(adapted from www.drweil.com)

To avoid kidney stones or soften them if you have them…

Avoid oxalate-heavy foods and drinks.
Ask your doctor if you tend to form oxalate stones.  If yes, consume only moderate amounts of anything with a high concentration of the mineral, including spinach, berries, beets, nuts, chocolate, coffee and tea.

Drink cranberry juice.
Cranberry juice contains quinic acid, which reduces the amount of calcium in your urine.

Drink more water.
If anyone has kidney stones, the first thing they should do is drink more water – six to eight 8-ounce glasses a day – to dilute the urine.  Kidney stones are typically made up of calcium and either phosphate or oxalate, minerals absorbed from food and normally excreted through urine.  But if urine becomes too concentrated, the minerals can crystallize to form stones, causing severe pain as they pass from the kidneys.

Keep consuming calcium.
Since kidney stones usually form from calcium, doctors used to think that avoiding this mineral could prevent them.  Now they believe the opposite is true:  Dietary calcium may actually help protect against stones by binding with oxalate in the intestines and preventing it from reaching the kidneys.

Pass on protein.
A French study found that cutting your normal protein intake by about one-third can help protect against kidney stones.   Eat less than 8 ounces of lean meat each day for reduced protein.

The theory is that animal protein is more likely to create kidney stones than vegetable protein.  Non-animal sources of protein include beans, peas, seeds, and grains, which need to be properly combined to create whole proteins.

Power up on potassium.
You want lots of potassium to create the right internal potassium-sodium balance and to prevent kidney stones.  Potassium helps by increasing the level of citrate in your urine.  Make an effort to eat more potassium-rich foods such as tomato products, oranges, beet greens, white beans, potatoes, bananas and avocados.

Click here for the USDA list of potassium rich foods.

Save on salt.
You don’t want the sodium potassium balance to go out of kilter within your body.  Salt is sodium.

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