Bitter Gourd for Kidney Stones

Weight Control
Dietary Fiber and Sodium
Vitamin C

Written by Natalie Stein

18 July, 2011

Fact Checked

If you have kidney stones, you may experience pain in your back or abdomen, bloody urine, vomiting or fevers. Some of the characteristics of bitter gourd, also known as balsam-pear or Momordica charantia, may lower your risk for developing kidney stones. Ask your doctor or nutritionist whether you should include it in a balanced diet for preventing stones or relieving symptoms.

Most kidney stones are hardened formations of calcium phosphate or calcium oxalate. Even if you are lucky enough that your kidney stones pass without symptoms, your risk for developing kidney stones is higher if you already have a history of stones, according to the Langone Medical Center. Other risk factors are a family history, being a male age 20 to 50, being pregnant, and becoming dehydrated. Proper nutrition can lower your risk for more stones, and bitter gourd can help you stick to recommendations.

Weight Control

Bitter gourd can be beneficial to the kidneys if you use it to control weight, since your chance of developing stones increases if you are obese, according to the Langone Medical Center. Each raw bitter gourd or balsam-pear pod has only 21 calories in a 124-g or 4.4-oz. serving. Since bitter gourd and most other fresh vegetables are low in calories, you can fill up on them without going over your calorie limit.

Bitter gourd can be beneficial to the kidneys if you use it to control weight, since your chance of developing stones increases if you are obese, according to the Langone Medical Center.

Dietary Fiber and Sodium

Date Fruits & Kidney Stones

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A bitter gourd pod provides 3.5 g dietary fiber, or 14 percent of the daily value, and only 6 mg sodium, or less than 1 percent of the daily value for sodium. A high-fiber, low-sodium diet may help you prevent kidney stones, according to the Mayo Clinic. Dietary fiber comes from the parts of plant foods the body cannot digest, and other potential benefits include preventing constipation and controlling blood sugar. Limiting sodium intake is also beneficial in that it helps to control blood pressure, according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2.

A bitter gourd pod provides 3.5 g dietary fiber, or 14 percent of the daily value, and only 6 mg sodium, or less than 1 percent of the daily value for sodium.
Dietary fiber comes from the parts of plant foods the body cannot digest, and other potential benefits include preventing constipation and controlling blood sugar.

Vitamin C

Each serving of bitter gourd provides 104 mg vitamin C, or 173 percent of the daily value for this antioxidant vitamin. Your body produces oxalates as a metabolic product of vitamin C, and too much vitamin C from supplements may increase your risk of developing calcium oxalate kidney stones, according to the Linus Pauling Institute Micronutrient Information Center 1. Vitamin C from dietary sources such as bitter gourd is unlikely to be harmful because the risk for stones appears to increase only when intake is more than about 1,000 mg per day.