Are poppy seeds high in oxalate?

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 and fellow student, Jeff Sarris.

And I'm Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse. I'm happy to be here. And I'm also, this is the day we're we're taping four or four or five shows right now.

And so, and we batch them. Jeff and I meet, and we do a bunch of shows. And right now, as we've said in the last couple, it's the it's it's Black Friday, day after Thanksgiving.

And I just wanted to take a few minutes, I wrote this in my newsletter last week, but I just wanted to say truly, I mean, this career of ours is just so rewarding because we get to help people every day. And the fact that people come here and are taking our information and, you know, just feeling safe and trusting it, and, well, that just means the world to us.

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Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, great-

How lucky are we?

Yeah, grateful for your support for us and for others, as well. Sort of paying it forward, like if you're finding value here, helping others get the scientifically valid, the experiential knowledge that Jill has from over 25 years of doing this. So, it means a lot, because we want to, the only reason to do this is to help people.

And if we can't reach people, we can't help them. So, we want to thank you, each and every one of you, for that as well, because every little bit means a lot.

All right!

So, with that, we were going to rewind a couple weeks and talk about poppy seeds because Joyce had brought up poppy seeds. We, we accidentally didn't touch on that specifically. We touched on everything around it, all the other topics relating to consuming calcium if you need throughout the day.

If you missed that episode, it's just a couple weeks ago. It would be called, "Does Calcium Cancel Out Oxalates?" But, this week, we wanted to talk specifically about poppy seeds and for a few reasons. So, I'll just hand it over to you.

Yeah, Joyce from, Joyce from Detroit. We're going back to your question from a couple weeks ago. So, Joyce is like, "Jill, I like baking, and I like me some poppy seeds, so I'm baking with it." And if you Google poppy seeds, guys, cause Harvard didn't study it, but if you Google poppy seeds, you're going to see it has, you know, over 1600 milligrams of oxalate.

So, Joyce is like, "What the heck, I like poppy seeds." And, Joyce, guess what? It's one of my favorite things. I just love seeing them on something.

I love it! So, sometimes I'll make my own Everything But The Bagel seasoning cause I can't use garlic, so I put all the other things in there, and I love seeing some poppy seeds on my food. So, I hear you.

Now, there is a there is a source on the internet that gives how much oxalates in these poppy seeds. I don't know who's doing the research on this. I just know that Harvard didn't.

And so when Harvard didn't study a food, my advice is always this, and it has not bitten me in the butt in 25 years. If something hasn't been studied by Harvard, have that food. Just eat normal portions of it.

So, Joyce is probably thinking, "But Jill, it's over 1,600 mg!" And I'm going to say, "I get it, Joyce, but it's also in a 100 g portion size," says this source. So, you're not having 3 oz of poppy seeds on a cookie. That's not happening.

But even so, if it is, in fact, 1,600 mg for a 3 oz portion of poppy seeds, even a few of them, Jill, are going to be a lot of oxalate, and that's true. It is going to be a lot of oxalate. How much exactly, I'm not dividing all that out.

I don't have the brain for that. So, yes, it's going to be higher in oxalate. That kind of seasoning is going to be higher in oxalate.

But, Joyce, think about it. If I got a cookie and I'm sprinkling a few seeds on there, well, poppy seeds are small, so you're going to be sprinkle some, I'm not worried about it. Let me tell you why.

I'm not going to overeat poppy seeds. You might, Joyce. You might, so you want to pay attention to it.

And maybe if you're having a few cookies or a muffin or whatever that has some poppy seeds, you're going to pair that with your cal- calcium source, okay? And Joyce's original question is, if I'm if I am having it with a high calcium source, isn't that going to lower the food? Can I still eat it?

And I'm going to say yes. Joyce may then say this, "Well, you're telling us not to have spinach, girl. Why can't I have spinach once in a while?

I mean, could you?" Yes. Could you have spinach once a month? Yeah.

Are you going to make a stone having spinach once a month? Probably not. It's once a month.

What happens is, people eat, and this could be you, Joyce, you're eating poppy seeds every day, poppy seed under your arm, poppy seed in your hair, a poppy seed, I don't know what you're doing. I would have them in a, you know, a little sprinkle. If you're nervous about it, cause you're overeating them, definitely pair your calcium with it.

But other than that, again, nobody's nobody's chugging down poppy seed, okay? So, I'm not too worried about it. If you're overdoing it, cut back on how much you're eating.

And yes, anytime you have a higher oxalate content, pairing it with calcium is going to help absorb that oxalate. How much exactly, I don't know. Okay?

It does lower it, though, so that's why we always want you to stay in your 100 mg or less oxalate bank account, okay? So, and lately, too, you know what, we'll address that on another show. So, that's my answer to that.

That makes sense, Jeff?

It definitely does. And along those lines, we did have a question from Eric, who was curious how they test for oxalate in foods. It's a voicemail, but I figured we can just sort of touch on it briefly.

Yeah, testing in testing, so I'm not a scientist. I don't know exactly how they do it. I do know this: it's it's complicated to test foods for oxalate.

It's complicated. I don't know the precise how they do it. You'd have to call up a lab and ask them for their explanation on how they do that.

It is complicated. Why are there different oxalate amounts for the same food? Because you can have a spinach plant that grows in Mexico, and you can have one that grows in California.

Different amounts of sunlight, different soil conditions, different stuff, so you're going to have different values. We know spinach is high, so that's not the best example. But why the lists vary like they do?

Was the research done correctly? Was the what wh- was the lab equipment calibrated the same as somebody calibrated it in another lab? All labs run differently, people.

You'd have to ask a lab how they do that. I don't know, that's above my pay grade. Thank God, I don't want to really know.

I do know it's complicated, though. I do know that.

Yeah, and everyone has Yeah, everyone has their specialty. That's not yours, and you even said Dr. Co, even that's not something that he would be able to answer just off the cuff, unfortunately.

We appreciate the question, but that is something that, it's just it's a different lane because you guys you guys take the data and use the information that the labs have provided using their methods. So, yeah, it's just a little a little different, but, yeah, we appreciate the question, Eric. And Joyce, round two from Joyce!

And for everyone out there who does have a question, no matter the question, remember that we don't know what you don't know. None of us collectively know what we don't know, so it's one of those things that we appreciate each and every one of you who call in, and the number is 773-789-8763, or you can send a voice memo to [email protected].

But we're building this library of content together, so we appreciate all of your input, feedback, and, working with us here, honestly, in the comments, sort of continuing the conversation around these episodes, through the voicemail, through the email, just everything.

Yeah! I think I really think it's marvelous that people call in. It takes a lot of It takes a lot I mean, that's not, you know, you people get nervous.

I remember when my mom used to call in. I found After she died, I said this on one of the shows, I found she wrote herself a little script, like she was on damn Dinah Shore, and that's back in the day, folks, or Merv Griffin. It's like, "Ma, you ain't on a real show.

It's just me and Jeff." She wrote it down. And so I know that people it takes a lot to call in a show and somebody's going to talk about your question. So, I really appreciate that people do that.

It's It's It's extra! We really value that because, of course, I could talk all day about kidney stone prevention. We don't need to have people call in, but I think it's nice because what we're trying to Jeff and I are always trying to build community.

So, it's just so important to us, and I love that people call in. It's the highlight of our week. I will tell you that.

Yeah, absolutely. So, again, thank you, everyone. And you can always go to kidneystonediet.com to dive deep, find everything, all the premium products, the free products, and access to everything.

It's sort of our switching station. It's it's our operator. You can go there and find your way to whatever you need.

But, again, thank you all for tuning in, and we will see you next time.

Thanks, Joyce. Thanks, Eric. Have a good day, guys.