Are High Oxalate Foods Healthy?
Oxalates are a chemical compound mainly found in plant foods. They can also be found in humans and animals. Plants contain oxalates because it helps the plant regulate it’s mineral content, especially calcium. When we ingest them they form into crystals with sharp edges. This can damage the delicate lining of the bladder and cause interstitial cystitis. Oxalates also damage our joints, kidneys and eyes. This can cause painful bowel movements, burning when urinating, joint pain, and kidney stones. They also interfere with the body’s ability to make neurotransmitters and this can lead to fatigue, brain fog, anxiety and depression. They also impair the mitochondria in our cells leading to dysfunction and fatigue. Along with neurotransmitter imbalances, oxalates are one of the biggest causes of fibromyalgia!
They bind to minerals, such as calcium, biotin, copper, magnesium and sulfate. This can lead to nutrient deficiencies and prevention of nutrient absorption. They also bind to heavy metals in the body preventing the metals from being properly detoxed!
When they do not bind to nutrients they are floating our body wrecking havoc and causing a lot of pain. Some people have a genetic marker that causes their body to make oxalates and this causes them to be more sensitive to consuming plants high in oxalates. If you are dealing with candida overgrowth you are also more sensitive because yeast also produces oxalates.
Even if you don’t currently have symptoms it doesn’t mean you are in the clear. By the time we have symptoms they’ve done a lot of damage and it can take a long time to detoxify safely.
Wait, I thought some of these high oxalate foods are considered super foods…
They are…. if you are a herbivore who can handle all those oxalates. They have a bacterium (Oxalobacter formigenes) in their gut that allows them to consume oxalates safely. There was a time humans could too, but we have since lost that bacteria from antibiotic use. Otherwise, any awesome nutrients in spinach, for example, just bind to the oxalates and leave the body through the bowels. Foods that are extremely high in oxalates are the biggest concern, as well as, consuming large quantities of high oxalate foods. Spinach is so high in oxalates that not only will you not absorb any nutrients in spinach, you will also inherit most of those oxalates. They’ll just float around your body damaging things in their path.
To remove oxalates we use calcium and slowly wean off the foods that are extremely and very high in oxalates. There is a specific process to this because oxalate dumping can cut the bladder to pieces.
All of my clients are given instructions to wean off extremely high oxalates and a list of those oxalate foods. We don’t have to go on a low oxalate diet, especially with raw milk, just be mindful. If you’re interested in learning more about working with me click HERE