According to a study published in the March issue of the National Kidney Foundation’s American Journal of Kidney Disease eating a lots of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes to reduce the risk of kidney stones and high blood pressure.

You should also avoid eating a lot of meat, low-fat dairy products, white sugar and refined grains.

The comparison of the low-oxalate diet, often recommended as a prevention and treatment of kidney stones, and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, outlined the second as more effective in reducing the risk of calcium oxcalate kidney stones, considered as the most common type.

A lot of nutritious food products are rich in oxalate, icluding spinach, sweet potatoes, almonds, navy beans, kale, rice bran, beets and rhubarb.The National Kidney Foundation reported that kidney stones form as a result of the chemical reaction between oxalate and calcium, since urine is produced by the kidneys.

The latest research suggests that instead of avoiding the consumption of oxalate food products, you should try consuming calcium and oxalate-rich foods. It is more likely for the oxalate and calcium to bind in the stomach if consumed together, which excludes the possibility of kidney stone formation.

Nazanin Noori, MD, PhD and a group of researchers conducted a study including 41 participants at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto over an eight-week research.

The results showed that participants who followed the special DASH regimen reduced the risk of kidney stones by 35 percent, and those who consumed food according to the low-oxalate diet regimen reduced their kidney stone risk by 14 per cent.

In this study the levels of calcium, oxalate, citrate, sodium, potassium, magnesium, uric acid, pH and calcium oxalate in the urine samples were considered as kidney stone “risk markers.”

“Most people eat meals consisted of different foods, instead of eating isolated nutrients, such as oxalate,” explained Noori. “Which means that any special diet regimen for kidney stone prevention should focus on the overall effect diet has on kidney stone formation and the cumulative effects of the food products, rather than basing on any single nutrient.”