Anyone treating oxalates /on a low oxalate diet?

almost

Senior Member
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170
A question some of you may know the answer to: when juicing fruits and vegetables, do the oxalates stay more with the solids or go out with the juice? Just guessing here, but I'm thinking they are not naturally water soluable, so would likely stay with the solids. I would appreciate any insight.

I've just recently added juicing to my practice, and am staying away from the big oxalate sinners, but the sheer volume introduces some new risk. I'm doing this to address my potassium needs more naturally -- supplementation of potassium can be very tricky.
 

Springbok1988

Senior Member
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174
I’ve been on a low oxalate diet for kidney stones for several years now. I’m also prescribed potassium citrate to prevent them. I haven’t noticed any effect on my ME/CFS.
 
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35
I have been eating low oxalates for the last 6 months or so. They were definitely causing me problems, and I'm maintaining a more stable level of functioning without them. When I eat oxalates in the evening I wake up in the night multiple times with extreme thirst and feelings of dehydration and feel overestimulated, can't concentrate etc. I also get this unpleasant feeling in my kidneys.
 

almost

Senior Member
Messages
170
I've been investigating the availability of oxalates in juicing, and the news isn't promising. Oxalates come in soluble and insoluble forms, and naturally the soluble would be expected to follow the water. Here's an article I found helpful:
Soluble vs. Insoluble oxalates

Those of us with compromised gut function face an uphill battle:
Yet people with poor digestive function may not have any minerals in the gut left to bind with the soluble oxalates, as undigested fats can bind up these resources first; this sees soluble oxalates cross the intestinal barrier and enter the bloodstream. Equally, those with leaky gut may absorb the insoluble oxalates; that’s two strikes. Finally, antibiotics easily wipe out the oxalobacter species in the gut, leaving no protection against any soluble oxalates that escaped binding with the minerals. Three reasons why some absorb much, much more oxalates than others.
and the kicker:
Susan Owens, a prominent researcher in the field of oxalates, believes that individuals with compromised guts may absorb up to 50% of the oxalates they consume. This is 26-75x more than healthy controls!

The last quote I'll provide here suggests that the common defense -- concurrent application of calcium -- is questionable for those of us with poor gut function:
we should remember one very important thing here; that Calcium Citrate works to block the absorption of soluble oxalates is by converting them into their insoluble form. In other words, everything fails if the gut lining is still inflamed and overly-permeable.

So this will be a bit of a chess match for me: 1) I really need more potassium than I'm getting in food (I feel it in palpitations and other heart discomfort). 2) I want to avoid chemical supplementation as much as possible. 3) I want to keep oxalate absorption fairly low (I'd prefer to keep intake low, but if I can manage absorption, that would work too). What is the balance of these three for me? I don't know.
 
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