# How much oxalate is in sesame seeds and tahini? Source: https://kidneystonediet.com/ep/how-much-oxalate-is-in-sesame-seeds-and-tahini/ Published: 2021-07-13 --- [![Kidney Stone Diet Podcast](https://kidneystonediet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Kidney-Stone-Diet-Podcast-1-1024x1024.jpg)](https://kidneystonediet.com/podcast/) [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBPtpzw-04g)[Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-much-oxalate-is-in-sesame-seeds-and-tahini/id1528474326?i=1000528741341&uo=4)[Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3LayMSYW6pqmynvNnXa91h)[Amazon Music](https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/0868148d-adfd-411d-b3f2-71a0ad1461ec) July 13, 2021 --- ![Jeff Sarris](https://kidneystonediet.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Jeff-Sarris-150x150.jpg) Jeff Sarris Host ![Jill Harris](https://kidneystonediet.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Kidney-Stone-Diet-Jill-Harris-150x150.jpg) Jill Harris Host This week Jill answers a listener question about the oxalate content of sesame seeds and tahini.\ \ Have a question? Leave us a voicemail at (773) 789-8763.\ \ **= Stop your kidney stones once and for all =**\ • [Kidney Stone Prevention Course](https://kidneystonediet.com/kidney-stone-prevention)\ • [Kidney Stone Diet Meal Plans](https://kidneystonediet.com/mealplans/)\ • [24 Hour Urine Collection Analysis](https://kidneystonediet.com/24-hour-urine-analysis/)\ • [Private Coaching](https://kidneystonediet.com/coaching/)\ \ **= FREE Kidney Stone Resources =**\ • [Kidney Stone Diet](https://kidneystonediet.com/)\ • [Free Kidney Stone Diet Resources](https://kidneystonediet.com/resources/)\ • [Oxalate Food List](https://kidneystonediet.com/oxalate-list/)\ • [Kidney Stone Diet Recipes](https://kidneystonediet.com/recipes/)\ \ Find more episodes of the Kidney Stone Diet Podcast at [kidneystonediet.com/podcast](https://kidneystonediet.com/podcast)\ \ —\ \ **= Who is Jill Harris? =**\ [youtube.com/TheKidneyStoneDiet](https://www.youtube.com/TheKidneyStoneDiet)\ \ Jill is a nurse and health coach that specializes in educating patients on kidney stone prevention. For more than 20 years she’s helped patients understand that kidney stones can be prevented with the right treatment plan. It’s one thing to be told to lower oxalate or drink more water, but HOW do you do it? That’s where she comes in. Through the educational resources at [kidneystonediet.com](https://kidneystonediet.com), stone formers can learn everything they need to know to significantly lower new stone risk.\ \ —\ \ **= Who is Jeff Sarris? =**\ [youtube.com/jeffsarris](https://youtube.com/jeffsarris)\ \ Jeff’s co-founder of [SPYR](https://SPYR.me), a branding agency based out of Chicago, where he and his business partner Dave help awesome people like Jill create online platforms that make an impact.\ \ He’s also a certified health coach, Executive Producer of the Netflix documentary Minimalism, and host of the [Starting Now podcast](https://SPYR.fm/now). ## Chapters - 00:00:00 Portion Not Perfection Concept in Kidney Stone Prevention - 00:02:23 Dark Chocolate versus Milk Chocolate Oxalate Content - 00:06:09 Oxalate Content in Tahini and Sesame Seeds - 00:11:41 Role of Calcium in Calcium Oxalate Stone Prevention - 00:13:54 Recommended Resources for Kidney Stone Prevention ## Transcript ### Portion Not Perfection Concept in Kidney Stone Prevention 00:00:00 Jeff Sarris 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. 00:00:21 Jill Harris And I'm Jill Harris, your friendly, neighborly, kidney stone preventionist. 00:00:26 Jeff Sarris I always like that rocker shirt. That's still on the site, right? 00:00:30 Jill Harris Yeah, that's still on the site. You can get that. We got the stoner one. Some people don't like being called a stoner out at Jewel or Walmart, so I so I made the rocker one, too. 00:00:42 Jeff Sarris Yeah, and eventually, we're going to dial in some other merch. I know we've talked about that, not just for the sake of merch, but some things that can really help people on their path, too, that tie into this journey. 00:00:54 Jill Harris Here's the thing. I know people are like, "Well, of course, you make money off this stuff." No, it's really not that. We do things when people ask, that's why I made the meal plan. I didn't want to do the meal plan. People have been asking me that for years. I'm like, "I have no time to be doing this." But if people, "Jill, you should make shirts. Jill, you should make a magnet. Jill, you should do a meal plan." And I put it off for years and years and then I'm like, "Oh, my god! I should." Because that's what people want. So, then we come up with these shirts. I like the one "Portion Not Perfection." That's my favorite one because that's really what the world needs to know. I mean, you could pretty much have all foods. You just can't eat as much as you want of it anymore. I don't even care if it's healthy. So many of you got here to this YouTube channel, meaning you have stones, because you ate as much healthy spinach and almonds as you wanted. Okay, so I'm always going to say "portion not perfection," and it goes the other way, too, meaning, "Jill, I can't have chocolate chips ever again?" Yes, you can. You can have them. You just can't eat a whole bag of them. That's all. So, again, portion, not perfection. You can eat a wide variety of— Jeff's like, "We didn't even ask the question." 00:02:07 Jeff Sarris No, this is perfect! 00:02:09 Jill Harris Jeff is, "What the heck is she talking about now?" Because I'm just saying, people are always like, "I can never have this." Yes, you can, Betty. You can have it. Just don't eat tons of it, and make sure you get your calcium every day. ### Dark Chocolate versus Milk Chocolate Oxalate Content 00:02:23 Jeff Sarris So, just because you brought up chocolate, I have a question. Dark, so say it was 100% chocolate versus milk chocolate. Would you say sort of quantity would differ, specifically for kidney stones? 00:02:35 Jill Harris Well, the oxalates in the cacao, so it depends how much cacao is in the product. Most people really love the milk chocolate. They go to the dark chocolate, forget about kidney stones, just because they heard it was healthy. And then they start eating a busload of dark chocolate because they heard it was an antioxidant. So now they're eating five dark chocolate bars, and people, I'm not making it up. This is what I hear. So, and then they get a kidney stone cuz they're eating so much chocolate. So, the dark chocolate would be worse, but that doesn't mean you can't have a square or two a day. That would be a great place to put a little bit of milk or non-dairy calcium source. That's fine, too. So, for my chocolate babies out there who love chocolate, certainly, I have all my patients, if they want chocolate, they can have chocolate. You can't eat five chocolate bars no more. You like peanut butter? Great, have a tablespoon or two. Get your calcium every day. You can't get a spoon and put it in a jar and sit there because it's good for your diabetes. Right? So, again, it's portion, not perfection. Now, if you say, "But if I have chocolate, Jill, then I can't stop myself," you can't have chocolate. Just like I can't have Cheez-Its, you can't have chocolate because we're addicts. Addicts. So, know thyself. If you cannot eat a small portion of something, then you cannot have it. Or you may say, "Well, today I'm having it. I don't care what she says." And then you just get right back to your healthy eating plan after you binge on it. You know what I'm saying? There's lots of things, lots of things. 00:04:09 Jeff Sarris Definitely. And I love that you actually have a recipe, I don't know if it's just in meal plans or also on the website, for Cheez-Its that you made just from cheese. It shows. You got to you got to figure out your lane and how to get what you want. 00:04:21 Jill Harris You got to figure it out. So, I made Cheez-Its out of Swiss cheese because they're the lowest sodium and they're the highest, they're the highest calcium cheese, really. But here's also, so I made it into Cheez-Its because I'm so lazy that I can only, I have a little toaster oven, so I don't make a big batch. I just put them in my toaster oven. I can only fit two pieces of cheese. I cut them all up, and I'm not about to wait another 22 minutes for it. So, that works for me. But that's why, you know, you got to figure out what's going to work for you. So, I won't overindulge in that. But, absolutely, my son has never had a Cheez-It box in this house. That will never happen, cuz mama is an addict. Nope. Nope. Nope. I love them. 00:05:03 Jeff Sarris Yeah. Okay, so should we dive right into the question this week? 00:05:07 Jill Harris Well, I guess so. People may have a life! 00:05:11 Jeff Sarris Yeah, this is from Carol. 00:05:13 Jill Harris Hi, this is Carol from Columbia, South Carolina. I had a question about the difference in oxalate levels of sesame seed and tahini. I was wanting to know if tahini was low, sesame seed was high. Can you can you explain? Thank you. 00:05:38 Jeff Sarris Yeah, so it sounds like— 00:05:39 Jill Harris Sounded like green tea? 00:05:42 Jeff Sarris This, so this is, I think, sesame seeds and tahini. Is that— or 00:05:48 Jill Harris Okay, so there was nothing about green tea in there. Okay. 00:05:51 Jeff Sarris So, I'm looking at the transcript that we get from these and it says sesame seeds and panini, which would which should be tahini, but you make a good point, I almost feel like we might need to listen to that again. Maybe we talk about both. We talk about— 00:06:05 Jill Harris Well, you know I'm going to. 00:06:07 Jeff Sarris Oh, yeah! ### Oxalate Content in Tahini and Sesame Seeds 00:06:09 Jill Harris Okay, so tahini and sesame seeds. Tahini is made from crushed sesame seeds. Sesame seeds are high. I can extrapolate that out, although Harvard didn't study them, but we do know that tahini is high. Since they're made with sesame seeds, we can assume that sesame seeds are also on the higher side. What do you mean, Jill? I can't have tahini no more? Jeff, what is it? Here, we have our oxalate app. You can You can download our version of an oxalate app. Go on kidneystonediet.com start page, so you have the Harvard list right at your fingertips and you can type in a food, and you can get how much oxalates in it. So, how many A tablespoon is like 16 mg of tahini is that oxalate? 00:06:58 Jeff Sarris Yeah, for tahini, 1 tablespoon, 16 mg. 00:07:01 Jill Harris Okay, so sometimes there's lots Well, lots of times. There's lots of foods Harvard didn't study. And so, but they did study tahini. And for 1 tablespoon, it's 16 mg of oxalate, so we know that sesame seeds are on the higher side. I believe Carol said he loves sesame seeds. When somebody tells me they love something, that means they're eating a lot of it, typically. Or maybe not all the time, but when they do eat it, they're eating a bigger quantity of it. So, 1 tablespoon of tahini is 16 mg of oxalate. Okay? Tahini is in hummus, typically. Can be. If you're going to have something like that, it's in a lot of foods. So, if you're going to have a tahini, a food made with tahini, again, it's going to be exactly what it just happens to be what I was screaming about at the beginning of this. Portion, not perfection. So, somebody may say, "Well, I guess I can't have tahini again." And so by the time they get to me, "I have nothing to eat." I hear this all day long. Yes, you do. You have plenty to eat. You have gotten the wrong information, or you've gotten information and now reworked it in your head where you've made yourself nuts. So, you can absolutely go out for a dish that's going to have some tahini. Do I want you eating it every day as much as you want? No. Can you have it a couple times a week if that's what you wanted? Of course. Watch your portion, get your calcium needs met every day, you'll be absolutely fine. So, sesame seeds, you know. So if you had a sesame seed bagel, will that be higher in oxalate? Sesame seeds are high. Is it going to put you into stone land? No. Even if you had, look, honestly, even if you had one spinach salad once a month, are you going to make a stone? No. Do I want you to have spinach? No, I don't feel comfortable saying it. It's too high. But, realistically, people, I get this every year. Thanksgiving's coming. "I guess I'll just sit in the corner and have a sherbet." No. No. You're going to have Thanksgiving, cuz nobody makes a stone from one meal, nobody. Okay? And, yes, there's always somebody in the corner, "Jill, I do." Okay, well, then you have you have You may make stones that often, and there are those people. So, I always pay attention to all my people cuz I know, you know, who they all are. And so, yes, but that's so extremely rare. I promise you guys. So, enjoy yourself. Have your favorite foods. Have them within moderation. Typically, when I hear the words, "I love it," people are overeating it, and that could be why they, you know, contributed to their stone. But always, I really want to be clear about this, and I'm always going to repeat this, I have never worked with an adult who gets enough calcium, never in 21 years. Never. Has somebody said, "Jill, shut up about calcium. I get plenty." Nobody, unless they were sucking down Tums, okay? And then they got too much. That is much more important. Once you take away those handful of foods that are high in oxalate, that calcium, after water and salt, boom, calcium. So important, people, because that's how you get rid of all the oxalate that you've eaten and your body has produced after metabolizing food. There's a waste product, there's oxalate waste, so you want to get rid of it with calcium, meaning you have to get your needs met with calcium, you have a skeleton, you have to feed that, too, and then you'll lower your oxalate. I wish people would freak out more about the calcium than they would about always asking about oxalate. Not that I get sick of talking about it, but I know that people are overwhelmed with that all the time, and it's the least of the issue. It really is once you take away those few foods, and I say that based upon thousands, thousands of follow-up urine collections I see from my patients, thousands over the years, thousands. So, they were eating high oxalate. They had one phone call with me. Their oxalate's like a baby now. And that's like an oxalate level's 125, the next time they do it, it's 24. So, it's I'm telling you, everybody. I love you all so much. I don't want you to be overwhelmed. I promise you on this, unless you have malabsorption issues due to a bariatric surgery, intestinal issues like Crohn's, colitis, bowel resections, that's different. But, again, handful of people as opposed to the millions of stone formers. Does that make sense, Jeff? ### Role of Calcium in Calcium Oxalate Stone Prevention 00:11:41 Jeff Sarris Absolutely. And I feel like the sort of the uninformed concern, too, when people don't know about it, but they hear calcium oxalate stones, I think people assume consuming calcium is a problem, where, yeah, it's such an important part of reducing your risk for them. 00:12:01 Jill Harris Well, and unfortunately, a lot of people have been told to limit dairy, still to this day. So, you know, there's that as well, so it leads to a lot of confusion. But you're absolutely right, when they see that their stone was a calcium oxalate, and then they call me and we have an appointment and they're like, "Are you sure I'm supposed to have calcium?" Because my stone was calcium oxalate. And it's, you know, this is so incredibly complicated. Stone disease is complicated and it's wearing, because we are we are asking people to do some lifestyle changes, big ones, not for the faint of heart. So, it again, it always makes sense that when people get to me, they're distraught and overwhelmed. And I don't say that being dramatic ever. This is what I am dealing with every single day. If you went on my Facebook page and where there's thousands of people, you would see the Every time I approve a new member, that's how they start their post. "I'm freaking out. I have nothing to eat. I'm so overwhelmed." Day in and day out, decade after decade, this is what I hear. And it's tough to hear that when, you know, if you if you get the right information, and then people calm down, cuz stone disease have really knocked them off their feet, literally. Once they calm down from all that trauma that they've just been through with their stone disease and the surgeries, the visits, all of it, and then they're being thrown all these lifestyle changes, perhaps medications, all of it, maybe, you know, it's very daunting, to say the least. It's very daunting, very. So I have a lot of compassion for that. 00:13:42 Jeff Sarris Absolutely. So someone who might be brand new who just discovered they have a stone, where would you say they start? Maybe this is the first episode they're listening to, they don't really know all that much about like the Kidney Stone Diet specifically and everything. Where would you Where would you send them? ### Recommended Resources for Kidney Stone Prevention 00:13:54 Jill Harris Yes, I would say, well, of course, I'm going to tell them to go to my website. I'm going to tell them to go to two websites. I'm going to tell them to go to my website at kidneystonediet.com and go to the start page, kidneystonediet.com/start, and everything is curated by me on that page, all the things that I want you to start. What is the Kidney Stone Diet? Cuz it's way more than oxalate. What a Why do Why do I need a 24-hour urine collection? I want people to start with knowing how to start. So they go to that page. Also, I always bring this down home and make it funny and adorable and all that, but this is all drenched in science. It's not like I made this up. This diet is based upon, you know, decades of research from a lot of fancy scientists. And you can go to my mentor's site, Dr. Fred Coe, C-O-E. He is a thought leader in kidney stone prevention, and his website is kidneystone.uchicago.edu, and you'll find me also on his website. So, he's the genius behind all of the things I say. He's just taught it to me in a way my brain can understand so then I can bring it down to the masses. And so we I always say we couldn't be more different, but our hearts are the same in many ways, and he's been a you know, just a huge mentor to me, a wonderful friend to me, and I basically am nothing without him, so because you'd be like, "Who the hell is this, and why should I listen to her?" So he gives me my credentials, and so you can find me on his website, too. But if you're somebody who's really interested in sciencey and all that, whew, go over there, people. If you want to know where to just start and get some answers for you, go to my website at kidneystonediet.com/start. And also, if you have questions that are pretty technical, he answers all the questions on his articles, the diet, all the diet questions on his website at University of Chicago I answer, so, again, his website is kidneystone.uchicago.edu. Go there. It's a wonderful website. It's his passion. We're both very passionate about this. 00:16:03 Jeff Sarris Yeah, it's definitely not for the faint of heart, though. There is 00:16:06 Jill Harris Yes, definitely not for the faint of heart. It's tough reading. It's tough reading. 00:16:09 Jeff Sarris But yeah, I mean, everything is outlined there and like, obviously, on kidneystonediet.com, then we have everything, the it's the practical. You sort of have the science and then the practical side with the combination of the two sites. 00:16:22 Jill Harris Yeah, and I think that's what makes this work so well between the two of us, right? Because he, you know, he also sends me his patients. You know, you know, he is the science guy, so he's like, "These are all the things you need to do, now you need to talk to Jill about how to do those things," you know, cuz she will teach you how to do them. When our doctors tell us something, it's all good, but then the "how" has to come into place somewhere, somebody has to teach how, right? And there's plenty of people that do it, but I'm I'm pretty good at it, I would say. 00:16:57 Jeff Sarris Well, and what you do I think is special because you are able to You've You've crafted it in a way where you're able to spend time with people and really help them, not to diminish it, but sort of hold their hand and guide them along the path, which it's really hard for like a doctor, like if you're going into see a nephrologist or someone, they only have so many minutes. 00:17:18 Jill Harris They don't have time. Right. Right. So I made sure that I built a career based upon people need time, what's the best, most efficient for me, too, that I can give it to them, right? So if diets were easy, again, we wouldn't have a over 40% obesity rate in this country and along with all the chronic disease that comes with that. So, people need to be taught, they need to be supported, they need to be motivated, they need to be accountable to someone, and that's where I come in. That's my job. 00:17:51 Jeff Sarris Yeah. So, I think that's a great spot to wrap. If you're enjoying the show, be sure to subscribe wherever you're listening, whether Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and tell a friend, anyone who might need this information delivered to them in a way that's easily digestible, send them here. It's a good place to start, the start page at kidneystonediet.com. And if you have a voicemail, a question, you can leave us a voicemail. The phone number is 773-789-8763. And yeah, I think that's a wrap for this week. 00:18:25 Jill Harris Perfect. 00:18:26 Jeff Sarris Yeah. Thank you everyone for listening, and we'll see you next time. 00:18:29 Jill Harris Thank you, everybody. Have a I hope your summer's going well. Mine is. Bye, Jeff. 00:18:35 Jeff Sarris See ya.