Fight Kidney Stones with Fruits and Veggies

It appears that a healthy diet can help you do more than just lose weight. Researchers have found that eating properly can help prevent kidney stones.

A recent newspaper article reported that eating fruits, vegetables, nuts, low-fat dairy products and whole grains and limiting salt, red meats, processed meats and sweetened beverages is an effective way to avoid kidney stones.

This study is mentioned in an issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. This type of diet is called the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension).

While limiting your intake of sodium, I would recommend increasing your water intake, minimizing your intake of fluids other than water.

Of course, I'm not a nutritionist, so you can take my advice with a grain of salt (pun intended).

On another note, I recently came across an article by Drs. Kara and Chris Mohr, PhD's, on the topic of artificial sweeteners.

According to the FDA, you can safely consume a maximum of 18-19 cans of diet soda per day containing Aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal) and 6 cans of diet soda containing Sucralose (Splenda).

Interesting, that your limit of Splenda is much lower than Aspartame. The Drs.' bring up the point that you can't automatically link diet soda consumption with weight gain - the research hasn't shown that, to this point.

They do state that you would probably want to limit the consumption of artificial ingredients and they don't like the idea of putting anything artificial in their bodies!

It is also mentioned that Sucralose has been linked to migraine headaches through anecdotal stories and may affect healthy bacteria in the stomach.