Dr. Prabhat AryaMBBS, MD (Internal Medicine) · DMC Reg. No. DMC-83759drprabhatarya.com

Reviewed by Dr. Prabhat Arya, MD (Internal Medicine) on 29 September 2026

Diet chart for kidney stones

Half of all people who pass a stone make another within ten years. Water, normal milk and curd, and less salt cut that chance a great deal.

½ Vegetables and salad ¼ Dal, curd, paneer, milk; egg or chicken in measure ¼ Roti, rice or millet
  1. Drink 10 to 12 glasses of water a day, spread through the day and more in summer, so that the urine stays clear or pale.
  2. Do not cut milk and curd. Two or three katoris a day, taken with meals, bind the stone-forming oxalate in food.
  3. Less salt and less meat: under one teaspoon of salt a day, and meat, fish or egg only once a day, in a small portion.

Eat more

  • Water, through the day and at night if you wake up
  • Nimbu pani without sugar: lemon in water helps stop stones forming
  • Oranges, mosambi and other citrus fruit, whole
  • Milk, curd, chaas and paneer, with meals
  • Vegetables: lauki, tori, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, capsicum, peas
  • Fruit: banana, apple, melon, papaya, pear

Eat less, and measure

  • Salt: less than one teaspoon a day in all, counting pickle and papad
  • Chicken, fish, egg, mutton: one small portion a day
  • Palak, chukandar, arbi leaves, bhindi: eat with curd or milk in the same meal
  • Almonds, cashews, peanuts, chocolate: a small handful, not every day
  • Tea: two or three cups a day, with milk
  • Sugar and sweets: a little only

Avoid

  • Cola, cold drinks and sweetened packaged juice
  • Beer and other alcohol: they dry the body out
  • Pickle, papad, namkeen, chips, instant noodles
  • Liver, kidney and other organ meat
  • Vitamin C or calcium tablets not given by your doctor
  • Protein powders and body-building supplements

A sample day

Vegetarian first; the swap is for those who eat eggs, fish or chicken.

On waking
Two glasses of water. Tea with milk
Breakfast
Two stuffed rotis or besan chilla with a katori of curd, or a bowl of vegetable poha with a glass of milkSwap: Two-egg omelette with one roti and a glass of milk
Mid-morning
One orange or mosambi and a glass of nimbu pani without sugar
Lunch
Salad. A katori of sabzi, a katori of dal, two rotis or one roti with a katori of rice, a katori of raitaSwap: Chicken or fish curry in place of dal
Evening
A glass of chaas with roasted chana or makhana
Dinner, by 8 pm
Sabzi, a katori of paneer or dal, one or two rotis, a katori of curdSwap: Egg curry in place of paneer
Bedtime
Two glasses of water

Common myths

Beer dissolves kidney stones.
It does not. Beer dries the body and can make new stones more likely.
Stop milk and curd: calcium makes stones.
Cutting milk makes stones more likely. Take it with meals.
Tomato seeds cause stones.
They do not. Tomato in normal amounts is fine.
Kulthi dal or pathar-chatta leaves dissolve stones.
No home remedy dissolves a stone. Water and treatment help.

Dr. Arya’s note for you

Severe pain in the side with fever or shivering, vomiting that does not stop, or very little urine: go to hospital at once.

This is general advice for adults. With kidney disease or heart failure, skip the drink-a-lot rule: that illness's chart wins on water, and the kidney chart on protein and milk. Some stones need a different diet: ask Dr. Arya.