trying to be a vegan and almost impossible

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Permalink Reply by Two Vegan Boys on February 9, 2011 at 7:26am

I'm sorry to hear about the kidney stones.  I had kidney stones prior to being vegan.  Since then, I have had none.  Have you been trying to do more of a balance on your plate:  a veggie, a grain, and a legume?  I would definitely do some more research and try to find out what changes you can make.  There is a vegan registered dietician that writes for VegNews.  Try contacting her via their website.  Hope you solve the problem.

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Permalink Reply by geri on February 9, 2011 at 11:40am

Wow thanks for the info Pam. But by all means I didnt turn to a raw vegan diet to loose weight. The thought of ever consuming an animal ever again made me sick... My urologist made me take a test to see what kind of stone it was  and its an oxalate   stone.(mostly caused from greens)My numbers were in the extreme hot zone.  I agree there is some kind of imbalance going on in my body that is preventing me to become alkaline. when I take the ph test, it always borders acidic.The only way it is almost alkaline is if I eat tons of asparagus .

I have the alkaline chart copied on the back of my pantry and bookmarked on my computer.I try to live by it.. But please if your ever board and sitting in front of your computer look up" foods to avoid oxalate kidney stones"   so you know I'm not crazy. Thank you so much for answering me . Geri
Pam said:

Hi Geri,

 

At some given point in all of our lives, if we are truly honest with ourselves, we can admit to having taken an imbalanced approach to our diets.  However well-meaning, most of us have experimented beyond the perfect "balance" our bodies strive for... whether it was to test our physical limits to see if it would improve performance or strength; out of curiosity, trying out an extremely restrictive diet to see how our body responds (fruitarians, for example...)  but most commonly, let's face it - people try an extreme approach in their diets to lose weight ASAP.

What do all of these motives have in common?  They promote imbalance.  Imbalance can lead to health complications and, eventually disease.  

Geri, I mention this because I wanted to share my very first reaction when I read your post -and that was "this sounds like it could be an imbalanced diet..."  Rest assured, vegan diets do not promote kidney stones.  Far from it.  Alkaline forming foods are plentiful and, generally speaking, vegan diets are abundantly alkaline.  I'm so sorry you suffered through the excruciating pain of kidney stones... my top suggestion would be to familiarize yourself with an acid/alkaline chart... I have one posted on my desk and refer to it often.  Getting some litmus paper is also fun.

Not a week goes by that I don't consume millet, buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa, wild rice, sprouted legumes, herbs, ginger, chlorella and tons of fruit and veggies.  These are staples in my diet... but everyday, I ask myself "did I achieve a good balance of nutrition?"  Like I said, even though well-meaning, it is easy to consume too much of a particular food... when that happens, other "goodies" may, unfortunately, fall off our radar.  I think we all need to honestly re-assess our diets periodically... to make sure we are getting enough proteins (for body maintenance and growth), carbohydrates and fats (for fuel), and specific vitamins and minerals (for the transformation of energy and regulation of metabolic functions.)  We owe it to ourselves, to be diligent in the maintenance of our bodies.

I hope you never, ever get a kidney stone again!  

Pam :)

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Permalink Reply by L.J. on February 10, 2011 at 8:52am

Sorry about your situation but to be clear, greens don't cause kidney stones. It sounds more like you had a preexisting condition and your change to a clean diet triggered a healing crisis/detox that resulted in you being diagnosed with kidney stones. I'm not sure who is feeding you information about what you are "supposed" to eat and not eat but I can tell you that most doctors and nutritionists don't know much beyond what they are taught in school, which is, eat meat for protein and dairy for calcium. Any food sensitivities you may have, have been caused by years of abuse to your health and will go away as you begin to correct your diet. It sounds as though you are at the stage where most people give up. I strongly suggest you take this time to further educate yourself and hope you stick with what you're doing until you reach your health goals. You have an opportunity to transform your life but it always gets harder before it gets easier. No free lunch. 

 

Best of luck and hope that helps. 

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Permalink Reply by Teresa Clifford on May 10, 2011 at 4:26am

As I sit here I am suffering from a kidney stone.  I am newly vegan - about 2 1/2 months now.  I haven't done any alkaline/acid testing because unfortunately I'm not as educated as all of you on plant based diets and their effect on the body (although i am working on it) and thought that all plants were basically alkaline in our bodies, so I didn't see the need. I certainly only thought they could have a positive effect and still believe that.  I actually came here searching for answers because while I was in the ER yesterday the nurse made a remark that my diet change might be the cause of the stone and that when it passes I should have it analyzed by a urologist.  She said that new studies are showing that dairy and meat can actually have the opposite effect as what was previously thought and could actually have been preventing my stones all this time and now I'm not eating them so that's why I"m having this problem.  I don't buy it for a second, but I feel I need the support of more experienced vegans.  Do you think it's a healing crisis?

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Permalink Reply by geri on May 10, 2011 at 5:41am

Hi Teresa, well for me I know its not due to the fact that I had a cat-scan done a while back and there was 1 kidney stone. They said it could have been there for years. While my diet before trying the vegan way of eating wasn't horrible, I followed the basic athletes diet 3oz of chicken or fish , greens brown rice. I almost 90% of the time never ate junk food no dairy other   than occasional  grated cheese. I literally woke up one day and completely went 100% vegan. Got the recipe books the whole 9 yards, and bam! I passed all those kidney stones and had to get 2 of them surgically removed AND had more in me and had to have them blasted out.You will not know what kind of kidney stone you have until your urologist makes you urinate in a jug for 24 hours, measures how much came out and they send a little vile to a lab and they will tell you which one you have. Mine was due to leafy greens as my father (its supposed to hereditary too but who knows) and my levels where extremely high . when I took the test again 6 weeks later and stopped eating the high oxalate foods, spinach, kale.. the levels went down. there are people who get them from other ways too. Like I said before I think I have something else going on that I'm trying to figure out why I cant be in an alkaline zone. I dought  that the 1 cup of coffee does it because my friend is always in the alkaline zone and she drinks a lot more coffee than me. I also had half my thyroid out 4 years ago and I think that messed my hormones up a little.But in any case make sure you go to a good Dr. and insist that you take the test that I took. They might not tell you to do it because you only have 1 stone. . I thought I only had one until my nightmare.I am going for another scan soon to see what is brewing. If you didnt pass it  yet drink tons of warm water put some lemon in it  to help pass it. good luck and I'm so sorry I couldn't help you. oh a little tip, if you go to a good health food store a certain type of magnesium is "supposed" to help prevent the form of kidney stones , cant remember which one I threw the bottle out. Give it a try..good luck

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Permalink Reply by Teresa Clifford on May 10, 2011 at 6:03am

Thank you for the tip on lemon!  I forget what wonderful benefits they have!  I'm going to start drinking a warm lemon water right now!  I do plan to get the stone tested to find out what it is.  I have them in my family and the Dr said that here in Raleigh, NC we have a very high rate of kidney stones, although they don't know why - he said we are the kidney stone capital of the world - not sure if that is true or he was joking.  Either way, I will be looking into it and trying to find out what I can.  I believe in the positive effects of these foods so I'm not planning to give them up quite yet - but I certainly don't blame you if that's what it takes to make this torture stop ;-)  Thanks again for the reply! 

 

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Permalink Reply by Teresa Clifford on May 10, 2011 at 6:12am

Thanks Pam!  I plan to continue eating the same.  I don't think I could go back to my old ways if I wanted to - but why would I want to lol.   I guess if one good things comes out of this kidney stone it will be that I've found a pretty cool forum!  Thanks for such fast replies!!

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