Does sucralose cause kidney stones?
Not as far as Dr. Martin has said. In all of his talking about kidney stones, sucralose and Splenda never make the list. When he explained what he saw in patients with stones, he gave three causes, and a sweetener was not one of them.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1226Look, if someone gets kidney stones, here's what I found. Three things. When people get kidney stones, they're dehydrated. Almost invariably.
That matters for anyone drinking diet soda and worrying about stones. If his three causes are right, the sweetener is not the thing to watch. What you are drinking instead of water is.
None of that means he gives Splenda a pass. He just objects to it for different reasons, which come later in this article.
What causes kidney stones?
He starts with water. He likes to describe your kidneys as Niagara Falls: the water is supposed to run day and night, whatever time you show up. Your body is mostly water, and in his view you need it to flush the kidneys out.
Then the second cause, which surprises people who think they eat well.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1226Two, oxalates. They love, love their salads too much. Too much, and those oxalates start forming in the kidney and you combine that with dehydration and you got a kidney stone.
Oxalates are tiny crystals found mostly in plants. He names spinach, kale, chard, potatoes, parsnips, beets and rhubarb, and some fruits. He is careful about what he means by that: those foods are not bad, but living on them is. He says this is why so many women get kidney stones, because they live on plants.
He folds all of it into one line on another episode.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 853There's three things. That'll destroy your kidneys. A lack of water, sugar and oxalates.
If oxalates are your concern, he has also talked about magnesium and oxalates, covered in does magnesium bind oxalates.
Does sugar cause kidney stones?
Real sugar is on his list, and one kind most of all. The third cause he names is fructose, the sugar in soda, juice and high fructose corn syrup.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1226That's why I said three things are people that drink fructose, they love their fructose, and those things affect the kidneys and they create calcium stones.
On a later episode he tied fructose to the uric acid stones instead. Either way, the sugar is the problem, and he says he watched stones clear up when people quit it.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1643It's amazing. People when they get off fructose and especially drinking fructose, how they get rid of kidney stones.
He also says oxalates and sugar are worse together. Sugar plus oxalates, in his view, can drive your kidneys crazy with stones.
Is sucralose safer than sugar for your kidneys?
This is the question that usually sits behind the search. If sugar is on his list and sucralose is not, should you switch?
His answer is not a yes. When he read a news story about a chemical found in Splenda, he put the choice this way.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1115Now what's worse? Sugar or Splenda? Okay, pick your poison. Look, I don't like Splenda.
In other words, he does not see a good option in that pair. He has been suspicious of sweeteners since people asked him about aspartame in the 1970s. He says he told them then that when the research came, it would not be good, and that it is now coming in.
He is not extreme about it, though. Asked whether sugar free gum would ruin his 30 day reset, he said no. It will not sabotage it. He would just rather you did not live on sweeteners.
Does sucralose raise insulin?
This is his main objection. Diet soda does not raise your blood sugar. People take that to mean it does nothing. He disagrees. When a listener points out that diet soda has zero carbs, he says he knows.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1636But you still need insulin. You'll develop insulin resistance. It will hold onto your fat.
He gives three reasons not to drink diet soda: insulin, fat storage, and what it does to your gut. And insulin matters for kidneys in his view too. He says high sugar and insulin resistance are what put kidneys under assault, not protein. If cravings are what keep the diet soda in your hand, see why you get sugar cravings after 60.
Does sucralose hurt your gut bacteria?
Yes, in his view, and this is the reason he comes back to most. Reading the Splenda study on air, he went straight to the gut.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1115These artificial sugars, it's very disruptive to your microbiome, your friendly bacteria. It disrupts it like an antibiotic
On a reset question about sugar free gum, he said the same thing more gently.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 853one thing we're learning about these artificial sweeteners is they change your microbiome. That's one of the reasons I don't like them, but you're not going to sabotage your reset by doing it.
So the honest summary of his view is this. Sucralose is not a kidney stone cause on his list. It is a gut and insulin problem.
What should you drink instead?
Water, and plenty of it. He wants two liters a day, which is 64 ounces, and says it takes about three weeks to make the habit stick. On his reset he took people off diet soda and gave them water and coffee instead.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1289The best vitamin that you can give your kidneys is vitamin W, water. And only water is water.
By that he means juice, soda and flavored drinks do not count, even though they are mostly water. Sparkling water is fine as a treat in his book, but it does not clean out your kidneys the way plain water does.
Put it together and his advice for anyone worried about stones looks like this:
- Drink two liters of plain water a day
- Do not live on salads and green leafy vegetables
- Cut fructose: soda, juice and high fructose corn syrup
- Skip the diet soda too, for your insulin and your gut
- Eat protein. He says protein is king for the kidneys
If you have had a stone, or have kidney disease, work with your doctor on it. His list is about what he saw in practice, not a treatment plan.
Common questions
Does sucralose cause kidney stones?
Dr. Martin does not name it as a cause. The three things he blames are dehydration, oxalates from plants, and fructose.
Is Splenda bad for your kidneys?
He does not link Splenda to kidney stones. He dislikes it because he says artificial sweeteners disrupt your gut bacteria like an antibiotic and still call for insulin.
Is diet soda bad for kidney stones?
His concern with diet soda is insulin, fat storage and your gut. For your kidneys, he wants plain water in its place, two liters a day.
Is sugar or sucralose worse?
He calls it picking your poison. He does not like Splenda, and he blames fructose, the sugar in soda and juice, for kidney stones.
Look after your gut
His biggest problem with sweeteners like sucralose is what they do to your friendly bacteria. Probiotic Complex is the clinic's broad spectrum probiotic.
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