If ever there was anything that I think of as a hallmark of a potential oxalate issue, it is the very common experience among my clients of getting more and more unwell, while trying to eat healthier and healthier. There they are, pursuing a plant-based lifestyle with protein rich grains like quinoa or gluten free brownies that use cocoa powder as the flour and yet – they just don’t feel good. But they’ve dropped the dairy and never use white sugar! So what’s the problem?
My own story is somewhat classic of this.
Since my 30’s, I’d been seeing naturopaths and other nutrition professionals, looking for the reason why I didn’t feel well. I was reassured regularly; after all, I was doing everything right. While I was advised to eat more plants, go gluten free and cut down sugar and then later carbs, I never really saw any significant results from these changes. I might feel better temporarily, but then would crash again. I’d lose weight for a bit, and then put it all back on. My ankles always seemed puffy; I would be bloated for no particular reason. And yet, none of my doctors’ tests showed anything particularly wrong. I was overweight but otherwise seemed like I was in reasonable shape.
As I began my 40’s with the birth of my first child, I started to become a bit desperate. After my son was born, all sorts of things started to become worse for me. My thyroid and adrenals were low according to my functional medicine guy; my sleep and energy levels were awful. I started to have poor immunity and caught bugs at the drop of a hat. (That’s really not helpful when you have a young child!) I would fall asleep half dead at 9 pm, only to wake wide awake at 1 or 2 in the morning, and not be able to fall back to sleep until 4 or 5. I needed energy to be able to parent my son, and I felt like the only thing I could do was drink coffee and eat to get it. Working out was out of the question – when I tried, I’d be exhausted for a couple of days after. Nothing really worked; sometimes a remedy prescribed by a naturopath would help for a while, but then it would mysteriously stop working.
Honestly, I thought I had a lemon for a body. I also worried that I had passed that disadvantage to my kids.
But here is the rub: as we became more and more unwell, most of us tend to make the same set of dietary changes, especially if we have sought professional help.
- We eat more plants.
- We go gluten free and perhaps dairy free as well.
- We turn to more “superfoods” like spinach and sweet potato for side dishes, and almonds for snacks.
We are doing all the things that we are told to do – because we really do want to get better!
But what we don’t realize is that we have increased our oxalate intake substantially – sometimes, to stratospheric levels. I had a client who was an active woman in her late 60’s, still teaching at the college level. She came to me to help her after realizing her oxalate intake was about 3300 mg per day. (Note that a medium oxalate intake would be 61-100 mg for a day.)
You might think it’s hard to take in such a large amount of oxalate. But it’s not. If you are eating a more Paleo diet, with its focus on leafy greens and away from grains, you could easily take in these kinds of levels. If you are eating spinach, Swiss chard and beets every day – followed by almond flour muffins or even a few handfuls of almonds as a snack – you could easily be in the range of 2000 mg or more. That dark chocolate that is low in sugar and low in carbs? It is extremely high in oxalate. You could be doing yourself more harm than good if you’ve gotten on the green smoothie bandwagon, or add teaspoons of turmeric to your food and drink to help reduce inflammation.
If you are eating an extra healthy diet, and yet are not feeling better – please talk to me about oxalate!