NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – Certain diet sodas may have the potential to prevent the most common type of kidney stone if new US lab research is correct.

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found that the diet versions of several popular citrus-flavoured sodas – like 7Up, Sunkist and Sprite – contained relatively high amounts of a compound called citrate. Citrate is known to inhibit the formation of calcium oxalate stones, the most common form of kidney stone. The findings, reported in the Journal of Urology, suggest that diet sodas could stand as an extra weapon for some people prone to forming kidney stones.

Kidney stones develop when the urine contains more crystal-forming substances – such as calcium, uric acid and a compound called oxalate – than can be diluted by the available fluid. Most kidney stones are calcium-based, usually in combination with oxalate.