Whenever I hear of anyone having a kidney stone, I immediately go buy Cranberry Juice.
For years it was a fact that drinking Cranberry Juice (just buying it doesn’t help…it’s like your treadmill or bowflex…you have to use it) can prevent this affliction.
But if you type “Kidney Stones Prevented by Cranberry Juice” into Google, you get the equivalent of an online-brawl.
On the “WHAT? THAT’S CRAZY!” side you see words like “myth” and “folklore” with the occasional “preliminary research” thrown in.
On the “OH YES IT DOES!” side, you see words like “oxalates” and “citrates” to prove their point.
We take time out from this debate to ask another one of life’s important questions with the Real Country Music lyric of the day:
I met him in a hospital about a year ago
And why I still remember him I guess I'll never know
He'd lie there and cry out in a medicated fog,
"Here I am in this dang bed and who's gonna feed them hogs?"
Now thoroughly confused as to how to maintain my personal health with fruit juice (or not), I typed, “How to Prevent Kidney Stones” into Google. I got this:
1. Eat less meat.
2. Drink plenty of fluids.
3. Limit consumption of grapefruit juice and cola drinks.
4. Adopt a diet high in potassium and magnesium (ex: spinach and buckwheat flour).
5. Talk to your doctor about taking supplements such as pyridoxine and magnesium.
6. Limit your calcium and salt intake.
Immediately, I threw away my lunch (grapefruit-glazed rack of ribs and a coke) and grabbed a banana. I didn’t salt it.
