My recent interviews and talks about low-oxalate eating present important information that you’ll want to see and hear. In addition to the talks below, you can find more audio and video resources on the Results page and on my YouTube channel.
If you would like to talk with me “live”, please come to one of my online group meetings.
This page is organized by broad topics
Oxalate Overviews
The talks and interviews in this section will give you a solid grounding in the science and practice of low-oxalate eating.
2018 Low-Carb USA Talk
You can find Sally’s talk at the 2018 Low-Carb USA conference, courtesy of KetoMojo, at this link: https://keto-mojo.com/lowcarbusa_video/peril-of-oxalate-toxicity-from-low-carb-plant-foods-sally-norton/. Sally supports keto/low-carb eating, but suggests that you need to be very careful not to rely on high-oxalate keto mainstays like almonds and spinach. She also cautions that zero or very low carbs, while fine for people who haven’t been badly damaged by oxalate exposure, can be metabolically stressful for people who are recovering from long-term high-oxalate diets and chronic oxalate accumulation.
2017 Ancestral Health Symposium
This is the talk that got the keto and carnivore world talking about oxalates. I presented the potential problems stemming from the combination of lack of awareness of oxalates in foods and the promotion of superfoods, many of which are high in oxalate. When we encourage people to eat high-oxalate foods daily, we are putting them at risk for oxalate toxicity. As a result, we may be setting ourselves up for a public health crisis. A receptive audience in Seattle, Washington, heard this talk at the 2017 Ancestral Health Symposium. Don’t forget to read my companion article on lost seasonality, available here for free.
View here:
Muscle Intelligence Podcast with Ben Pakulski (May 2020)
This wide-ranging interview with Ben Pakulski, on his super Muscle Intelligence podcast, covers the basics of oxalate toxicity, but we ended up ranging much further. We discussed the damage a vegetarian diet can cause to the gut and had a fascinating exchange about the birthplace of moral arguments for avoiding meat, and the role of religious and economic ideology in dissuading people from an animal diet. We also talked about lost methods of preparing vegetables to make them lower in oxalates, how vegans might decrease oxalates, and how to think about eating meat sustainably as an environmentalist!
The Hidden Dangers of Oxalates in Your Foods (March 2019)
Elliot Overton and Doug DiPasquale interviewed me in March 2019 for their Objective: Health videocast series (published April 7, 2019). Elliot has taken a great interest in oxalates himself (smart man!), and he has also been spreading the word about oxalate dangers. It was a great delight to talk with Elliot and Doug, and to answer their excellent thoughtful questions. We focused on debunking many myths about healthy foods and about oxalates. The interview covers the basics but also touches on some of the trickier points of transitioning to low oxalate eating. You can view the full interview right here:
If you step over to the video’s YouTube page, key questions and topics in the talk are marked with time points so you can jump directly to topics of interest.
Peak Human: On Oxalates, Plants Hurting your Health, and Never Eating Spinach Again (April 2019) [Audio Only]
I also enjoyed talking with Brian Sanders, who is producing the film
If you like what you hear on Brian’s podcast series, don’t forget to support the Food Lies film and the Peak Human podcast series through Indiegogo or Patreon. Brian’s quest to understand the truth about nutrition and the effect of the foods we eat on our health is very important.
“Why Eating Plants can Ruin Your Health” with Paola Dziwetzki (April 2019)
Paola Dziwetzki (“The Power of Ozone”) and I talked about the health effects of oxalates, the many health issues they can cause, and the challenge of recovering one’s health. Watch here on YouTube:
Presentation Recording: Become Oxalate Savvy for Better Health (November 2018)
I presented a lecture, Become Oxalate Savvy for Better Health, to an enthusiastic crowd at the annual Wise Traditions Conference in Baltimore MD on November 18, 2018. This MP4 file consists of the audio recording of my remarks paired with the video display of my slides. The slides are filled with images that tell the story of oxalates and why they are a problem.
The audio and slides from this event can be purchased here for $18:
https://www.fleetwoodonsite.com/product_info.php?cPath=40_580&products_id=20049
Consider purchasing this recording and sharing it with your friends and family. Proceeds support the Weston A. Price Foundation and Wise Traditions Conference (not me!).
Dr. Ruscio Radio (9/2017) [Audio Only]
Dr. Michael Ruscio, a gut health expert who publishes an excellent podcast series, had some questions about oxalates and their role in chronic health problems. I explained the answers in the episode released on September 20, 2017. Go to Dr. Ruscio’s podcast of our talk for a full transcript and additional resources. Listen here:
Carnivore Eating
Even though these interviews embrace a carnivore (all-meat diet) perspective, they contain a lot of useful information regardless of what you’re currently putting on your favorite plate of food. Plus they’re all really fun talks!
Jill Samter Talks with Sally (January 2020)
In this interview Jill Samter shares how she got into trouble with a vegan raw foods diet and her daily green drinks. She was vegetarian for nine years and her health deteriorated. For years, her breakfast was a green smoothie made with spinach and kale, plus broccoli sprouts. Things got even worse after she started making keto bagels with almond flour. Her hormones were off, she had Graves’ disease, hypothyroid, skin issues, weight gain, digestive problems, a distended belly, and she struggled with terrible fatigue. Six months ago, Jill stopped eating all plant foods. On the meat only diet, her body showed her what was really causing so many problems: oxalate! Her body is now unloading oxalate, from the eyes, neck skin, and elsewhere. We discuss how we all have been misled about what constitutes a healthy diet. If you think you need to load up on spinach and nuts, think again. We both have made that mistake and paid a price.
Nutrition with Judy: Superfoods that will harm you (August 2019)
Judy Cho has a great video blog “Nutrition with Judy” (via YouTube and Instagram) on nutrition and carnivore eating. She and I talked about oxalates, anti-nutrients, and feeding your family.
CarnivoreCast: Oxalates, the hidden toxin in many Keto foods (September 2019)
Scott Myslinski (CarnivoreCast) and I took a tour through the inadvertent risks of oxalate toxicity when practicing a Keto diet, and how it can come back to haunt you when you go carnivore and your body starts to unload the accumulated oxalate. Audio here:
Carnivore Eating and Low-Oxalates for Free Diving Performance (May 2019)
Renee Blundon is a champion freediver and coach who is breaking new ground by going “carnivore” even as many in her sport hold on to the idea that vegetables are king. Her own performance has gone up since she took on a meat-based diet, and she wondered whether reduced oxalate was playing a role. She got in touch with me, and we took a “deep dive” together to sort it all out (sorry, couldn’t resist!). We had a great conversation about the benefits that getting oxalates out of your diet can have on elite athletic performance.
Human Performance Outliers with Shawn Baker and Zach Bitter
(April 2019)
I had the pleasure of talking for a couple of hours with Shawn Baker and Zach Bitter on their Human Performance Outliers podcast. Shawn is a popular resource in the carnivore community, and he and Zach are very interested in the dangers of oxalates, both as people eat them and also after we stop eating them up and our bodies start to move them out. We talked about oxalates, healthy diets, and food policy. Our discussion came out in two episodes.
Part 1:https://humanperformanceoutliers.libsyn.com/episode-99-sally-norton-part-1
Part 2:https://humanperformanceoutliers.libsyn.com/episode-100-sally-norton-part-2
Attack of the Oxalates! A hidden but nasty plant toxin (April 2019)
Paul Saladino MD and I went “nose to tail” on the many ways in which oxalates put our health at risk. We covered a lot of the basics, and did a scientific “reality check” on the mechanisms and effects of oxalates. Paul also observed symptoms in himself after giving up foods with oxalates (you’ll learn about my simple remedy for eye sties). Paul added some time points for the key topics that you can find on the YouTube page for the video, or you can watch the whole thing here:
Primal Edge on Oxalates: Are Vegetables Really Healthy? (April 2019)
My fun conversation with Tristan Haggard on his Primal Edge video series considers the implications of oxalate for the keto and carnivore world. We reviewed the perils of vegetables, and the delayed effects that a long history of high-oxalate eating can lead to when you cut oxalates in your diet. If you’re considering a ketogenic or all-meat diet, and especially if you’re trying to reverse accumulating damage from, you’ll learn a lot from this interview.
Low-Carb and Keto Eating
Fast Keto Podcast with Ketogenic Girl (January 2020)
In this interview, Vanessa Spina (“Ketogenic Girl“) shares her own experiences with low-oxalate eating, and I helped her figure out what was going on. Vanessa shares her story of eating a healthy diet built from many very high oxalate foods. She had been a vegetarian for 17 years before going keto. She thought that it was normal for women to get urinary tract infections. And she never considered that diet was a key aspect of this problem, until she changed her diet to include more meats and very few high oxalate foods. Lots of things got better on low oxalate, but she also experienced temporary salivary gland inflammation and puffy face. Far from being a mystery, it all makes sense! Watch and listen here:
Keto Connect (June 2019)
I talked with Keto Connect and we focused on the oxalate connection to kidney health, and the likelihood of becoming an oxalate accumulator when the kidneys are damaged or struggling. Co-host Megha Barot realizes that her spinach smoothies and snack foods are contributing to her serious kidney stone problem. I also shared the story of a woman who went into metabolic crisis after 18 months of Keto and an abrupt shift to a low oxalate diet. It’s time to learn to implement a low oxalate diet and use supportive therapies for safe reversal of oxalate overload and better kidney function!
My Sugar Free Journey (May 2019)
Here’s a chat I had about oxalates with Aarn Farmer for his podcast My Sugar Free Journey. Aarn lost over 200 pounds by cutting sugar from his diet! But any major diet shift that includes adding in or cutting out a lot of vegetables runs the risk of oxalate toxicity. Two formats available below (audio and YouTube).
Livin’ La Vida Low Carb, with Jimmy Moore (July 2018)
I talked with Jimmy Moore on his “Livin’ La Vida Low Carb” podcast about the benefits of low-oxalate eating, and some of the challenges that low-carb eaters can face when they start adding in high-oxalate foods such as nuts, spinach and swiss chard. We also talk about the “keto rash” and the unexpected symptoms that may arise when someone going low-carb suddenly and unknowingly zeroes out their oxalate intake. You can go to the podcast episode home page, or listen directly here:
Keto Carole (9/2017)
Keto Carole produces a video podcast focused on low-carb eating. She is especially concerned about “how we’ve been ‘brainwashed’ to think that plants are so healthful and the more plant foods we get the better, so you should try to eat tons of them and juice them and eat giant salads.” After she heard my talk at the Ancestral Health Symposium, Carole and I sat down to explore hidden natural toxins such as oxalates in plants and how some plants are not the superfoods that we’re being told they are. This podcast episode was released on September 27, 2017. You can also find a transcript of our talk on Carole’s site. View here:
Get Fit with Jodelle (July 2018)
Jodelle Fitzwater runs a great podcast Get Fit with Jodelle. I talked with her in the July 21, 2018 episode, which Jodelle introduced like this: “Could the so called superfoods of today actually be harming you? Why did Paleo come about and then several years later we needed Auto Immune Paleo? Do you eat cleaner than anyone you know and yet you have more issues than anyone you know? What is the Keto Rash and why does it happen? And why aren’t you seeing the results you want on a ketogenic diet. The truth is, many of today’s trendy superfoods such as those killer green smoothes, and sweet potato fries could actually be slowing killing you! And while nutrition isn’t the end-all-be-all with regard to optimal health, you should know that certain foods contain toxins called oxalates that could be the reason you are suffering.”
You can hear our conversation and others from her series on YouTube:
Earlier Talks and Interviews
Radio Interviews with Sunny Gardener
Here are two interviews from Sunny Gardener’s radio show, “Lightly on the Ground,” which is broadcast on WRIR Radio in Richmond, VA.
Jane Cummings and I shared Jane’s story of her recovery from severe joint and nerve pain, accompanied by brain fog. All these problems improved when Jane followed my advice to limit her oxalate intake. Read more in this blog post…
Aired: Aug 9th, 2017
Listen here:
Sunny and I discussed the backbone of all disease: inflammation. We cover the connection between changes in the bacteria in our colons and increased susceptibility to inflammation. We also explored how oxalates in foods may contribute to gut health deterioration and inflammatory illnesses. Read more in this blog post…
Aired: Aug 12th, 2015
Listen here:
