Absolutely. I think I think what's really interesting when I'm doing consults all day, I'll talk to I always ask somebody, "What's a typical day for you as far as breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, whatever you do? If you don't eat breakfast, whatever, whatever, you just eat, I don't care what you do, just tell me what you do." That is a quote in what I say during consults.
And so, when I'm going through, you know, and I'm writing everything down, I'm like, "You know, do you eat any fruit?" "Well, Jill, everything's high in oxalate. What can I eat? There's nothing to eat." I hear this all day long.
It drives me nuts because if I'm if I'm thinking about a patient who's suffered with so much pain all of a sudden in the middle of the night, they're running for a surgery, a stent, all the things that they're dealing with, it's like and then they go and look up oxalate and whatever you search for, there is different stuff about it.
So, you really do feel like you have nothing to eat. And as a patient myself who's been very sick with other things, it's like, you know, thank God I have a healthy diet when I got my cancer. I wasn't also bothered with, "Oh my god, I got to change everything I do." When you get hit up with a kidney stone, you really do feel like, "Oh my goodness, I have to overhaul my whole diet." And oxalate is this thing no one's ever heard of.
So, here are common foods. It may not necessarily be a really low oxalate food, but here are very common foods that people take away from their diet, and they don't have to. Number one, avocados.
It's the number one food people take away, and they don't have to do it. And I hate that they take it away because great fiber, super awesome fat source, very filling. It's just a really healthy fruit, and yes, avocado is a fruit.
So, people will take it all away. When you can have, you know, a whole avocado, a whole medium avocado is 19 mg of oxalate. So, you can certainly still have a- avocado in your diet.
So, when I bring foods back, which is a big part of my job, bringing foods back to people, they're like, "Oh my god, I had no idea!" The problem lies when people, "This year, avocados are healthy, Johnny, let's go to the supermarket and buy a ton of avocados." And they eat two or three of them a day, and they don't get their calcium sources met every day.
And again, we get calcium in our diet because we have a skeleton we have to feed, but also, that's how we lower oxalate. So, oxalate and calcium can join in the gut, and the excess oxalate can leave in the stool. So, other things that people stop eating and they absolutely can eat: sunflower seeds, really big one; sunflower butter; peanut butter.
You could say, "Well, Jill, 2 tablespoons is 26 mg of oxalate." But remember, folks, you get 100 mg of oxalate a day unless the doctor told you less than that. Sometimes they will say 50 if you have malabsorption issues, a bariatric surgery, maybe you're on Wegovy, Ozempic, whatever, Zepbound, some of those can cause malabsorption issues.
But all of you can have peanut butter. "But that's how I made stones, Jill!" Well, when you get a jar of peanut butter, get a spoon, and just eat the whole jar, yeah, that oxalate's going to add right up. So, remember, it's always portion, not perfection.
Again, you can keep peanut butter in your diet, just make sure you have appropriate amounts. The other thing I want to say is if you find yourself thinking, "I really miss that food," I want you to go to kidneystonediet.com, look at the oxalate list, type it in, because Jeff has made it a searchable list on the website, so you don't have to scum through a bi- diff- lots of pages.
You just He made it so you type the food in, Harvard pulls it up, or our website pulls it up, and it will give you the amount of oxalate. How many people tell me, "Jill, I was looking at the oxalate food list just because I said I miss something, I looked it up, and I can absolutely still have that." Of course, you can, Henrietta!
Enjoy it! Another one And notice, by the way, so you guys know, there's not one fruit I take away. All fruit on a low oxalate diet is fine.
Again, some things like an avocado, just don't eat five of them a day. Portion, not perfection. Whole wheat.
People will say, "Jill, I'm I'm I'm going to make a cake, but I heard there's a lot of oxalate in whole wheat." Well, when you eat a whole cake of it, yes. A slice? No.
The average piece of wheat bread will have like 13 mg of oxalate in it. So, say you have a sandwich, you have two pieces of bread, 26 mg of oxalate. You get 100, just don't go over budget.
Okay? 'Cause a lot of people take away the white They take away the whole wheat bread, brown rice, things like that. And brown rice is on the higher side, but again, maybe you were going And wait, let me finish my thought.
So, Jeff's like, "I didn't say nothing, girl, shut up. Shut up, you, Jeff." So, people will say, "Jill, I'm eating all these white foods: rice, white bread, and I'm a diabetic, so I'm looking for some fiber." Well, you don't have to eat white foods if you don't want to. You know, there is some extra oxalate in whole wheat products, but just don't eat overeat it.
Look at your oxalate list and figure it out. You get 100 bucks in your bank. The other thing is, some of you will say, "Jill, I really miss my brown rice." So, make a pot of white rice, make a pot of brown rice, and mix the two together.
So, you're not getting all brown rice, which is higher in oxalate. You're mixing it with white rice, which is very low in oxalate. And so, if I go to the oxalate food list, and I put brown rice, it gives me brown rice flour is one cup is 64 mg.
So, that's going to be more concentrated than a little bit of brown rice. But if you if you put the brown rice with the white rice and had a portion mixing the two, it's a lot lower oxalate. So, it's it's how we do things.
I've had a lot of vegans that eat like 5 cups of brow- brown rice every day. So, yes, they had higher oxalate, and they weren't getting any calcium needs met. So, that's how the higher oxalate happens.
Other things: flaxseeds. Were you going to say anything, Jeff? You good?
Okay, flaxseeds are another thing that people take away, sunflower seeds, those are all very healthy, doable seeds that you can have. People will stop eating pistachios, walnuts. And you can have things like that.
You just can't go to Costco, buy the big 5 lb bag and sit at the TV just eating from the bag. Because something like walnuts, 1 oz, which is like a tablespoon, has 12 mg of oxalate. So, you could say, "But they're super healthy, Jill." Have 2 tablespoons, spend 24 bucks on your bank account.
You still have, you know, you still have 70 whatever left. So, it's fine if you want to do that. I take away almonds and cashews, and we have other videos talking about that.
I take away almonds and cashews because they're so high in oxalate. But all the other nuts, from pistachios to pecans to macadamia, you can fit them in, just portion, not perfection, get your calcium needs met. And sweet potato is another one that people just take away.
A whole cup of sweet potato is 28 mg of oxalate. I eat sweet potatoes once a week. I make one sweet potato, I cut it in fourths, so I'm getting 1/4 of a sweet potato, probably half a cup.
So, you know, it's whatever, 14 mg of oxalate. I got plenty of oxalate in my bank account. I can work that in.
So, the biggest thing to think about here is this: 100 bucks is in your bank account. Don't Don't withdraw too much oxalate, get your calcium needs met, and look at the foods that you have not been eating. Go to kidneystonediet.com, look at the oxalate food list, search the food that you're like, "I haven't had this in a while.
I'd like to see if I can have it." Bring it up and work it in. There's just a handful of foods I take away: spinach, almonds, cashews, buckwheat groats, whatever. No one's overdoing those typically.
You know, there's just a few, and you can find them at kidneystonediet.com. You'll even see baked potatoes are almost 100 mg of oxalate, but have half, and it's 50. It's just portion, not perfection.
Don't eat some of the higher oxalate foods all the time, and listen to me when I tell you this. The biggest thing to lower your oxalate besides taking away the very few foods that are super high, like 100 mg and up, is get your calcium needs met, 'cause that's how we lower our oxalate. And we have plenty of videos on this channel that talk about calcium and oxalate together, so look those up.
I think that's it though, Jeff. The bottom line is people are taking away much too much healthy food. You need to bring it back, portion, not perfection.
Your body, especially your gut, likes a variety of food. And we human beings typically, especially stone formers, ate the same five foods over and over and over, not got their calcium needs met, and that's how their oxalate was high. And when I first meet that person, their oxalate level will be 50.
And after they do their collection the second time, it's under 30, which is where we want it.
