Individuals with Kidney Stones should Follow a Low-Calcium Diet

Individuals with Kidney stones should not follow a low calcium diet, and this is mainly because calcium helps in preventing kidney stones and supporting strong bones. Calcium does not cause calcium stones; this is a fallacy which is usually believed by most people. In order for one to be able to treat kidney stones, he or she is supposed to get enough calcium, which will be responsible for the prevention of other diseases associated with kidney stones (Seidman et al, 2013). Dairy products such as yogurt and lactose-free milk are responsible for the prevention of kidney stones. On the other hand, consumption of diets low in calcium tend to cause kidney stones, one should therefore understand the facts behind calcium before jumping into conclusion that calcium actually causes kidney stones (Walton, 2010).

Eating foods which are very rich in oxalate is very risky, since this may result in the formation of calcium oxalate stones. Foods such as legumes, vegetables, nuts, chocolate and sweet potatoes, have high concentration of oxalate, a thing which increases the risk of contracting calcium oxalate particularly if the foods are taken together with foods rich in calcium (Walton, 2010). This is so because, intake of foods rich in oxalate accompanied by those rich in calcium tends to make it very hard for the stomach to digest them, and so they are usually digested in the kidney. When oxalate and calcium combine in the kidney, they make it hard for the kidney to convert them into urine, a thing which therefore leads to calcium oxalate kidney stones (Byham, Burrowes, & Chertow, 2014). Therefore people are not supposed to stop eating foods rich in calcium, but they should eat foods which have a combination of both calcium and oxalate, thus making them to be digested in the stomach, hence reducing the chances of developing kidney stones.

Reference

Seidman, C., Jones, R., Sosa, R. E., & Rodman, J. S. (2013). No more kidney stones: The experts tell you all you need to know about prevention and treatment. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.

Walton, T. (2010). Medical conditions and massage therapy: A decision tree approach. Philadelphia, Pa: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

In Byham-Gray, L., In Burrowes, J. D., & In Chertow, G. M. (2014). Nutrition in kidney disease.