Aha, well sorry you had to be the guinea pig, but thanks for sharing this info, Lex. Your honesty about bad experiences makes your reports more reliable than the gurus who claim to be fit but are obviously flabby, ashen, etc. and is part of the reason I like your journal and is why I reported my recent mysterious episode of diarrhea, despite the embarrassment.
I have a history of calcium oxalate kidney stones and UTIs myself on the SAD and near-vegetarian diets, so this is good to know. I don't want to repeat that pain again. When I was following a nutritionist's recommended diet (lots of fruits and veggies, whole grains, soy powder, tofu burgers, etc.) my urine was often deep brown and syrupy, no matter how much water I drank at my urologist's bidding (I never drank so much water in my life and could literally hear the water sloshing around in my gut as I walked--yet my urine remained too dark, according to my urologist). My urologist got angry when I tentatively asked about possible dietary factors beyond water. Yet, a few weeks after I later eliminated gluten from my diet my urine became as clear as water (it later became light, bright yellow, on avg).
I did notice that when I went ZC that I became less thirsty instead of more so like other people reported, and as I increased the rawness of my diet I became even less thirsty. When my urine got a bit deeper in color recently on fully raw than it had been on cooked VLC, and occasionally very bubbly (indicating high protein), I forced myself to drink some more water and then increased my fat intake (I had cut back on fat when I got overly sweet saliva, but discovered through your help that that was a temporary phenomenon) and it returned to its earlier appearance. I thought I might just be being paranoid because of my history, but it looks like I should be cautious.
It's interesting that some of the ketogenic dieters in the report were apparently drinking insufficient fluids too. Maybe there's something about ketogenic diets that reduces thirst to insufficient levels in people with systems that are not functioning properly in some unknown way.
I was puzzled that I was drinking less water as a carnivore than as an omnivore, since canines drink lots of water in the wild after eating. I figured that maybe the extra water in the raw meat was sufficient to hydrate me, but now I wonder. Maybe you and I have some malfunction in our system that's causing the normal dehydration signals to not work properly, so that our instincts are not reliable for us? It sounds like it's more of an issue for you so far, but I'll be even more watchful for signs of dehydration now. I'll also try to be careful not to let my protein intake level get too high, given Dr. Harris' warning about that, and may try to increase my magnesium intake a bit more.
If these measures don't keep my urine light then I may consider trying some plant foods again sooner than I intended (I wanted to get my dental and scalp health in more optimal shape first). But first I'll be interested to see what you find out from your investigations and I'll try to do some more research on nephrolithiasis and related matters myself. In the past I got dark urine, UTI's and brief, minor genitourinary pains before I developed stones (unfortunately, neither my doctors nor I recognized the early warning signals), so I'm hoping that means I won't get stones out of the blue like you did. If my urinalysis is abnormal at my next doctor's visit I think I'll ask for a CT scan check for stones to be on the safe side. They can hide in the kidneys without producing much in the way of symptoms until they dislodge, as you experienced.
What do you use to measure specific gravity--those Multistix? Maybe they're a good investment after all. Do you know what the composition of your stones was?
Like Dextery said, and given Dr. Harris' advice and my experience, I think the protein aspect of meat can contribute to certain kidney stones, whereas fat seems to help. It's possible that yours had been developing for a long time, but I think dehydration can cause them to develop fairly rapidly--but I need to refresh my memory on these things by reading up on it again. Interestingly, I discovered at the MayoClinic site that high doses of vitamin D can increase the concentration of calcium or oxalate in the urine. I don't recall hearing that one before.
