Healthy diet helps avoid kidney stones

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston report that a healthy diet that includes fruit, vegetables, nuts and low-fat dairy products and limits salt, red and processed meat and sweetened beverages helps keep kidney stones away. The study was summarized in a release from the American Society of Nephrology and will appear in the next issue of the Society's journal. The study found that those subjects who adopted the components of the healthy diet had fewer kidney stones than those who had more of the "unhealthy" components. They suggest that a healthy diet might be a viable alternative to taking medicine to control kidney stones, since many of the medications cause unpleasant side effects.