Some studies find that soda can cause kidney stones so you may be wondering how diet soda may prevent kidney stones. While soda may not solely be the cause of the stones, it can contribute to dehydration, which is a factor.
As long as a person remains hydrated and reduces other detrimental factors, like poor diet and exercise, drinking diet soda moderately can help prevent calcium compounds from forming. This is because diet sodas contain citrate and malate content that help inhibit kidney stones from forming. Malate increases the amount of alkalinity in the system to break down calcium stones.
Research has found that Diet Sunkist Orange and Diet 7-Up are the sodas that contain the most of these ingredients and may be the most helpful in prevention.