I’m very excited to announce a new article in the Journal of Evolution and Health: “Lost Seasonality and Overconsumption of Plants: Risking Oxalate Toxicity” by me: Sally K. Norton. Link http://jevohealth.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1085&context=journal (or you can download it from my site)
Please read and share this heavily referenced, peer-reviewed article. Perhaps it will help us all see how we’re eating today in a new light. The article offers an up-to-date synopsis of what we know about oxalates, based on my extensive review of the scientific literature.
The rest of this blog post revisits and expands on the key points from the article.
Oxalate Toxicity Illness
Once you realize that oxalate in foods is at the root of your suffering, you can’t help but wonder: Why am I in trouble with oxalate? Why is this happening? Hasn’t oxalate been around forever? Is there something wrong with me that made me especially vulnerable to the oxalate problem? Why me? – this is the classic victim question. Yes, you are a victim, but of what? I say you are a victim of modern progress, affluence, cultural trends, and generalized ignorance of oxalate science; hear me out. . .
Oxalate-related illness is, in general, a problem of: 1) oxalate exposure and 2) bioaccumulation inside of our bodies. This is so, regardless if the effects of this exposure and accumulation surface as arthritis, digestive problems, headaches, pain issues, skin trouble, bad sleep, or kidney stones.
The One-Two Punch
Let’s consider that modern eating patterns douse us in oxalate far too routinely. (Missed any meals recently?) When the continuous oxalate marinade (daily low to moderate doses) includes occasional pulses of extreme doses (as in a spinach smoothie or a bag of almonds), accumulation is bound to occur. This combination – constant eating of plant foods (like bread and spices) interspersed with the occasional dark chocolate bar or spinach salad – is especially good at promoting the build-up of minute oxalate deposits in the body. The speed and extent of this process may be what separates the seemingly unaffected from those of us with joint, digestive, brain and neurological issues. Beyond just the level of oxalate intake, these factors seem to be key determinants of how fast and how extensively oxalate toxicity develops:
- oxalate absorption
- (many dietary factors and other changing conditions will affect the amount that gets inside the body),
- it is generally much higher then scientists used to think
- gut health, and
- internal inflammation.
Never a Break
Never before has it been so easy to obtain oxalate-heavy foods. At the same time, we’ve become nibblers (or grazers) who believe that six small meals daily make for a healthy and acceptable meal pattern. We never take off from eating plant foods. We used to have those breaks: things called winter, or drought, or crop failure, or high-holy fasting days. And, of course when we’re eating oxalate, we have no idea that we are doing it; no one has bothered to tell us. Hardly anyone is aware of the presence of oxalate in our beloved foods and its potential dangers. Never have we been so at risk for slow, low-grade health damage thanks to our modern food choices, constant eating, and unawareness.
Global Food System Has Erased the Seasons
Winter is gone. No longer do we subsist on ham, onions, pickles, and white biscuits from January to March. Now, fresh green spinach, fruits, and nuts of all kinds can be had any day of the year. Our modern food scene is slick and sexy (packaged with grand promises), tasty and super-convenient, affordable, and . . . risky.
You can get nearly anything you could want, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Refrigerated trucks, the interstate highway system, inter-continental shipping, and the 24-hour grocery store all work to meet the demand for affordable, constant access to any and all foods. We usually see this as a great victory of modern commerce, but the downside… well, it has made it possible to bypass and disarm the body’s own defenses against what was historically only periodic over-dosing on high oxalate plant foods. That’s my guess, anyway. There is not any good research on the amount of oxalate in our diets and how this has changed.
Getting Plenty of Neo Foods
Envision some modern basics: tea, chips, fries, and almond milk. . . Finding our way to a daily cup of tea was never this easy! No longer do you have to haul water from the river, or fire up a wood stove. Potato chips? They were mass-produced for home consumption only recently. And french fries? Routine access to fries came with the invention of cheap (and addictive) fast food in the 1950s. That helped to launch the new and steadily expanding practice of eating meals away from home, not just on special occasions but as part normal daily life. Restaurants eagerly offer hash browns, potato chips, fries, and mashed (or baked) potatoes as the classic side. (Too cheap, popular, and profitable to resist.)
Almond and rice beverages? These new-fangled products became commercially available and widely distributed only about 10 years ago (and have been growing in popularity). And please note: These faux “milks” are marketed as a fitting substitute for calcium-rich dairy milk. They are not. Not only do they contain oxalate (which real milk does not), but they lack milk’s ability to protect against oxalate absorption offered by dairy calcium.
Normal variability in what and when we eat, and restrictions that once came with the seasons and periodic food scarcity, are all gone in modern affluent societies. Easy, routine access to tasty oxalate-ridden foods has created a new situation for our bodies. The constant bombardment of our bodies by oxalate is an escalating, and uniquely problematic source of toxic stress in 21st Century life. It’s as if it were Thanksgiving Day, every day. The harvest is in and abundance is the theme of the moment. Have whatever you like; if its “healthy”—have a lot of it, frequently.
Modern Concepts of Health Foods
Modern dietary approaches have placed great emphasis on the health benefits of vegetables, nuts, chocolate, and spices, despite their being high in oxalate. There is a great deal of encouragement, pressure even, to eat greens, nuts, fruits, and other “whole” plant foods. We constantly hear that the sure path to complete health is the “plant based” diet. If it doesn’t work, you are just not trying hard enough… so just keep selecting antioxidant-rich “health foods”.
In this culture, how would anyone ever begin to suspect something amiss with this moral and fail-safe approach to eating? They don’t, not until they have exhausted every other possible explanation for why they hurt or can’t think well or get restless sleep… but I digress.
Accumulation of Oxalate
Any tissue of the body can end up with oxalate deposits, not just the kidneys and other parts of the urinary system. But how and why? This question has been posed, but rarely studied, at least since 1940 when a London coroner found oxalate crystals at the site of a brain aneurysm in a 61-year old woman.1 The prevailing theory in medical science is that the entire drainage system had to be broken down (persistent kidney failure) for oxalate to collect in non-renal tissues. Yet the exceptions to this rule are many—littered across the various fields of research.
Pathologists report finding oxalate deposits in eyes, arteries, hearts, skin, wherever—despite functional, healthy kidneys. We find this in cases of acute oxalate poisoning among patients who have tried to commit suicide with oxalic acid washing powders or ethylene glycol anti-freeze (ethylene glycol is a metabolic precursor that becomes oxalate in the body), and in cases of genetic disorders that cause excessive internal production of oxalate. But we also find these deposits in the chronically ill, in previously injured tissues, and in perfectly healthy people.
Stuck in Catch Mode
The scientific evidence suggests that the body is good at a game of “catch and release”. This is a process in which healthy cells take on minute oxalate crystals with the intention of this being a temporary accommodation. When the coast is clear and conditions right, cells recruit immune cells to help them dismantle and release the sequestered oxalate and send it off for excretion. Our diets, however, are pitching oxalate steadily (and at quite a clip). The effect is that the catch and release cycle gets stuck in “catch” mode. Cells holding oxalate attract more oxalate crystals which then become ever-present because oxalate is ever-present in so many of our favored foods. Injured cells or cell fragments passively get saddled with crystals that not only persist but grow, for years and decades.
We don’t see the inevitable but invisible nano-deposits and non-crystalline traces in cells throughout the body. The trained pathologist can see the much larger micro-crystals (when the tissue are fresh and properly handled, and when using the appropriate stain and polarized light). But the hunt for these troublesome contaminants isn’t done in typical tissue biopsy and tissues are usually not fresh. (The central concern being the detection of cancerous cells.) The body, however, is aware of oxalate. It is designed to unload these toxic traces, if it can only get the opportunity.
Let the Toxin Go
The cells await the conditions necessary for dismantling and releasing crystals. It would seem that tissues may need several days of very low-level oxalate intake to start the slow process of dismantling, dissolving, and unloading these nano-deposits. (In one study, looking at rat kidneys, this process was underway in just a matter of days. In another study, complete dissolution of a crystal took five or more weeks to complete).
The way we eat, the “release” conditions don’t come very often or for very long. The next time someone tells you “you’re full of it” they might be right! And they might be full of it themselves!
References
1. Glynn, L.E. (1940). Crystalline bodies in the tunica media of a middle cerebral artery. J. Pathol. Bacteriol. 51, 445–446.
This is a great article. What would you recommend as a strategy for healthy eating? Just stick to animal foods like meat, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, butter?
Thanks for reading the article and giving me your feedback.
Everyone’s eating strategy needs some customization. Regardless of your goal, I don’t recommend making radical changes abruptly. Doing so can create unnecessary stress in your body. That doesn’t mean you can’t live primarily on animal foods (and that might have advantages for some people). Just go slowly when you’re changing your diet.
Barring allergy, most animal foods are very nutritious. It’s important that they be “clean” (that is, raised in a healthy, natural environment and not overly processed). I recommend buying meats, milk, and eggs directly from producers from whom you can find out how the animals were raised.
In general, there’s nothing wrong with keeping reasonable portions of low-oxalate vegetables in your diet. From a culinary point of view, it’s hard for a lot of people to stick exclusively with animal foods, and there may be other metabolic reasons why that strategy doesn’t work for everyone. On the other hand, many people with health problems (especially gut problems) find some therapeutic value in eliminating plant foods for some period of time.
Going to the other extreme (veganism and avoiding animal foods entirely) is a terrible idea because it is impossible to get all the nutrients you need for optimal health, and you get a heavy load of plant toxins. Veganism is especially bad for pregnant women and young children.
I’m glad you’re thinking about oxalates; your body will thank you!
How do you deal with the constipation issue of only protein eating. If someone had Hoshimotos, the primary diet is to eat lots of veggies with protein… I have ot and I’m afraid the consequences ofvonlybmeat may be detrimental to my already depleted adrenals and thyroid….
Hello Marta!
There are many points you bring up – many are unfounded fears about eating in an oxalate-aware way. I hope I can put you at ease.
Romaine lettuce, arugula, turnips, cucumber, and coconut, like so many other low oxalate foods, are not very high in protein. Switching to low oxalate foods does not have to be a high meat or a high protein diet. Am I recommending an all-protein diet? No I am not, never will, I’m sure.
The Low Oxalate Diet (LOD) reversed my hashimoto’s and has for others too. Oxalate might even be the cause.
For those who seem to need it, a plant-free diet fixes constipation. What a shocking surprise this is!
A meat-centric diet is one way to do a LOD, but you can be a vegan even and still dramatically lower your oxalate and get relief from pain etc.
For me, the less plants I include in my diet the better my energy both physically and mentally. (The only exception is the need for a small amount fructose-containing carbohydrate.) Its just that oxalate can make our immune systems a bit jumpy and our glands and intestines tired, this can lead some of us to a meat-heavy diet because we feel better on those foods. That is not a prescription for everyone.
The LOD diet is one of the most flexible and customizable and effective way of eating you will find.
Please do not fear that you can harm yourself with avoiding high oxalate foods. This is a very safe and smart thing to do for your health today and tomorrow.
This blog about Our Oxalate-Loaded Environment: No Seasons, No Awareness helps me a lot in my diet. Kiss you all!
I wanted to let you know that low oxalate eating eliminated my gastroparesis, colon stasis, and resulting constipation in 2 days. I have to eat a meat and fat-based diet with very little to no vegetables or fruit to control autoimmunity, including Hashimoto’s. But, I was hanging onto chocolate and nuts. Huge mistake! I stopped eating those 2 items and added lemon water and cal-mag citrate to my routine and bingo! Problems and pain started going away quickly. It was the oxalate that was causing my digestive problems and probably every other issue I’ve been battling since following a greens and nut heavy vegan diet for so long. I am so appreciative of Sally’s information and am finally recovering from a long list of ills. FYI, I’ve tried many interventions, supplements, etc., and this is one of the few things that has actually worked. Good luck!