Find inspiration and confidence from the stories and testimonials of real people with real challenges. You can overcome your challenges too. If you’d like to share your success story, please send it to me here.
Your website is by far the best one I’ve come across for clarity and the most valid information. You’ve really got a handle on this and I’m so grateful. You can bet you’re going to be a big resource to share and use. I already knew about oxalates but the problem is underestimated by even the best nutritional experts!! For years I thought I was fine just not eating spinach. Meanwhile I was eating chocolate daily, and many other things. I’ve been having vaginitis and cystitis flare up for 2 years now and serious leaky gut bloating and small intestine pain, all the while thinking it was just candida or some other mystery infection. No amount of top quality supplements have helped, and in the past I’ve coped by I think this issue has really built up over time.
I’m so knowledgeable but my program was missing this vital key! Recently I could not figure out why raw carrots were causing me so much pain! By chance I took another look at the oxalate issue, and low and behold, the carrot mystery solved. There is a light at the end of this dark pain tunnel I’ve been in. Better late than never. Thanks soooo much for your work!
I have recently changed my diet to a low oxalate one after a stool test revealed I had no or very little oxalate degrading bacteria in my gut. I had previously had years of unexplained back and abdominal pain ,and needed B vitamin supplements to treat regular ulcers in my mouth. My GP was dismissive of my symptoms and it wasn’t until I experienced changes in my heart that I sought help from an alternative practitioner who helped me get to the cause. Yours is a very informative website and gives good, easy to understand facts and advise. It’s a daunting task rethinking how and what you eat but I now feel 10 years younger with so much more energy. Low oxalate diet has given me my life back. Thank you for drawing attention to this little understood condition
Hi Sally,
Check out Jane’s story of recovery from wrist pain and neuropathy in her feet. She took my advice and lowered her oxalate intake by changing her “pocket foods” and kicking her sweet potato habit. Sunny Gardner interviewed Jane and me for her radio show “Lightly on the Ground”. Jane talks about her change of heart, and how she now feels empowered and tries to help others by sharing this information. I wrote a blog post summarizing our discussion, and you can listen here:
“It is so amazing how much better I feel! My brain works better, my body is so much stronger, everything is better. Even chemicals don’t affect me like they used to. Changing my diet – eating low-oxalate – this has been a miracle for me. Before, I ate healthy vegetarian foods, but I had migraines all the time. This diet changed that. I have so much more energy. I feel so good. My arms were so wrinkled, now my arms look much better. And, eating is so much fun now. Sally’s teachings are so powerful – you’ve got to know this!”
Here’s a video of Cathy discussing the low-oxalate diet and encouraging you to learn more from Sally:
Sally, you are an excellent public speaker. Awesome. You really connect with people.
Meet Carlos, a talented personal trainer who got over hamstring injuries using a low-oxalate diet.
“I’ve always been an athlete all my life, I was in the military, I was in the police department. I got a hamstring pull that carried on, then it caused me to pull my other hamstring. So I had two hamstring pulls at the same time. For over a year I battled the hamstring pulls, I just wasn’t healing. My hamstrings just used to kill me. Now, my hamstrings don’t even bother me any more.
“Once I went to [Sally’s] workshop then that’s when I started reading all her information. It made a world of difference. I have my degree with a concentration in nutrition, I studied dietetics. Hearing it was something new for me. And, I think it’s beneficial for everybody. And for me, I think it absolutely helped. I might benefit one way, somebody else is going to benefit another way. My main benefit was the connective tissue; proper healing. You’ve just got to come hear the lectures. It’s life changing.”
Thank you for a very informative class and free handouts. Extremely helpful.
Meet some of the people who have been helped by the low-oxalate diet in this YouTube video:
You will love the squash salad recipe. It was my favorite & I took it Saturday night to a church gathering. Eight people asked for the recipe. That is a 1st!!!
Hope that my friends & family learn from this valuable health site!!
May – 2015
In only a few weeks, I feel like I got my life back. My hands, knees, and ankles already feel better. I feel more up-beat. I feel more mentally clear. I feel like doing more and it doesn’t wear me out. The inflammation, pressure and congestion in my ear is gone. I can finally sleep for 5 hours in a row, for the previous 4-5 years I’d been getting up every 2 hours. Before, I had the sense that I was already old. This is a major piece falling into place. And, its not hard. The diet changes are not bad at all.
“Sally, your lectures are almost perfection, I’ll tell you”
All of Sally’s recipes are delicious … and … healthy!
I just wanted to take a second to tell you thanks for sharing your information with us on oxalates. I think I was your biggest skeptic too. I have been eating high oxalate, veggie for 20 years and it’s so ingrained in me, that I just did not believe this could be harmful to me. But the proof is in the pudding, and I am feeling so much better now.
I apologize for doubting you so much Sally. Your work is important.
Thanks and keep up the good work!
Sally, thanks for your doing your part in raising awareness. That article was awesome! Everyone should read it.
“When Healthy Isn’t” in Well Being Journal, 2015 Vol. 24, No. 4
Thank you so much for sharing your message regarding oxalates. What a difference just a small change in my eating patterns have made in such a short time. I feel the difference! I see the difference! I am different and I love it. People are commenting and I’m loving that too…
My sister and her friend have thanked me over and over for inviting them to hear your informative talk last week. It is awesome how lives are being changed so quickly….
May you be blessed and may you bless others… lots and lots of others.
Thank you, Sally, your guidance has made it possible for me to make better food choices and finally feel good about what I am eating. All the standard nutrition messages make it seem like there is nothing healthy to eat – everything has too much salt, sugar, or fat! I had given up, it seemed hopeless. You have helped me find foods that I can eat to be a healthier person and I feel encouraged. I am losing weight, getting my blood sugar under control, and feeling better too. You are one of a kind. Thanks for giving me a better way to eat!
David B. 2015-July
Absolutely loved your class! Thank you so much for caring about the health of others. I feel better since minimizing oxalates – especially my stomach and bowels. THANK YOU!!!!!
Sally has been a friend and nutritional support to me for years. I trust her extensive health knowledge and insight. I admire the many years of commitment and determination that led to her success in finally discovering that oxalates were at the root of her health issues! I have witnessed her health improve by minimizing this toxin found in many foods that we think are healthy!
Thank God this diet change has inspired and empowered her to help others feel better with a real solution and sound nutritional guidance. So many of us are confused about what to eat. Without a trusted and dedicated educator like Sally to teach what a nourishing diet entails, many people give up or continue to eat harmful “health foods” – thinking that suffering is inevitable. Sally will help you take control of your health and stop needless suffering when you can be healed!
July 2015
“I feel like I got my life back. I know this sounds like a trite exaggeration, but this approach was worked miracles. I feel better and I am not getting headaches. I’ve stopped taking Advil at night. My stomach aches are better and my digestion is finally working. For once, I feel as if I am digesting and absorbing my food and I don’t feel hungry. I am eating much less and it is easy. For as long as I can remember I have always been hungry. With your suggestions, for the first time I no longer feel out of control. You have given me my life back. I am feeling a level of peace and simplicity about it like never before.
I can’t thank you enough.”
I wanted to thank you for helping me see the light on a few things in my life. I am and have always been a soda drinker and eat junk food all the time. Since your meeting I attended in January I have not had a single soda since and have cut out a lot of the fat and sugars in my diet.
I am a very slender person and have never had to diet because my weight had always been stable, however, I now realize it’s not about what you look like but how you feel inside. I keep seeing your salt diagram in my mind…thank you for providing your resources and knowledge as it’s already helped. I can now pass along the importance of eating right to my family and young children and hope that they learn the value of foods.
Emily Feb. 2015
I am so appreciate of who you are and how you have helped me clarify my health issues. You rock!
Dawn June- 2014
Sally,
I wanted to write you this for some time to let you know that it’s been a world of difference in what I eat and my health being improving day by day since I met you 6 months back.
If I remember the old days, the world had confused me with low fat, high carb diets which was making me sick more and more. I was taking Tricor, diuretcs medications for my triglyceride and my ear issues for 2-3 years. It’s for the first time, I was able to leave these medications in last few months. I was surprised to see my HDL go up and LDL come down so drastically in my recent physical report.
Thanks you for letting me learn what good nutrition is… How good fat is very important which has helped me to adopt my age old practices of eating coconut, ghee and other foods. I am happy to say that I have reduced my grains drastically and also on a low oxalate diet.
While I’m still working on my Meniere’s and inner ear disorders, I definitely see a positive hope in what I’m doing and you have been a great inspiration to me. Looking forward to learn more from you as always.
Thanks again.
Sharon says
I really enjoy the youtube videos on Oxalates by Sally Norton. I was keto for over a year and am within 8 # of my goal weight. I started hearing about Carnivore which fascinated me. I really don’t care for most veggies anyways. When I found Sally on the AHS 17 video I understand so much about lingering arthritis in my thumbs and toes. Now that I have gone Carnivore and rarely eating any Oxalate foods, my thumbs and toes are much better. The Keto took care of my back arthritis already. My allergies are almost totally gone now also.
Sally K Norton says
Thanks for sharing! I love hearing people’s success stories. Isn’t it wonderful to live in a happier body?
Tiffany says
Question: I made kombucha with a 50-50 mix of black tea and green tea. Because it’s fermented, is it OK to drink?
Sally K Norton says
The few tests of komucha suggest that the oxalate content is about 10mg per 8oz. This might be higher in your homemade kombucha depending on how strong your tea brew is. Depending on the rest of your diet, I would suggest drinking only about 1/2 cup twice a day, with a food like a romaine lettuce salad with cheese (the calcium and fiber should lower the amount you absorb).
Vera says
Thank you so much for all your YouTube interviews. Your information is healing me. It’s priceless and I am grateful. Thanks for sharing your journey so that we know of the dumping symptoms.
Budge says
I’d love to know if it is possible to reverse the size of embedded kidney stones and decalcify anything that may be calcifying? This is very intriguing but nothing in the medical literature speaks of reversing/dissolving stones and/or calcification.
Sally K Norton says
Reversal is very possible, straightforward and inexpensive (which may be why you don’t hear of it). Medical literature and clinical experience suggest that citric acid and citrate salts can help reverse kidney calcifications in the context of a low-oxalate diet. The tools are lemon juice (1/3 to 1/2 Cup daily) or other citrate supplementation (e.g. about 4 grams), combined with a low-oxalate diet. It is critical not to keep flooding your body with ingested oxalates, because new intake even of moderate levels of oxalate will lead to further stone formation (see the Holmes article below).
For background, you can check out these articles:
Aras, et al (2008). Can lemon juice be an alternative to potassium citrate in the treatment of urinary calcium stones in patients with hypocitraturia? A prospective randomized study. Urol. Res. 36, 313–317.
Caudarella, R. (2003). Citrate and mineral metabolism: kidney stones and bone disease. Front. Biosci. 8, s1084-1106. (Key Quote: “Citrate is a well known inhibitor of crystal nucleation and growth in renal stone disease and therefore is widely used as a prophylactic agent against recurrent calcium oxalate nephrolithiasis.”)
Caudarella, R., and Vescini, F. (2009). Urinary citrate and renal stone disease: the preventive role of alkali citrate treatment. Arch Ital Urol Androl 81, 182–187.
Holmes et al. (2005). Dietary oxalate loads and renal oxalate handling. J Urol. 2005 Sep;174(3):943–7