Have you ever heard of oxalate before?
Juicing has been becoming increasingly popular. Massive marketing campaigns for juicing tools has popularized so-called detox and cleansing.
But is juicing as harmless as the sales people on the TV infomercials are saying?
It sounds too good to be true, right? To drink large amounts of natural juice for days and flush the toxins from the body. Why should natural juice without any additional sugar be harmful?
In one sentence, I can tell you that almost any excess in any part of life will have some drawbacks and harms. It may not be so apparent at first but the dangers will slowly push themselves to the surface.
One of the major complications with drinking high volumes of fruit and plant juices is related to oxalate.
Why eating too much oxalate is bad?
I’d like to stay away from going too deep into the chemistry and chemical structure of this anion. The importance of oxalate is that this chemical product can build an insoluble structure with other ions (minerals) such as calcium, magnesium and sodium in the body.
Hold tight and read the following sentence carefully.
The most common cause of kidney stones is from the combination of calcium and oxalate called (logically) calcium oxalate.
Large amount of oxalates can result in kidney failure and in some cases death because of oxalate poisoning.
In summary, your kidney doesn’t like too much oxalate. Please don’t forget that.
The amounts of oxalate in foods
Now, you know that too much oxalate is bad for your body but which foods contain a lot of oxalate? Let’s review them together.
Her are 9 foods that you should be cautious about and try limiting their consumption.
Foods containing very high levels of oxalates causing kidney stones
- Beets
- Spinach
- Strawberries
- Rhubarb
- Nuts (highest oxalate content in almonds)
- Chocolate
- Tea
- Wheat bran
- Beans
Other commonly consumed foods with oxalate
- Poppy seeds
- Parsley
- Black pepper
- Potatoes
- Tomato paste and canned
Why calcium intake is necessary to prevent kidney stones?
Calcium binds to oxalate in the gut and prevents its absorption. It may sound strange but to avoid having calcium oxalate stones you need to consume enough calcium through your food in the form of dairy products or supplements.
Which calcium supplement is preferred?
To prevent calcium stones, taking calcium citrate is preferred over other calcium supplements.
Be cautious with taking vitamin C
I know there are many people who love taking their vitamin C. You should know that oxalate is an end product of vitamin C metabolism.
Therefore, consuming too much vitamin C can increase your blood oxalate level.
What should we do if juicing is not the optimal thing to do? If you want to eat fresh fruit but you have difficulty with chewing, then, you may want to limit the amount of fruit juices consumed on daily basis.
And as far as cleansing is concerned, I think that another article is needed to discuss this issue. I’m still searching for a reliable study that shows a clinical benefit of cleansing to our body. Do you think I will find one? We’ll see…
