Juliet Richards, by e-mail
I know many readers, especially female, will identify with this. Fluid retention can add an extra 3-4 kilos to your body weight, which can be depressing. It affects many women when their reproductive hormone levels are fluctuating — just before their period, if they’re on the Pill, or when they’re pregnant or going through the menopause (particularly if they’re on hormone-replacement therapy).
Try not to go down the route of diuretic medication, unless your GP has prescribed it, and don’t abuse over-the-counter diuretics as these can seriously disturb your metabolite balance and make the problem worse.
A diet high in salt is one of the most common causes, because the body holds on to fluid in order to dilute the sodium. So the first step is to reduce your intake of salty foods — table salt, pickled foods, convenience foods, salted peanuts, crisps, Twiglets, Marmite, smoked fish, and cured meats such as salt beef and bacon. Although your tastebuds will usually alert you to a really salty food, some can escape detection, for instance, breakfast cereals, cakes, desserts and certain mineral waters — notably Badoit and San Pellegrino. When you are trying to work out how much salt something contains, you need to remember that salt is 40 per cent sodium, so if a food label lists not salt but sodium, multiply the sodium level by 2.5. So 1g (100mg) of sodium equates to 2.5g of salt (250mg of salt). The Food Standards Agency states that a high-salt product is one with 0.5g or more of sodium per 100g and a low-salt one is a product with 0.1g of sodium per 100g, with a medium-salt product containing 0.1-0.5g of sodium per 100g.
Bizarre as it may sound, you need to ensure that you’re drinking enough water to help your body get rid of its water — it’s all to do with making sure the body doesn’t hang on to too much salt, which then makes you even more puffy, but don’t get hassled by detail, just try to drink a good 2.5 litres of water a day. Hildon and Evian are relatively salt-free, but you could, of course, stick to tap water or herbal teas (dandelion is a fantastic water-releaser, as are lovage, rosemary, parsley and nettle).
Keep up your intake of fruit and vegetables, as the potassium these contain encourages the body to jettison fluid. A high potassium intake is a natural way to flush out excess salt and water. Bananas and tomatoes are particularly potassium-rich. Meanwhile, citrus fruits, melons, cucumbers, watercress, carrots, salad leaves and celery are also natural diuretics. (When I wake up feeling puffy in the morning, I find a fresh juice with plenty of celery, carrots and either fennel or orange very effective.)
It's also worth seeing whether reducing starchy foods works, because refined carbohydrates — white bread, pasta, biscuits and cakes — aggravate the problem. There’s no need to cut these out of your diet out completely, but opt for wholegrain varieties of bread and pasta (and choose beans, lentils, and wholegrain rice), or avoid these refined starches at your vulnerable times.
Evening primrose oil can have a very beneficial effect on fluid retention, especially if this is hormone-related, so think about taking 3,000mg (3g) a day when you’re really suffering and then a daily maintenance dose of 500-1,000mg. Omega oils have a similar action on the body — try to have 2-4 portions (a portion is 140g) of oily fish a week, such as salmon (ideally wild and fresh rather than farmed or smoked), fresh tuna, mackerel and sardines (women of childbearing age should have just 2 portions.) Seeds — linseeds, flax and pumpkin seeds — are also a good source of omega oils.
MY HUSBAND has just been taken into hospital with what appears to be a kidney stone - he looked as if he was in labour. What can we do to stop it happening again?
Name and address supplied
Kidney pain is said to be excruciatingly painful, some say more painful than giving birth. Nor is it uncommon; an estimated 20 per cent of the population in industrialised countries is affected (men are particularly vulnerable). The risk of developing kidney stones increases during autumn and winter, when we start craving richer foods and drink less water — both linked to the formation of kidney stones. So this is something that not only your husband, but other readers will need to think about.
First a little biology, as I think this will help you to understand how stones can be prevented. The kidneys usually dispose of the body’s waste products — however, some of the tiny particles are not dissolved in the urine, and instead, clump together in a narrow section of the urinary tract, forming a core around which a stone may grow. Kidney stones are usually made up of a salt called calcium oxalate, which means the more calcium and oxalate particles in the urine, the greater the likelihood of developing a stone.
The logical response would be to reduce our intake of calcium-rich foods, but this may be counter-productive. These foods — which include dairy products, green, leafy vegetables, soft-boned fish — are so important in the prevention of brittle bones and to the body’s growth and development. The recommended daily calcium intake is 1,000mg — if you go as low as 400mg, this will encourage the production of calcitriol, which ultimately increases the amount of calcium the body retains, resulting in more calcium being deposited in the urine, the last thing that’s needed. So a low-calcium diet can make things worse.
A better strategy is to reduce your consumption of oxalates, found in beetroot, chocolate, rhubarb, spinach, tea, carob and nuts, especially peanuts. As it happens the oxalates in urine are derived mainly from metabolic processes, in other words, they have no direct links with dietary oxalates. However, cutting back on your intake of these foods will help.
I’d recommend wholegrain cereals and wholemeal bread, and other fibre-packed foods that inhibit the absorption of calcium in the first place. It’s also a good idea to cut back on purine-rich foods — such as fish roe, anchovies and offal — as this will also keep uric-acid levels low (high levels can suppress the beneficial action of stone-busting agents in the urine).
Animal proteins — meat, fish, chicken and eggs — make the urine more acidic, thus increasing the risks of calcium oxalate crystallising. And while I wouldn’t suggest giving up animal protein altogether, try lentils, beans, and peas instead (I hope you don’t meet too much resistance on this one). Eating potassium-rich foods, such as dried apricots, bananas and tomatoes, will help to flush out excess salt and water.
Finally, make sure your husband drinks a good 2.5 litres of water a day, to help reduce the likelihood of stones; a dehydrated body is far more likely to start forming stones, and drinking regularly throughout the day could help him to get rid of very minute stone particles with no pain whatsoever.
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