Urinary tract stones can be classified according to their composition into 4 major categories: calcium-containing stones, infectious stones, uric acid stones and cystine stones, of which calcium-containing stones account for more than 80% and are the most abundant type of urinary tract stones. It was previously thought that prevention of calcium-containing urinary tract stones required a low-calcium diet. Current research suggests that a diet with normal calcium intake and limited animal protein and sodium has a better effect on preventing stone recurrence than a traditional low-calcium diet. Dietary calcium levels less than 800 mg/day can cause a negative calcium balance in the body. A low-calcium diet, while reducing urinary calcium excretion, may lead to osteoporosis and increased excretion of oxalic acid in the urine, which is more likely to combine with calcium ions to form calcium oxalate stones. A diet high in calcium in the normal range or at appropriate levels is clinically therapeutic in preventing recurrence of urinary calcium-containing stones. However, calcium supplementation beyond normal calcium levels may be detrimental to stone prevention because uncontrolled high calcium diet and pharmacologic calcium supplementation increase the supersaturation level of calcium ions in the urine, and supersaturated calcium ions are more likely to bind with oxalic acid and phosphate in the urine to form calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate stones. A high calcium diet or medication to prevent stone recurrence is only indicated for enterogenic hyperoxaluria. Special attention should be paid to patients with idiopathic hypercalciuria (IH), a disease with an increased urinary calcium and normal blood calcium of an incompletely understood etiology, with urinary calcium >6.2 mmol (250 mg/24h urine) in women and >7.5 mmol (300 mg/24h urine) in men. Experts currently recommend a low-calcium diet for patients with idiopathic hypercalcemia and do not recommend the intake of a low-calcium diet for other patients with urinary stones.