Can lemon juice, lemonade, or other juices reduce my chances of getting kidney stones?

As mentioned in an earlier comment below, calcium supplements are generally not recommended, but you should still try to get adequate calcium from your diet, as this helps reduce oxalate in urine. Similarly, most magnesium supplements are not recommended for kidney stones, but you should still try to get adequate magnesium from your diet. Restricting intake of high oxalate foods, such as spinach, should be considered. Trying to counterbalance the effects of oxalates in spinach with other ingredients such as lemon or cheese is not recommended. In general, it takes about 10 oranges to make a liter of orange juice. Watermelon should not be used as a substitute, as it is not a good source of citrate.

In the answer above, lemon juice refers to the juice squeezed from a lemon that has not been diluted with water. The study cited (Haleblian 2008) found that to get 40 milliequivalents of citrate per day from a homemade lemon juice (4 ounces of concentrated lemon juice diluted with a little less than 2 pints of water and sweetened to taste) you would need to drink about 3.2 cups.

As kidney stones are partially composed of calcium, calcium supplements are generally not recommended. You should, however, try to get adequate calcium from your diet, as this helps reduce oxalate in urine, and oxalate is a component of kidney stones.

According to research (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15725524/) cited in the American Dental Association's article, acidic beverages can soften the surface of teeth, making them more susceptible to the effects of mechanical abrasion (brushing). Delaying brushing allows time for saliva to help re-mineralize the surface of the teeth. The ADA notes that drinking milk (containing calcium) also helps neutralize acids in the mouth and re-mineralize the teeth.

You're welcome Rosalind!