Doctors are sharing a warning about sweet tea’s link to kidney stones.
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center urologist Dr. Jorge Gutierrez says North Carolina is in the heart of the kidney stone belt.
He says research shows sweet drinks, including sodas and sweet tea, can contribute to kidney stones.
“The most frequent type of stone is composed of calcium and oxalate,” Gutierrez said. “A lot of people drink tea here. Tea is not good because it is rich in oxalate.”
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Food and beverages which acidify the urine make it conducive to the formation of calcium oxalate stones.
I had two dogs who were on a special “prescription” dog food (Hills Canine c/d) to acidify the urine, in an attempt to stop the female dog’s frequent UTIs. The result was that both dogs got calcium oxalate bladder and kidney stones, requiring surgery.
Calcium oxalate stones form in acidic urine. So I bought a package of pH test strips, and I went to the supermarket and bought a small back of every variety of dry dog food. Then I tried the dogs on each type of dog food, and recorded their urine pH, to find the food which produced the most-alkaline / least-acid urine.
To my surprise, it was plain old Purina Dog Chow. So I put both dogs on Purina Dog Chow for the rest of their lives, and even though calcium oxalate stones are notorious for recurring, neither of my dogs ever had another problem with stones.
Sure sounds like a Yankee conspiracy to me! 🙂