Meal replacement shakes contain large amounts of protein, as well as other vitamins and minerals that are needed for your body to thrive. Depending on many factors, including the ingredients on how the proteins are delivered, you can find out that you may develop a kidney stone if you drink them way too much and aren’t getting the proper hydration you need, and if you aren’t at least eating something else throughout the day meal-wise in order to help your body avoid this issue. In this guide, we’ll explain how to avoid getting kidney stones, and how meal replacement shakes can cause kidney stones if you aren’t careful with them.
If You Get Too Much Protein
If you’re getting larger amounts of protein from supplements like whey, and you already have a pre-existing condition, you may put yourself at more of a risk than the average user of a protein shake who doesn’t have any health problems. Therefore, if you want to ensure that you’re getting a good amount of protein and not overdo it if you do have any problems, try limiting your shakes to one a day, or every other day starting out to ensure that you are getting the most out of it.
Too Much Calcium
Some meal replacement shakes are jam packed with calcium, and you need to take other things, so your body absorbs it properly (like vitamin D and magnesium) so it doesn’t end up just depositing into your kidneys. Try also making sure that you mix your drink with water instead of milk, which adds to the proteins already in it. And be sure to hydrate. The minimum is eight glasses of water per day, but if you have had frequent UTI’s (urinary tract infections), or have had kidney problems in the past, be sure that you drink more than the recommended amount.
If you’ve never had any kidney problems, try to avoid drinking meal replacement shakes in excessive amounts as well. This is recommended because of the high amount of calcium and proteins that are in there. There’s a reason why these meal replacement drinks are at recommended servings, and that’s to ensure that you get the proper amount of nutrients you need without overdoing it. Also, another method you can try to avoid this is to increase your regular fiber intake a little with plenty of water.
Conclusion
These symptoms don’t affect literally everybody, but there are a select few who make common mistakes when it comes to using meal replacement shakes. Because of this, they suffer from certain discomforts such as kidney stones, gas, bloating and more. The main problem isn’t the meal replacement shake itself, but more or less the user who’s drinking the shake not doing things right to make them work the right way. Don’t be one of those few and learn everything you can when you’re thinking about switching to a meal replacement shake and believe me, in almost all cases, you should do just fine.