What foods can you eat on a low oxalate diet?

The following is designed to entertain and inform, not provide medical advice. Always consult your doctor before starting any treatment.

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, Jeff Sarris.

And I'm Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse. Hello, Jeff!

Hi there! So, we're back at it. Another episode, another batch.

Back at it and we're going to have– Did you know that we're having a snowstorm?

Oh, really?

Yeah. I have to go to the hospital tomorrow, so I'm sad about that. I'm like, we haven't had snow this whole time.

Now that I have to be at the hospital at 8:30, that's when the snow's coming. It's 8:27. I'm like, really?

Yeah.

I hate that. That's why I live in the city, cuz I hate driving. I hate it.

And forget about snow. I might just Uber. And I know everyone's listening like, "Girl, we do not care about your schedule or snow or Ubers." I'm just voicing my anxiety.

No, for sure. Yeah, I– we've been traveling a lot and when we came home and it was just sort of, I don't know, messy and dreary, I was like, "Yeah, just it's it's hard. It's winters aren't the most ex- Like if it's like pretty snow and like if it's sunny and snowy, like that's awesome."

Beautiful! I don't mind the cold. I just cannot stand this gray.

That I cannot stand.

I don't mind the cold at all. If you have proper gear, it's not a problem. But the, but the grayness, it's tough.

It's tough. It's tough. But whatever, I just call it cozy time.

I'm like, I just I play a mind game with myself. I'm like, "Oh, it's just cozy time." What do we got? What do we got?

Oh, yeah, if that works.

It works, right?

Yeah. Yeah, let's jump right into this week's question. It's from Barbara.

Hi, and Jeff, it's Barbara Kaufman. I live near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the suburbs. I have several questions.

I was diagnosed with I had horrible problems. I've been in the hospital several times, antibiotics, two operations, and I'm really having a hard time trying to find out what I can eat on this diet, this low oxalate diet. My main concern is nuts, which I know which are bad.

I got a list of what's bad, but I didn't never could find anywhere on the internet a list of what you can eat. What nut are you allowed to have? What bread can you have?

I'm desperate for a sandwich. Is carob an okay substitute for chocolate? Cuz I have somebody willing to make me oatmeal cookies with carob.

And beans, what beans are okay? And is spelt all right? I found a bread with spelt and I can't find any information anywhere for spelt flour anywhere.

So again, it's nuts, which is the best one you can eat and how many. Bread, oh, which bread does she suggest, Jill? Is carob okay as a substitute for chocolate?

I hope to God, yes. What bean are you allowed to have since you can't have any? Are chickpeas okay?

I hope. And spelt. Would you please, please get back to me?

And also, I bought quinoa chips and I can't find anything about quinoa, and I love them and I would like to eat a couple a day. I'm not going to over, you know, overeat them, but I've already given up several things that I love dearly. I've stopped the nuts, I've stopped the chocolate, which I was addicted to.

So I would love these answers if you…

So she does leave her number, so I'm just going to cut it off there, but, yeah. I mean, that's a good question.

I mean, this, yeah, it's all day long I get this. "What can I eat on a low oxalate diet? What can I eat?" And I answer it all day long.

Anything you want except spinach and almond products and maybe rutabaga, and don't be drinking miso soup all day long. Plus, that's high in salt. And people are always like, "You know, Jill, I'm a little nervous with that advice." Let me tell you why I'm so secure with it for you.

And Barbara, I as somebody who has a lot of illness in her life, I don't I'm never glib about this. I know people may get a little nervous when I say I work with people, I give them the advice, they change their diet. When they do a follow-up urine collection, they book an appointment with me and their oxalate goes from 120 to 22.

So, it works. I've never had an oxalate level go higher after somebody works with me. And so the advice I give them, I'm going to give you.

You just need to trust it. The reason people get kidney stones as far as the calcium oxalate ones in a lot of cases, not all, there's all kinds of reasons why. Kidney stone disease, folks, is very complicated, by the way.

And so you really have to talk to a person, you have to look at their urine collection, and you have to find out the why. Every single one of you will be a little bit different. And the Kidney Stone Diet has been brought about in the world because it lowers kidney stone risk because low salt, low sugar, eating normal amounts of animal protein, and getting enough calcium every day, getting your fluids, and paying attention to the oxalate you're eating, that will lower your kidney stone risk.

The salt and sugar are really important because the more you lower your sugar and salt consumption will make sure your calcium stays in your bone and not dump it into the urine, because too much sugar and salt will pull calcium from your bone, and that's why a lot of you have osteoporosis, too, and dump it into the urine.

And guess what? If you're not somebody who pees a lot, there's that calcium sitting there looking for phosphate, looking for oxalate, and connecting with each other. So, Barbara's asking, "What the heck can I eat on this damn diet?" As far as nuts, Barbara, please pull up the Harvard list.

That's right on my website at kidneystonediet.com. Download that list and it will say: you can have sunflower seeds, you can have pistachio nuts. My patients and in my meal plan, I have all kinds of nuts in there except for almonds.

Now, if I were to have a few cashews, I'm not I do not make any recipes with cashews, they are on the higher side, but say I wanted some yogurt, I'll put a maybe two walnuts in there, crush them up so it feels like a lot. Pistachio nuts, again, open up your Harvard list. You can have like 50 of those for, I think it's under 30 milligrams of oxalate.

It's it's you can it's totally doable. Put them in something that has calcium. Sunflower seeds, a whole cup has only, I don't know, I can't think off the top of my head, but less than 20, maybe 12 gram milligrams of oxalate.

So, there are nuts and seeds that have been studied on oxalate, so remember, look up look it up on the Harvard list, kidneystonediet.com, to get that. So, you can definitely stay away from almonds, every other nut in moderation. The reason people got kidney stones is they were eating a bag of almonds because they have diabetes and their dietitian told them to eat almonds, and then the patient took it way out of control, and almond bread and almond milk, think of keto people.

They're doing everything with almonds. If they didn't eat the portion they ate and got their calcium needs met, they their stone risk would have plummeted. It's not that you can't have a nut ever again.

It's you can't eat a food as much as you want, which we shouldn't do that anyway. So, it's about portion, not perfection. Just like the sweatshirt says, portion, not perfection.

So, if you feel like you are too deprived, you are limiting yourself too much. Don't do that. My patients eat anything they want except spinach and almonds, and all those foods like quinoa, other people have studied it and it is shown to be high.

Does that mean you can never eat it? No! It just means have it once a week in a normal portion size.

The carob, that's thought to be low. What I tell people to have carob every single day, as much as they want? No.

If you want a chocolate, you could have it. My patients eat chocolate. They're just not eating 10 squares a day anymore, and they're pairing it with calcium when they do, whether it's a non-dairy plant or a non-dairy calcium source or a or a dairy calcium source.

Bread, we have a whole YouTube video on bread. You can have bread. I care more about the salt and sugar in bread than I do oxalate because at the end of the day, it's just two pieces of bread.

Even if it has 10 milligrams per slice, it's only 20 milligrams of oxalate. Remember, you have 100 milligrams of oxalate, most of you, unless a doctor has told you otherwise. Have a sandwich.

Not a problem. You still got 80 milligrams left. Not a problem.

So, people are so micro-focused on oxalate and thinking they can't have anything that they're not rising up and thinking that, "Look, I got 100 milligrams of oxalate per day. How do I want to spend it?" If a food has not been studied by Harvard, I have given this advice for 25 years. Here it is.

Have that food once or twice a week in a normal portion size, and I say twice cuz you might have a leftover from the day before. Have it in a normal portion size, pair it with a calcium source. My patients don't have high oxalate anymore.

It's, again, eating as much as they want of a food that they didn't even understand anything about oxalate at that point, not getting enough calcium every day, that's why they got a kidney stone, amongst other things. Beans, we know black beans are on the higher side. Do I have beans, black beans in my meal plan for patients?

Absolutely. Again, because of the portion size. I may put a whole cup in a four to six serving size recipe, so nobody's worried about it.

Can have any bean you want. Vegans tend to eat five cups of beans a day cuz they're trying to get their protein needs met, and so, again, and they weren't getting enough calcium. That's why their oxalate was so high.

So, if you don't know how much oxalate is in your food, eat limited quantities of it. But I don't want you guys taking away all these foods, especially and even if they're not studied, if you eat portion, not perfection, you're not going to have a problem and get your calcium needs met every day. Spelt, Harvard didn't study it, so I don't know.

Could you have a some bread that had spelt? Yeah, just don't have six pieces a day. Pair it with your calcium source.

And I know, Barbara, you may seem very nervous by this kind of advice, but, again, if I didn't have 25 years of looking at follow-up urine collections, I would never stick with this advice. I just wouldn't. You must get your calcium needs met.

The foods that have not been studied or are, you know, all over the place as far as one website says this, one website says this, have the food in a limited quantity, pair it, quantity, pair it with some calcium, and don't eat it every day. So, that's my advice. Go look at the video on bread.

Of course you can have Of course the gal needs a sandwich! Of course! My peop- My patients have a sandwich, they don't have high oxalate.

Don't worry about it. Have it with some calcium, be on your way. I promise you this advice works.

The reason people got kidney stones, again, is all the nuts without any calcium sources, all the beans without any calcium sources. It was it was crazy amounts of things. That's the problem.

And chocolaholics, you my patients eat some dark chocolate, couple squares a day, but some of you were eating it all the time. And, again, when you don't get your calcium needs met, that oxalate gets reabsorbed back into your system instead of binding with calcium in your intestines and leaving through the stool. So, all of this, I hope makes you feel a little bit less anxious about there is plenty to eat.

I promise you, you can eat all the produce, just watch the quantity, get your calcium needs met every day, and we don't have to be so worried about oxalate. There's so much misinformation on oxalate. There's so much scare talk about oxalate.

So, so that's my advice. It has worked well for my patients for 25 years, and I'm sticking to it.

Yeah, I think that is the big thing, is it can be so scary, because it's like, "Okay, now what's left?"

Yes!

And that's why, like, you did the Kidney Stone Diet meal plans, too, really to showcase that there is so much that you can eat, and just inspiration from day to day to keep going, but also to see there is a wide variety of things. And also, then, you may use some higher oxalate foods in these recipes, but you explain why.

You explain how this works and why this works.

Yes, and, you know, that's what's so interesting. So, in my meal plan service, you know, I there's a lot of education that comes with each recipe, too, because I know, because I've worked with thousands of people, so I know when they look at a recipe, I know I can hear them. They're going to think this, they're going to say this, they're going to ask this.

So, I write all this education. Here's why I use this, don't worry, because look at the recipe, it's for six people. You're going to have, and they don't have to worry, because the oxalate's written, the salt, the sugar, the protein, the whole nutritional panel plus the oxalate is listed there for each recipe, so nobody has to worry and they can, you know, eat all these foods and patients are so my students and patients are so happy with the meal plan because finally they have a freedom, they're they understand that they're not so restricted anymore.

The meals are really simple and they're quick and they're delicious, so and there's snacks and there's, I mean, you know, there's for people who are like, "Jill, I need something sweet. My God!" There's the e-book for snacks and desserts, I mean, oxalate-figured-out granola bars, protein bars, smoothie book filled with calcium, protein, low-calorie ones.

We got it all at kidneystonediet.com. Those services are a they are a labor of love for me. I've loved every minute of it.

They've been very helpful for patients. And then people can eat a wide variety of foods and not be nervous anymore. So many patients come to me and they've lost way too much weight, they're not eating any fruits and vegetables anymore.

I mean, it's my worst nightmare as somebody who helps people understand nutrition. So, again, and also people have many different medical conditions. So, now they got a kidney stone, diabetes, they're on low-FODMAP, they're on nightshade restriction, there's so many things, and then they're like, "Oh, my god, I have nothing to eat!" I've heard this my entire career, so I'm here to tell you, if you listen to the advice, I promise you, you can lower your stone risk.

Make sure you're getting urine analysis-sis-sis-sis-sis done, too, so you can see how everything's working.

Definitely. So, yeah, Barbara, thank you so much for that question.

Great question!

And for everyone else out there with a question, the number is 773-789-8763, and we'd love to feature you on a future episode. And, again, that number is for the podcast. If you want to work with Jill directly, you can go to kidneystonediet.com right on the homepage, you'll see the different options for working with Jill.

There's the group calls, which is the Again, that's another labor of love. Like, you do those all the time with groups of people, lots of time together, lots of diving deep in a group setting, which is really nice, but then there are the one-on-one calls as well. So, if you want to work with Jill and sort of just one-on-one, that is an option, but we always recommend group calls because it's such a It's such a valuable service at a very low cost, which is what we strive for as much as we can here.

Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

And you, you know, there's a lot of people, and I have experienced this as a patient myself, there's a lot, you know, sometimes when you're a patient with whatever illness you have, your friends and your loved ones get sick of hearing about it, you know? Or they don't take you seriously, or they're not supportive. So, I made that group because it's a place that's safe for people who have illness and that can talk, and everyone understands, and you have support and love.

And, also, we're talking about big life things, too. How do you cope through the death of a parent, or retirement and now you're home all day with your cupboards, and, you know, and weight loss goals, and all of it. I mean, those calls, man, those calls are the best.

And for you can There's two options. You can get it for a year, sign up for a year, it's only $19 a month, or sign up for three months, it's $24 a month. And when you break it down for the hours I give in there, it winds up being $6 a week for like 6 hours of calls, of giving 110,000% of my heart into those calls, and everyone gives their heart and soul into those calls because we all know what it's like to be sick.

It's very helpful for me, too, quite frankly. So, the group calls are amazing. Check them out, people.

You won't find anything cheaper with what we are bringing to those group calls, promise.

Yeah, absolutely. So, you can find that at kidneystonediet.com, along with everything else. So, thanks again for tuning in, thanks for the question, Barbara, and we'll see you guys next time.

Yay! Bye, Barbara!