found kidney crystals during a physical examination. I asked her to replace the milk tea with boiled water and drink 2L a day. She didn't change anything else in her diet. The crystals were completely gone after a 2-month review. The principle is also simple. Sugar will increase the excretion of calcium in the urine. If there is too much calcium in the urine, whether it is calcium oxalate or calcium phosphate crystals, they will easily grow larger. Don't drink milk tea as water.

There is also a debate that has been going on for several years: "Can you eat soy products if you have kidney crystals?" It really doesn't need to be beaten to death. The current consensus is that processed soy products such as brine tofu and gypsum tofu have low purine and oxalic acid content, but are high in calcium. If eaten in moderation (about 100g a day, about half a piece of tofu), calcium can also combine with oxalic acid in the intestines, reducing the absorption of oxalic acid, and is friendly to calcium oxalate crystals. Only the kind of unprocessed fresh soybeans and freshly ground thick soy milk must be properly controlled. Don't drink three large cups a day. There is no need to hide from tofu when you see it.

To be honest, don’t always focus on what you can’t eat. Drinking water first is better than anything else. Don't wait until you are thirsty to drink, just take a few sips when you have nothing to do. The color of your urine is as light as plain water with a little lemon added. In summer, you sweat a lot and you need to drink more after exercise. I used to have a friend who ran a marathon. She usually ate very healthily, with little oil and salt, and rarely ate takeout. She didn’t like to replenish water when running, and only drank one or two sips of water every time she ran a half-marathon. Last year, she was shocked when she found kidney crystals during a physical examination. After that, she replenished electrolyte water on time every time she ran, and she also deliberately drank more water at work. After half a year, she was gone.

In fact, kidney crystals are simply a warning from your body, indicating that there is something wrong with your recent diet or living habits. Don't be overly anxious or take it seriously. Don't dare to eat this or touch that. As long as you don't step on the minefield for a long time, drink more water and jump around more, most of them can be reversed. If you are really unsure, take your urine routine and crystal analysis report to a nutrition department or nephrologist to ask. It is much more reliable than searching blindly on the Internet for "What can't you eat with kidney crystals?"