There are a number of people advocating a diet low in oxalates, essentially eliminating many green leafy vegetables, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, celery, most nuts, berries, cocoa, and numerous otherwise healthy foods. Unfortunately, this advice is misguided and based on an incomplete understanding of the evidence. While there is no harm in reducing dietary oxalates beyond inconvenience, lack of variety, and the absence of many genuinely healthy foods, reducing oxalate exposure is not the primary problem, just a Band-Aid. 

Oxalate hyperabsorption is due to disruption of the gastrointestinal microbiome: loss of the many species that metabolize oxalates but were eliminated or reduced due to antibiotic exposure, and the development of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, SIBO, that is associated with abnormally increased oxalate absorption. Address the disrupted gastrointestinal and dietary oxalate consumption is no longer an issue for the vast majority of people.

In this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, let’s discuss why so many people have been misled by this dietary oxalate issue and a smarter way to deal with what might be interpreted as oxalate intolerance. 

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Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health; revised & expanded ed