I made this to show you that you can certainly still enjoy peanut butter. Many of you think you must never have it again on a low oxalate diet. Most of you can safely eat 100 mg/ox per day so you can definitely have these as a satisfying treat if you like. If peanut butter is a trigger food for you, meaning once you taste it you cannot limit it, then use sunbutter instead. It is lower oxalate. You can sub out the honey for sugar-free maple syrup if you like to cut down on the added sugar. This pairs nicely with a nondairy or dairy calcium-based product to help with oxalate absorption! Portion not perfection is the name of this game. Enjoy!
PrintKidney Stone Safe Energy Balls
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 0 min
- Total Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
Scale
- 1.5 cup of Old fashioned oats
- 2 tbsp Lilly’s stevia baking semi sweet chocolate chips
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 cup of peanut butter
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together.
- Roll into bite-size balls.
- Put in pan and place in fridge to set.
- They keep nicely in freezer and I like to put them there as I think about them less and therefore eat less!
Notes
Oxalate: 14mg/Energy Ball Added Sugar: 1g Calcium: 9mg
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Energy Ball
- Calories: 199
- Sugar: 2g
- Sodium: 36mg
- Fat: 12g
- Saturated Fat: 3g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 17g
- Fiber: 4g
- Protein: 7g
- Cholesterol: 1mg
I love peanut butter energy balls but have been thinking I need to limit peanut butter. I have some “no sugar added sun butter “ I intend to use instead of peanut butter. Am I being overly cautious about peanut butter?
★★★★★
Hi Lauren,
One of the reasons I use PB in my recipes is to show that you can still have some. Think portion not perfection. Make sure you get your oxalate food list, but even more importantly read what I have to say about oxalate and how many foods you can still eat! It is when we stick the spoon in the PB jar over and over AND not get enough daily calcium. Watch this from my YouTube channel
:https://youtu.be/lV-eUPOwH1M
I thought peanut butter was a no-no, and we should use sunflower seed butter instead?
Hi Diane,
One of the reasons I use PB in my recipes is to show that you can still have some. Think portion not perfection. Make sure you get your oxalate food list, but even more importantly read what I have to say about oxalate and how many foods you can still eat! It is when we stick the spoon in the PB jar over and over AND not get enough daily calcium. Watch this from my YouTube channel
:https://youtu.be/lV-eUPOwH1M
How many balls should the recipe make? I love the specific nutritional info per ball including oxalates, but “bite size” is a bit relative.
Thanks!
Hi Susan,
I typically use one inch ball cutter. Next time I will count them.
j
This recipe is garbage for kidney stone formers. Why is this even allowed to be published on this website?
1. Any resource will show that peanut butter is a no go for stone formers and is one of the top 10 worse foods to eat.
2. Its well established in many medical documents that kidney stone formers should stay below 50mg/oxalate per day
Hi Nunyabusiness,
Not sure of your sources that say to limit oxalate to 50 mg. For patients that have malabsorption issues, this is true, but no need to do that if you don’t. You would be limiting too many healthy foods. For the past 23 years my patients have kept peanut butter in their diet. I see their follow-up urine collections, and their oxalate is low. One can no longer grab a spoon and eat a jar of PB and must also get calcium needs met. Totally doable, and no need to delete it from the diet. Unless it is a trigger, food and portion cannot be controlled.
j
I agree. Peanut butter, stevia and chocolate are all bad for kidney stone forming people. I am a kidney stone sufferer. These are 3 top offenders that I will not eat.
Hi Reen,
If you look at the Harvard list stevia the plant is high in oxalate. Once processed in the packets we know there is zero oxalates. Also, peanut butter has 26 mg for 2 Tablespoons. You can easily make a sandwich out of that. Chocolate too. Make sure you know there are plenty of foods to eat if you eat within portions and get your calcium needs met every day. I say this with certainty because I look at hundreds of follow-up urine collections each year, and while people follow my advice and they keep their oxalate low on their urine collection results. My YouTube channel discusses this in detail. Go take a lookhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgGU1UtFveq57MyN-Uqhz1A
I find this info helpful but also, why not share other ‘alternatives’ for some of these foods? Stevia is a sugar alternative and that is one good thing BUT why not also offer folks the option to use CAROB POWDER instead of chocolate?
It tastes just like choc! My friends think my brownies are made w/ choc and they are not and no one usu can tell the diff! Carob is so yummy! I NEVER NEVER EVER hear anyone offering this alternative to choc…..it drives me mad how much ppl don’t know and don’t bother to research.
I knew about stevia way back over 20 yrs ago and told ppl about it and they all thought I was nuts and now today, that it has become so mainstreamed, everyone now acts like an expert about it!
Also, you can use the alternative of macadamia or pecan butter! Why not share that info? I have other food intolerances as well so I can’t do peanut butter or chocolate or 12 other foods on top of being oxalate-sensitive due to being a kidney stone producer so I am very resourceful and go online to stores that sell pecan butter. It’s the closest thing to peanut butter as far as taste and it’s healthier than peanut butter!
Let’s level up above our oxalate levels and even do better than just lowering them! Yes, we can do little bits of it here and there but isn’t it even better to offer healthier alternatives to avoid oxalates altogether when we have a choice to do so?
This makes sense – esp if the alternative is healthier. For example, carob is MUCH healthier than choc; it has minerals and vitamins and has no caffeine like choc. I have to also watch caffeine due to my IC b/c I have a cranky bladder that can’t tolerate caffeine.
Let’s be expansive in our diets – I agree. But when we can replace oxalates or lower them much lower, why not do that and be even healthier?
Hi Kaitlyn,
Couldn’t agree more with you! People should expand their diets more and I have spent the last 24 years trying to do just that.
Thanks for writing!
j
Interesting information! I’m following your info because I was recently and surprisingly diagnosed with osteoporosis, high risk, and I now have to adjust my diet to ensure I get my calcium intake, so all this info on oxalates and phytate as well is overwhelming. I also have microscopic colitis and so need to be even more careful.
My question is if I beat the PB ball, will the oxalate and calcium in the ball neutralize each other or will I still get some calcium?
Thx!
Will continue to follow with great interest. 🙂
Hi Irma,
I am not understanding the question. Can you explain?
I see that Lily’s stevia chocolate chips contain chicory root fiber. I’ve read that chicory leaf is very high in oxalate but can’t find any information as to whether the root fiber is also high. Can you help?
Hi Rob,
Because these are chocolate they should be limited. When we eat food in normal portions and get our calcium needs each day, I don’t worry so much about oxalate. Except for spinach and almond products of course.
j