Does fruit juice prevent kidney stones?
THE CLAIM: Fruit juice can prevent kidney stones. THE FACTS: Kidney stones strike more than a million Americans every year, sometimes causing enough pain to bring them literally to their knees. Along with medication to discourage the formation of kidney stones, sufferers are often encouraged to make dietary changes, among them drinking more citrus juices. Citrate in the fruit reduces the formation of calcium oxalate stones (the most common type) and lowers urine acidity, much like the kidney stone medication potassium citrate. But not all juices have the same effect. Lemonade or diluted lemon juice is the usual recommendation for people with calcium stones. But a study financed by the National Institutes of Health in 2006 compared lemonade with orange juice in patients with calcium stones and found that three cups of orange juice a day — along with other standard dietary changes for kidney stone patients — did a better job of raising citrate levels and decreasing urine acidity than l
