Diet for kidney stones: basic principles and a possible menu

Kidney stones are a sign indicating a person’s kidney stones. With this disease, the patient experiences severe discomfort, manifested in lumbar pain, colic, hematuria, pyuria, etc.

The stones themselves are salt stones that require either treatment or removal. But in any case, a person will have to follow a diet. With kidney stones, a strict diet is indicated. Which one? This is now worth telling in more detail.

Why is it important to eat right?

The fact is that kidney stones are a violation associated with significant errors in the diet. Drug therapy will certainly help, but only if a person adheres to a dietary menu.

And if the doctor finds complications in the genitourinary system, the patient will have to follow the prescribed recommendations all his life. Otherwise, the likelihood of relapse will increase.

It is important to make a reservation that stones are classified into three groups. And depending on what type is found in a person, an appropriate diet is prescribed. With kidney stones, nutritional restrictions will be anyway. Which ones? This will be described in more detail below.

Nutrition principles

Before proceeding to the consideration of permitted and prohibited products, it is necessary to talk about what is the basis of the diet. So, the list of main recommendations looks like this:

• Food should be taken 4-5 times a day in small portions. So the load on the digestive tract is reduced, and intestinal motility is normalized.
• You can cook food in any way, with the exception of frying. It is only allowed in the case of phosphate stones. But even that is extremely rare.
• Before further cooking, fish and meat must be boiled. It is during the cooking process that most of the purines will go into the broth.
• The temperature of food and drink should vary between +15 ... + 60 ° C.
• It is advisable to completely abandon the salt.
• You need to drink a lot. At least 2 liters of fluid per day.
• It is necessary to refuse alcohol.
• It is important to monitor your weight. If there are extra pounds, the level of uric acid in a person’s blood increases, and it is deposited in the kidneys. Because overweight people tend to eat high-calorie foods.

These are the basic principles that must be observed by a person who has kidney stones. Diet and nutrition are important points in the treatment process, and you need to take this responsibly.

Urate stones: prohibitions

This type includes formations that are easily amenable to dissolution or excreted themselves. But be that as it may, deposits of calcium salts are available, albeit in small quantities. Therefore, you need to eat so that the urine reaction moves to the alkaline side.

Diet with urate kidney stones implies the rejection of such products:

• Salted and pickled vegetables.
• Canned food.
• Salty snacks and smoked meats.
• Lamb, veal, pork, duck.
• Mushrooms and broths made on their basis.
• Caviar, seafood, fish.
• All spicy, fried, spicy.
• Strong fish and meat broths.
• The organs of animals.
• Animal fats.
• Currants, kiwi, pineapple, cranberries.
• Dried fruits.
• Rye flour bread.
• Beans, lentils, peas.
• String beans, radishes, asparagus, celery, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes.
• Spinach, sorrel, parsley, greens.
• Sauces.
• Alcohol.
• Baking, sweets, chocolate.

Refusal of these products will help to establish purine metabolism, since all of the above negatively affects the acid balance.

Allowed Products

Their list is slightly smaller. Observing the diet laid out during the removal of urate stones in the kidneys and their dissolution, you need to make your menu based on such products:

• Macaroni and porridge.
• Sour cream and milk in small quantities.
• Gray and white bread (yesterday).
• Cottage cheese and kefir.
• Eggs (one per day).
• Soups of cereals, milk and vegetable, but without frying.
• Lean meat (1 time per day maximum).
• Once a month - boiled fish.
• Vegetables, except prohibited.
• Seeds and nuts.
• Blueberries, pears, plums, bananas.

These products will provide nutrition that spares the kidneys, and the substances they contain will help remove metabolic products from the body.

Sample menu

Based on the above information, each person will be able to compose a fairly diverse diet. In accordance with the provided diet for kidney stones menu, breakfast may be as follows:

• Carrot and apple pudding with wheat.
• Soft-boiled egg and a glass of tea.
• Vegetable salad and rosehip broth.
• Vinaigrette with sour cream.
• Bread and butter and cottage cheese.
• One fried egg and freshly squeezed juice.
• Semolina porridge with berries and baked apple.

In the afternoon, you can dine on a dish from this list:

• Vegetarian rice soup.
• Boiled Chicken and Cucumber Salad.
• Vegetable Vegetarian Soup.
• Zrazy.
• Pasta casserole.
• Steam meatballs.
• Vegetable stew.

And for dinner, you can cook something from the following:

• Mashed potatoes.
• Buckwheat porridge with boiled chicken.
• Bulgarian stuffed peppers.
• Boiled meat.

You can have a snack with pears, light vegetable salads, baked apples. And you also need to drink a decoction of rose hips.

Oxalate stones: prohibitions

This is the name for the calculus of crystals, which consist of salts of oxalate ammonium and calcium oxalate. Their occurrence can provoke disturbances in the diet or the unfavorable chemical composition of water, but in general, immune disorders most often become the cause. In this case, very concentrated urine is produced.

It is forbidden to use such products:

• Jelly.
• Jelly candies, marmalade.
• Jelly.
• Salty and cream cheese.
• Horseradish, mustard.
• Salad, nettle, sorrel, parsley, spinach.
• Bell pepper, radish, raw beets, asparagus, sour tomatoes.
• Legumes
• Sour berries.
• Citrus.

Also, if a person decided to follow a diet aimed at dissolving kidney stones, he will need to refuse muffin, sausage, chocolate and ice cream.

Permitted oxalate products

Usually, when these violations are detected, a person is prescribed a diet No. 5. It allows the use of such products:

• Cabbage, eggplant, zucchini, potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkin, turnips, carrots.
• Zucchini and eggplant caviar.
• Bananas, apricots, pears, peaches, watermelons, black currants, melon, raspberries, quinces, sea buckthorn, mountain ash, cherries, dried apricots, dogwood.
• Durum pasta.
• Gray and rye bread.
• Millet, buckwheat, oatmeal, barley.
• Bread from flour of the second grade.
• Sour cream, kefir, cottage cheese, fresh yogurt, sour-milk drinks. But during the period of exacerbation, their use is not allowed.
• Cucumber and pumpkin juice.

A dieter with kidney stones is allowed to eat redcurrants, apples, blackberries, plums, grapes, kiwi, oranges, gooseberries and figs in limited quantities.

Oxalate stones: a sample menu

Even following the above restrictions, you can eat varied. The diet menu for stones in the kidney stones of the oxalate type is usually prescribed by the doctor. But you can compose it yourself. Here are the breakfast options:

• Cottage cheese with honey and sour cream.
• A glass of kefir and a hard-boiled egg.
• Cottage cheese with sour cream and a banana.
• Yogurt and millet porridge on the water.
• Cheese, cottage cheese and apples.
• Kefir, rye bread with butter.

For lunch, you can do one of the following:

• Vegetable noodle soup.
• Braised cabbage.
• A little soaked herring and boiled potatoes.
• Coleslaw and boiled turkey.
• Vegetable soup with pearl barley.
• Cabbage cabbage soup.

In the evening, eat any of this:

• Salad of sweet tomatoes and cucumbers seasoned with olive oil.
• Vegetarian borscht.
• Cabbage cutlets.
• Noodles soup.

You can have a snack with bananas, peaches, apples, as well as drink compotes and weak teas. With kidney stones, eating right and dieting is not easy at first, but you'll have to get used to it and learn new recipes for a variety of diets.

What can I drink?

Drinking fluid may help alkalize urine. This must be remembered, following proper nutrition and diet.

Oxalate and urate type kidney stones help dissolve Borjomi. This is an alkaline mineral water, which also includes potassium, calcium, sulfur, silicon, sodium, magnesium, strontium, aluminum, chlorine, fluorine, titanium and boron. So its benefits can hardly be overestimated.

Also, a diet for kidney stones in men and women involves the use of such waters as Essentuki No. 17, Polyana Kvasova, and Naftusya.

You need to drink them 30-40 minutes before meals in a warm form. The daily norm is 0.5 l. Healing waters should not be abused.

Phosphate Stones: Prohibitions

These are sedimentary formations of an alkaline environment, and not acidic, as in the two previous cases. Accordingly, the diet for phosphate kidney stones is based on other principles.

The use of such products is prohibited:

• Dairy products. Only sour cream is allowed.
• Egg yolk.
• Milk and products from it.
• Berries, fruits and vegetables (other than those listed below).
• Smoked meats.
• Canteen snacks.
• Horseradish, pepper, mustard.
• Coffee.
• Alcohol.
• Strong tea.
• Strong broths and navars.
• Pickles.

All of these substances irritate the digestive tract and upset the acid-base balance. It is also necessary to limit the use of eggs (1 maximum per day), certain vegetables (asparagus, pumpkin, Brussels sprouts), peas, side dishes from mushrooms and legumes, as well as sour berries, fruits and nuts.

List of allowed products

If these formations are present in the kidneys, it is necessary to observe a diet that would contain enough vitamins A, B and D. Products with acidic radicals should predominate. The diet menu for kidney stones is based on such products:

• Weak tea, possible with cream.
• Dishes from egg whites.
• Butter and lard in small quantities.
• Soups on fish or meat broth.
• Pasta and cereals.
• Food made from flour.
• Bread and bakery products (except for butter).
• Poultry, fish, meat.
• Brussels sprouts.
• Beans, peas.
• Lingonberry.
• Canned, but not vegetable.
• Caviar.
• Sweet food, pastry.
• Honey.
• Bread kvass, juice and infusion of rose hips and lingonberries, a decoction of wheat bran.

A diet based on the listed products with kidney stones will contribute to urine acidification. By the way, a decoction of wheat bran, lingonberry juice and rose hip infusion should be drunk. Because it is almost the only source of vitamins in this case.

Phosphate stones: sample menu

It is worth listing some dishes that you can include in your diet with kidney stones. A diet for a week (and longer) can be made independently. The following foods are allowed for breakfast:

• Oatmeal on the water with apples and pumpkin.
• Buckwheat porridge.
• Soaked herring with butter and onions.
• Bread with butter.
• Fried egg white.

Lunch may be like this:

• Chicken soup with pasta.
• Pea mash.
• Boiled Chicken Meat.
• Roast chicken.
• Cereal vegetarian soup.
• Boiled fish.

For dinner, you can cook one of the following:

• Egg white omelet.
• Steam fish.
• Cabbage salad.
• Beef stewed with onions and carrots.
• Boiled corn.
• Vegetable salad.

By the way, it is recommended to start the morning with the notorious infusion of wild rose, and only after some time have breakfast. During the day you need to drink fruit drinks from lingonberries or decoction of bran.

General recommendations

Many people, adhering to a therapeutic diet, want to help their body even more, so they start to drink various drugs designed for this.

And it can really benefit! If there are phosphate stones in the kidneys, for example, you can drink “Metionin” 0.5 mg or benzoic acid 0.25 g three times a day. But only if the doctor prescribed these drugs! Because vitamin therapy can also cause harm to weakened kidneys if a person suddenly confuses the dose or just starts to take the wrong medication, making a mistake in the name.

It is important to follow the recommendations regarding the drinking regimen. It was said above that 2 liters are the norm. It should be noted that at least half of this is pure water. If there is coffee in the list of allowed products, this does not mean that a two-liter norm can be fulfilled by him.

In general, it is necessary to observe the measure in everything. And do not get involved in the use of folk remedies. Herbal decoctions can be treated, but only a urologist selects them. As in the case of nutrition, for each type of stone, certain medicinal plants are needed.

Also, despite all the restrictions, it is necessary to observe the daily norm of energy value. It is 2170-2400 kilocalories per day.

And of course, you need to take medication and perform the procedures prescribed by your doctor. Because without appropriate therapy, therapeutic nutrition will be ineffective.