Oxalates and extremism

The golden mean

Before plunging into my subject, I urge my readers to go to Sharyl Attkisson's recent Substack post laying out the facts on Hamas and Israel. She got badly “ratioed” on this post. Please don’t just read the article; hit the like button (the heart) and subscribe (to help her recover from lost subscribers). This is an absolutely free and almost effortless way to reward those who stand up against terrorism and for freedom.

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On Memorial Day, friends spent a few hours visiting. That evening, I went to the emergency room with excruciating pain in the abdomen. The staff could not find anything wrong in the abdomen; blood and urine tests appeared close to normal; and the pain abated. They told me to come back the next day if the pain returned, but urged me to consider the possibility that I might not have had indigestion, but rather kidney stones.

By the middle of the next morning, the pain started to return. I went to the urgent care clinic. Out of curiosity, the PA tried thumping the rear of my torso, near the kidney, rather than palpating the front as they did in the ER. I flinched loudly. We all looked at each other - bingo! We discussed ways of dealing with kidney stones.

On my way out, I stopped at the restroom. Catching me walking in that direction, the staff gave me a cup to use for a second urinalysis. I was shocked to see what appeared - kidney stones! The PA literally knocked them out of me!

Since then, I have gone on a crash course regarding kidney stones.

• Dehydration is an issue; one should drink at least 2 liters (or quarts) of water per day.

• One should get up and move.

• The vast majority of kidney stones are made of oxalates. These are in the highest concentrations in spinach, parsley, chard, buckwheat, beets, raspberries and blackberries, cocoa powder (present in dark chocolate, not white chocolate), and almonds and cashews, among other foods. Sweet potatoes can be a problem; however, Mrs. Surak is a food scientist, and says that the greatest danger would be eating the potatoes (any type) baked and with their skin, but if they are boiled thoroughly and eaten without the skin, you reduce the oxalate content. This process of blanching can be successful for other problematic foods including beans; it seems that only spinach is intractable.

• Happily, avocados, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, and the like), and many others are very low in oxalates, and these are among the most nutritious foods around.

• I am squeezing fresh organic lemons into filtered water. Lemons and limes have the highest concentration of citric acid among the citrus fruits, about 60 times as much as oranges and grapefruits (hence the sour taste). That citrate will help clear the oxalates.

• Dairy is useful as well, with its high calcium content, particularly taken with potentially high-oxalate foods.

• Beware of unusually high doses of vitamin C taken for extended periods.

• See this link for a short introductory list of high-oxalate foods, and lifestyle and dietary recommendations. There are many more resources online on this topic.

In short, the high-oxalate foods include many of the superfoods we’ve been encouraged to make central in our diets. How can they cause a problem? It turns out that oxalate crystals are shaped like toothpicks, designed to cause maximum damage. They are defense mechanisms for plants that cannot walk away from predators the way animals can.

In studying wellness, I have been bombarded by advice from vegans and from carnivores, each claiming that their current extreme diet helped them to cure the diseases they had when they followed the opposite extreme diet. Well, of course! At each extreme, you are committing yourself to accepting certain dietary deficiencies.

The best diets seem to be more inclusive, but even there, they agree on reducing inflammation by reducing the glycemic index. That is, cut added sugars as much as possible, and reduce starches a bit as well.

Broad based anti-inflammatory diets seem to be the best (I am thinking of Dr. Andrew Weil's anti-inflammatory diet and Dr. Stephen Sinatra’s pan-Asian modified Mediterranean diet). However, these diets still encourage the use of whole grains, which are much higher in oxalates than refined grains, and should be avoided on a low-oxalate diet. Anything that is bran, husk, peel, or skin is meant to be an obstacle for predators. Indeed, brown rice is fairly high in arsenic; ditch it! If you want to lower the glycemic index of white bread or pasta, combine it with fats (think extra virgin olive oil which you can eat daily) and protein.

For some reason I cannot yet understand, animal protein seems to be more of a burden working against kidney health compared to plant protein. This is not an argument in favor of vegan meat alternatives. It raises the question of whether we need as much protein as we have been led to believe in developed countries.

Remember: I am not a medical doctor. I am only relating my experiences, and what I have read. Discuss any health concerns with your own healthcare provider.

The learning process continues. Here’s to your health!