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 eating them…. Yet, we still chow down on them! 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. Oxalates can either bind to chemicals and minerals in your body or be broken down by bacteria in your gut. 

What Foods are High in Oxalates?

Some foods have higher oxalate content than others. As a healthy eater, you might not associate these foods as being dangerous to your body. For most people they aren't! (We’ll dive into this below) However, some people do need to be aware of high oxalate food in case they are at a higher risk for oxalate-associated problems. While the average oxalate intake is about 200 mg a day, spinach alone has 225 mg of oxalates per cup! Even though spinach is known to be healthy, just be aware that it’s also high in oxalates. 

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 and they are healthy and can be beneficial to your body after all! 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. Therefore, you should be mindful of your oxalate intake. 

Beware that excess oxalates can build up in your body if they aren’t eliminated properly, causing damage to your kidney and liver. The major issue we see are kidney stones, which is when oxalates bind to calcium to form precipitates, referred to as “stones”. In fact, over the past 20 years, kidney stone issues have increased by 37%.  It’s hypothesized that this may be from changes in our dietary patterns. 

Oxalate-Caused Symptoms

Oxalates can actually cause a number of health issues, yet oxalates 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, IDS, or chronic inflammation. As mentioned above, dietary factors could play a role in increasing your risk because it can affect the health of your gut and digestion. 

If your gut is damaged, it could be allowing molecules that are supposed to stay in the digestive tract to wander into your bloodstream and get absorbed. This can increase your risk of oxalate damage even more. Oxalates are normally excreted through the stool, however, when they leak out from the gut, they get into areas they aren't supposed to be. 

Oxalates and Mitochondrial Damage

While kidney stones can form when oxalates are bound to calcium, free oxalates can cause potential systemic 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 and a number of chronic diseases.

How To Reduce Oxalate Impact

Patients who struggle with kidney stones can lower their risk of getting another stone by up to 85% through just lifestyle and dietary changes. Here are some things you can do. 

Restore Gut Health

The good news is that restoring your gut health could help reduce oxalate damage to your body. 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

Oxalates are able to bind to calcium in the gut and get excreted through your stool (instead of crossing your gut barrier into the bloodstream). When oxalates bind to calcium, it means they aren’t able to be absorbed into your bloodstream. Therefore, increasing your calcium intake during your meals with oxalates can reduce the oxalate absorption. 

Eat A Low-Oxalate Diet

It might be obvious, but if you are experiencing oxalate-associated issues, stick to foods that contain very minute amounts. Low oxalate foods contain 2 mg or less of oxalates.

Oxalate Testing

If you’re a person who takes care of your health and eats mostly healthy foods, yet still struggles with digestive issues, high oxalates could be the culprit. One way to find out is to get oxalate testing performed. The Organic Acids Test from Great Plains Lab is a good way to assess the amount of oxalates that end up in the urine.

Importance of Personalized Care

This goes to show that one “perfect diet” isn’t the same for everyone. Even if you are eating a healthy diet, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s healthy for your unique body. This is why it’s vital that you listen to your body and get personalized care from a functional medicine provider. They take the time to review your entire medical history, run and analyze specific labs that aren’t performed by conventional doctors, and ultimately get to the root cause of your symptoms instead of just covering them up with medications. 

If you want to know if oxalates are the cause of your health issues, Dr. Jaban Moore, a functional medicine provider in Kansas City, can help. He specializes in treating patients with challenging chronic illnesses and diseases. 

If you are struggling with a chronic disease, Dr. Moore provides functional medicine based, natural support to help you rid your symptoms away. By creating a unique plan for your body, Dr. Moore can address the root cause. Please reach out if you are ready to get your health back on track. You can give the office a call at (816) 889-9801.