Arugula: Spinach Replacement or Another Oxalate Trap?

Arugula, is it a spinach replacement or a trap? Let's talk about that.

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.

All righty. So, when it comes to greens and salads and veggies, it's it feels like it can be touch-or-go when it comes to kidney stones and kidney stone prevention. We all sort of know spinach is a no-no, or maybe not all, but that is the common most common knowledge is that spinach is a big problem.

But arugula, other greens, other salad-type veggie greens, what are we looking at there?

Well, we are looking at

Buh-buh-duh-buh-buh-duh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh, that we can have arugula. Arugula has like I don't know. Let's look at it.

Let's look on our list. It's like de-de-de-de-de-de-de. You would think I'd be ready, but I'm not.

Arugula. Arugula, 1/2 a cup 1/2 a cup of arugula is 0.3 mg. It's not even 1 mg of oxalate.

So, arugula is something that is a great spinach substitute. Now, a lot of people have said when I suggest it, because I make a lot of salads with arugula because it's so flavorful, it's peppery. So, a lot of people are like, "Well, I was told I can't have it." It's very low oxalate.

So many of my salads I in my meal plan I use arugula and it's it's just wonderful. So, yes, you can have that. Here's other ones you can have, and a lot of people think they can't.

You can have kale. "Well, I don't like kale, Jill. It's very stemmy.

I don't like it." But, massage your kale, so it loosens up. Also, if you get baby kale in the bagged section, or the kind of the box, the plastic section of salads, baby kale is a lot softer, so look for that. It's a great spinach substitute.

And, I know, you know, people are, "Oh, my god, Jill, I miss my spinach so much." Like if you miss spinach, you miss it. Like, it's kind of like black jelly beans.

You either hate it, or you love it. Spinach is kind of the same thing for people, and it's a real bummer that they have to give it up. And here's the reason why: it's like 700 mg of oxalate for a cup of spinach.

And a cup of spinach boils down into the size of a quarter. So, so many kidney stone formers, I don't even get their name when I'm talking to them and they're like, "I ate spinach, Jill, all day long for years and years, because I was a diabetic, and my dietitian told me to do that." No shade to the dietitian, who knew that Trixie was going to eat bags and bags of spinach, and smoothies, and all that, right?

So, lots of times when we get advice to combat one illness, we kind of overdo it because spinach is healthy. What could happen if we eat too much spinach? Well, as a kidney stone former finds out, kidney stone.

Mustard greens, that's another one that you can do instead of spinach. And for 1/2 a cup of that, that's not even 2 mg of oxalate, so that's also. All the other lettuces, romaine, iceberg,

Not a problem. So, spinach is your number one problem. What else do we have here?

That's your biggest deal, rhubarb, that's higher in oxalate, but all these other lettuces are not a problem. I would suggest What I use is arugula. I do use iceberg, but if I'm using that, I get it shredded number one, and I'm putting other lettuces in there because iceberg lettuce just tastes like hard water.

I mean, it doesn't even have a taste, but I like the crunch of it. And that's what I'm always seeking is a crunch, so I like the crunch of an iceberg lettuce.

But romaine, I will use once in a while. I don't care for it that much. I do use a lot of kale.

Kale with like sausage, or kale in a salad, the sausage and kale soup, god, I love that, with some white beans, which you can also have on the Kidney Stone Diet. I have those kinds of things in my meal plan. Really yummy, comforting—we're going into fall— kinds of things you can use kale for.

So, kale, once you learn how to use it, it's just a whole it's just a really great substitute for spinach. But, I will tell you right now that a lot of doctors will say get rid of kale, too. I don't know where they pick that up over the years, but I think one doctor says it, and then doctors just copy each other, I don't know.

But kale is not high in oxalate. You can have it, but there's a lot of misinformation about kale.

So, it's just one of those things. It's like a game of telephone. One person says that, then a patient says it, then another kidney stone former finds out through that person.

And it's a game of telephone, all the wrong and erroneous information on kidney stone prevention. And that is why kidney stone formers really feel [sighs] that they don't know who to believe. They don't know who to trust.

Their world gets a lot smaller. They can't go out to eat. They're picking out teeny pieces of lettuce in their salad that they got.

You know, if you happen to be served

A mixed green salad, and it has some spinach in it, you could pick it out if you want. But, honestly, you didn't make a stone because you had one spinach salad. You had you made that kidney stone because you didn't get any calcium needs met and you're eating spinach and spinach smoothies on a daily basis.

And with that, you could say, "Well, why can't I have this spinach salad once in a while?" You could, but most kidney stone formers are pretty petrified of spinach.

So, I just say take it away. I mean, honestly, just take it away. It is super high in oxalate.

Why even bother with it? There's plenty of substitutes you can have, like arugula, romaine, iceberg, mustard greens, kale, plenty of other things. And you will get used to kale.

Just know how to use it. Massage it, which means if you're watching this on YouTube, you just gently massage it in your hands. It breaks up those stems, breaks up the fibers, so then it's a lot easier to eat.

The great thing about kale salads is that's going to stay crunchy, take it from me, in your in your refrigerator with the leftovers. So, that's a that's a wonderful thing about sale. But if kale, if you don't like the crunchiness of kale, or it's too rough for you, get the baby kale.

It tastes like It doesn't taste like spinach, but the texture is like spinach. You'll like that a lot better. Sauté it up on the stove.

Yeah, I think that's a perfect holistic view into, yeah, all the options and really what's out there for people. But, if you want more inspiration on what you can eat on a daily basis, Jill has you set up with four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner, through the Kidney Stone Diet meal plans. And that's at kidneystonediet.com along with all the free resources to help prevent future stones.

With that, I think we'll wrap and we'll see you next week!

Have a great week, everybody!