How much oxalate is in Brussels sprouts?

How much oxalate is in Brussels sprouts? Let's find out.

Welcome back to the Kidney Stone Diet podcast, the show about reducing your kidney stone risk and living your best life. I'm your host and fellow student, Jeff Sarris.

And I'm Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse. Feeling good, feeling fine, baby.

That's what I like to hear.

Yes, I do. I feel fine. I'm, listen, Chicago is experiencing just a beautiful Indian summer, I think you call it.

And, you know, it's we haven't seen rain in the last few weeks. I'm digging it, man. It's like we live in San Diego.

It's gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous, so.

For sure.

Good mood. Good mood. Love it.

Absolutely. I just came back from Miami, so when we came home, it was a little chilly, but other than that, really nice.

But it's warmed up. It's warmed up since you been back.

Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah.

I don't know why you don't live there. You're there enough.

Yeah, one day, probably. Like just a little condo, just like the cheapest thing we can find would be nice. Little apartment or something.

And also I Jeff had a birthday last week, so happy birthday. I hope you had a good time in Miami enjoying it.

Yeah, it was. It was a really good time. We always like going down there and just, yeah, being active.

We I mean, it's crazy because when we're home, we barely get any steps in. And then there, it's like the first day, it's like 25,000 steps. It's like, oh, okay, that's a big shift, but…

Yeah. It's awesome. It's awesome.

Love it.

No, it is. We like it. But yeah, so Brussels sprouts.

Brussels sprouts. So, a lot of people will take them off, thinking they're very high oxalate. Now, my motto is with oxalate, you get 100 mg of oxalate a day.

Unless you have malabsorption issues, your doctor may have said less. Typically, it's 50. But if you don't have malabsorption issues, and malabsorption issues are things like bowel disease, Crohn's, colitis, you've had a bariatric surgery,

You've had major abdominal surgery that leaves you having a hard time absorbing nutrients, okay? Most of you do not have that, so you can get 100 mg of oxalate a day. Brussels sprouts are 17 mg, says Harvard, for a 1/2 a cup.

So, people might say, "Well, that's a lot of oxalate, Jill." Not if you have a 100.

And there's so many low oxalate foods that you can absolutely fit, even if you wanted to have whatever, 37, you know, 35 mg of oxalate, have a whole cup. I mean, you know, listen, I just made a salad for the meal plan, and I know people are going to be like, "What the hell? She put Brussels sprouts in the salad!" But I only put half a cup in a whole salad that's going to serve three people.

And also, if you if you cut them up or shave them, you get a lot of taste for a little amount. And so, believe me, some of the foods that are on the Harvard list that you're nervous and you are restricting yourself from eating, you don't have to.

Often I will hear, "Jill, there's nothing to eat. Jill, there's nothing to eat." Then clearly you just came here and haven't listened to me, because there's plenty to eat. So, people get very, very anxious about the oxalate portion of the kidney stone diet because it is the one thing you'll definitely see talked about on the internet.

You will also see and hear a lot of fearmongering

About how oxalate is so toxic and it's killing you. Again, now almost 26 years, I've never had anybody with oxalate poisoning, oxalate toxicity, oxalate dumping. I've never had that in my practice with the thousands of patients I've dealt with.

I'm I'm just telling you what I have experienced. So,

People are running around very anxious because they just had this crazy pain from kidney stones, obviously. They Google kidney stones, and they will find everything about oxalate. And every list they look at has something different.

We use the Harvard list here at Kidney Stone Diet. We use the Harvard list because we've been using it for decades. And when I see people's follow-up urine collections

During my urine consult with them, they may first have they came to me with, you know, 75 mg of oxalate. They had 75 oxalate in their urine. Then they work with me for one time.

Then they call me for the follow-up urine collection. We go over that so they can be prop prepped for their doctor office visit, and their oxalate's now 22. And it's not because they took away all the foods.

It's because they stopped eating spinach, almonds, chia seeds in a abundance every single day.

But the main thing, as we always talk about, what is it, Jeff? What is it besides lowering oxalate that we always talk about here has to happen?

Yeah, portion, not perfection, is a huge part.

Yes, portion, not perfection, and getting your what needs met? Calcium. Calcium.

So, the only way we can lower oxalate in our body is to make sure we're getting our daily calcium needs met, which is generally up to 1,000 for women and men, and 1,200 for postmenopausal women.

All right. So, when we get enough calcium, calcium and oxalate join in our intestines, and then the oxalate leaves through the stool. If we're not getting any calcium in our diet, whether it's from non-dairy or dairy products, oxalate gets reabsorbed back into the bloodstream, and then we have higher oxalate levels.

So, that's just as important, if not more important.

I have people that don't change anything about their diet except take away spinach and almonds. They just get their calcium needs met, and their oxalate plummets, honestly. And they're still eating things like Brussels sprouts and other higher oxalate foods, but not the highest oxalate foods.

So, like Jeff said, portion, not perfection. If you don't have five cups of Brussels sprouts anymore every day, you're going to have lower oxalate.

So, you can still have them. You just have to watch how much you have them with. And yes, that is something I would definitely make sure I had a dairy source with, whether it was non-dairy calcium-based beverage or dairy, whatever you prefer, whatever works for your lifestyle.

So, yes, you can have Brussels sprouts. Absolutely. They are so delicious!

Roasted Brussels sprouts, especially now we're taping in fall, it's they're amazing. Use them if you'd like.

Absolutely. And you mentioned the meal plans, and there are other foods throughout the meal plans that people might, at first glance, be shocked to see w- included in the recipes. And for anyone who doesn't know, meal plans, it's Kidney Stone Diet Meal Plans at kidneystonediet.com, and every day you get breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack recipes to keep you on track.

But yeah, I mean, it's not that you are pulling away everything that anyone could ever enjoy. There are just…

Absolutely! Absolutely. And all the oxalate is all figured out on every recipe.

So, you know, when I'll put notes with each recipe. Yes, I use Brussels sprouts, but you can see the whole dish is, you know, less than 10 mg of oxalate. So, people are like, "Oh my god, I can have Brussels sprouts again!"

So, you know, my family has kidney stones. I certainly don't want to get them and add those to my medical add that to my medical list. So, all these foods that I make in the meal plan, people are always like, "Jill, what do you eat?

What do you eat? You have, you know, you work out. You eat right.

I want to eat what you're eating." Get the meal plan for a month! I mean, you'll get over 100 recipes for 24 bucks. It's a subscription model.

Cancel when you're done. You know, when you're done using it.

But those are the foods I eat, and they are fiber-packed, protein-packed, you'll get calcium, so their ideas and inspirations. Of course, you can tweak them to your lifestyle, but there's something for everybody: gluten-free, low carb, vegetarian, vegan, and substitutions when a dish doesn't, you know, if it's a meat dish, I'll say, "Get rid of the meat and put this." You know, so it's a very success- successful product.

It shows people that, yes, there's plenty for you to eat,

And you get your life back. And the meal plan, a lot of people buy it just to get an idea of really what can they eat every day. So, it's been a very successful product, and we're we're very happy with that.

We're very pleased that you're finding it beneficial to you, especially when you're starting out here. I have people on that meal plan, they've been on it since the beginning, you know? So…

Yeah, and it keeps growing. That's the thing. There's always fresh recipes, there's It's just you're amassing just an amazing library of recipes that you've created.

Absolutely!

Yeah.

Yeah, so, yeah, you can find that, you can find the Kidney Stone Prevention Course and everything else Kidney Stone Diet related at kidneystonediet.com. And again, if you want to leave us a voicemail to be featured on a future episode, the number is 773-789-8764. Previously, it was 8763.

So, 773-789-8764. Give us a voicemail, and we will feature you next time.

So, I think with that, we'll wrap, and have a good week!

Everybody, thank you, and go roast some Brussels sprouts. Mangia!