Kidney stone formers reported drinking more soft drinks, fewer vegetables

People with a history of kidney stones versus those who have never had nephrolithiasis had a similar diet overall.

Researchers suggest that diet plays a critical role in the formation of kidney stones and recommend clinicians encourage a diet rich in vegetables, and dairy products and limited in salt with meat along with ample intake of water or unsweetened beverage to mitigate the rising number of people experiencing kidney stones.

Kidney stones are associated with high morbidity (potential complications include kidney failure or ureteral obstruction) and high costs. Diet is suggested to have a major impact on the formation and management of kidney stones.

“Primary and secondary prevention has a major role to play to fight this public health problem based on efficient dietary recommendations," the researchers wrote.

Constance Legay, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, and colleagues aimed to describe the dietary intake of kidney stone formers in Switzerland and to compare it to non-stone formers.

For this purpose, the researchers used data from the Swiss Kidney Stone Cohort comprising 261 patients. The Swiss cohort is a multicentric cohort of recurrent or incident kidney stone formers with additional risk factors, and a control group of computed tomography (CT) -scan proven nonstone formers (n = 197).

Two consecutive 24-h dietary recalls were conducted by dieticians using structured interviews and validated software (GloboDiet). The researchers took the mean consumption per participant of the two 24-h dietary recalls to describe the dietary intake. Two-part models were used to compare the two groups.

The study led to the following findings:

· The dietary intake was overall similar between stone and non-stone formers.

· Kidney stone formers had a higher probability of consuming cakes and biscuits (odds ratio (OR) = 1.56) and soft drinks (OR = 1.66).

· Kidney stone formers had a lower probability of consuming nuts and seeds (OR = 0.53), teas (OR = 0.50), fresh cheese (OR = 0.54), and alcoholic beverages (OR = 0.35), especially wine (OR = 0.42).

· Among consumers, stone formers reported smaller quantities of vegetables (β coeff = − 0.23), coffee (β coeff = − 0.21), teas (β coeff = − 0.52) and alcoholic beverages (β coeff = − 0.34).

"Stone formers reported lower intakes of tea, coffee, vegetables, and alcoholic beverages, more specifically wine, but reported drinking soft drinks more frequently than non-stone formers," the researchers wrote. "For the other food groups, stone formers and nonformers showed similar dietary intakes."

"There is a need for further research to better understand the links between diet and kidney stone formation and develop dietary recommendations adapted to the cultural habits and local settings," they concluded.

Reference:

Legay C, Haeusermann T, Pasquier J, Chatelan A, Fuster DG, Dhayat N, Seeger H, Ritter A, Mohebbi N, Ernandez T, Chopard CS, Buchkremer F, Segerer S, Wuerzner G, Ammor N, Roth B, Wagner CA, Bonny O, Bochud M. Differences in the Food Consumption Between Kidney Stone Formers and Nonformers in the Swiss Kidney Stone Cohort. J Ren Nutr. 2023 Jul;33(4):555-565. doi: 10.1053/j.jrn.2023.04.007. Epub 2023 Apr 27. PMID: 37120128.