The Low Oxalate Diet for Kidney Stones

If you’ve recently found out that you’re dealing with kidney stones, then you’re probably transitioning into a new diet. The low-oxalate diet is recommended if it was discovered that you are dealing with calcium oxalate stones. Overconsumption of oxalate will lead to you forming stones, so you need to be aware of the foods with high oxalate content.

What Foods Do You Need to Avoid?

To start off, you need to avoid some high oxalate vegetables such as spinach, Swiss chard, beets, leeks, okra, and rhubarb. For fruits, you’ll likely want to avoid kiwis, figs, berries (of all kinds), and grapes. For grains, you want to avoid quinoa, wheat germ, and bran flakes. In addition to this list, you will want to avoid almonds, peanuts, cashews, miso, chocolate, and tea as they are also very high in oxalates.

When you read the complete list of high oxalate foods, you may be overwhelmed. The oxalate diet can seem very restricting and depending on your previous diet, it certainly can be. However, you have to realize that there are many foods that you can consume without any issues.

For vegetables, you can have  asparagus, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, corn, cucumbers, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, potatoes, and bell peppers. For fruits, you can eat apples, avocado, bananas, cherries, lemon, lime, oranges, melons, peaches, and pineapples. For grains, you can go with rye bread, cereal without bran, and rice.

Now the great thing is that you can consume red meat, fish, and poultry without any issues. This means that you can still enjoy various proteins with your meals. You won’t have to deal with feeling hungry because of having to remove certain proteins.

The Big Challenges You’ll Face

The big challenge will lie in coming up with new dishes using ingredients that have low oxalate content. You’ll often need to make substitutions for certain ingredients in recipes. The best thing that you can do is to find and try out new recipes that you want to eat for the oxalate diet. 

You want to make sure you actually enjoy the recipes. You’ll end up falling off the diet if you have to force yourself to eat meals that you don’t like. Fortunately, there are many delicious low oxalate recipes you’ll find online. It’s all about trial and error to find out what you like.

Another thing you have to watch out for is eating out in restaurants. It can be hard to figure out what ingredients are in various dishes. The best thing that you can do is to stick to simple dishes that you know you can tolerate well. A perfect example is a sandwich whereas something like Chinese takeout can have a lot of high oxalate ingredients.

Other Things to Support Your Oxalate Diet

There are several other things that you can do to support your diet. The first is to consume more calcium. Not getting enough calcium can elevate oxalate levels in your urine. Making sure you get 1,000 mg of calcium will help immensely.

Another is to drink more fluids, try to drink around 10 cups of water a day. It will also help to add some lemon or lime as citric acid can help dissolve calcium oxalate stones. Drinking more water can be tedious since you’ll have to go to the bathroom more often. However, it will go a long way in helping you pass and prevent stones.

Finally, you’ll want to make sure you don’t consume too much salt. This will result in you producing excess calcium in your urine. Remember that oxalates bind with calcium to form the stones. Elevated levels of either oxalates or calcium in your urine can cause more flare ups over time.