Do you consider yourself a healthy eater, yet find that you're still struggling with digestive issues? Maybe you're an avid promoter of getting in your daily greens, stuffing in as much spinach to your smoothie as possible. Contrary to most nutrition advice, this might be causing you your health issues, like diarrhea, gas, bloating, and constipation. To be more specific, oxalates may be the underlying cause.
What are Oxalates?
Oxalates are a natural compound that is found in many foods, specifically plants. These compounds help protect the plant from predators. Another way you obtain oxalates is from your liver's production of them with excess vitamin C, fructose, and yeast.
It binds to calcium in your stomach and intestines during the digestion process and is excreted through the stool. Oxalates that don't bind to calcium get transferred from the blood to the kidneys and get excreted through your urine.
What Foods are High in Oxalates?
While the average oxalate intake is about 200 mg a day, spinach alone has 225 mg of oxalates per cup! Here are foods that are high in oxalates:
- Spinach
- Sesame Seeds
- Bran flakes
- Beets
- Almonds
- Dark Chocolate
- Buckwheat
- Quinoa
- Berries
- Nuts/Nut Butters
Should You Be Consuming Oxalates?
By no means does this mean that you should eliminate these foods from your diet. High oxalates aren't an issue for everyone! If you don't have any gut issues or discomfort, then these foods shouldn't be a problem for you.
However, a portion of the population should be aware of these in case their body is sensitive to oxalates. You are at a higher risk of high oxalate issues if you experience recurrent kidney stones, gut issues, autoimmune diseases, and other chronic conditions.
Oxalate-Caused Symptoms
Oxalates can actually cause a number of health issues, yet oxalate levels are overlooked by many health providers. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, it could be from high oxalate levels:
- Mood Conditions
- Anxiety
- Sleep Issues
- Weakness
- Burning Feet
- Calcium and/or Magnesium Deficiency
Gut Issues and Oxalates
You may want to consider reducing your amount of oxalate consumption if you have leaky gut, SIBO, chronic fatigue syndrome, autoimmune disease, IBS, or chronic inflammation. If your gut is damaged, it could be allowing molecules that are supposed to stay in the digestive tract to wander into your bloodstream.
Oxalates and Mitochondrial Damage
Free oxalates can disrupt the body on a cellular level by interfering with your mitochondria. Since your mitochondria make ATP (aka energy), if it's not working properly, it can lead to mitochondria associated conditions like fatigue and inflammation.
How To Reduce Oxalate Impact
Restore Gut Health: You can help restore your gut health by taking probiotics, reducing stress, eating a variety of foods (low in oxalates for the time being), and taking gut supporting supplements.
Increase Calcium Intake: Increasing your calcium intake during your meals with oxalates can reduce the oxalate absorption.
Eat A Low-Oxalate Diet: Stick to foods that contain very minute amounts. Low oxalate foods contain 2 mg or less of oxalates.
Oxalate Testing
If you're experiencing digestive issues despite eating mostly healthy foods, the Organic Acids Test from Great Plains Lab is a good way to assess the amount of oxalates that end up in the urine.