Foods Containing Oxalates

Video: Foods Containing Oxalates

Video: Foods Containing Oxalates
Video: High Oxalate Foods Facts & Myths (700 Calorie Meals) DiTuro Productions 2024, September
Foods Containing Oxalates
Foods Containing Oxalates
Anonim

Oxalates are salts and esters of oxalic acid with bases. This acid is the simplest dibasic acid and is actually a colorless crystal. Oxalates also look colorless. They are the causes of oxalate sands and stones in the kidneys, urinary tract, bladder and gallbladder and bile ducts, and rarely in the salivary glands. Most often, these stones and grains of sand are composed of calcium oxalates.

Oxalates do not have a useful function for the human body. They are a pure and simple waste product that is excreted in the liver during protein processing.

Half of these harmful substances enter the body through food. Oxalates are found in almost every plant, where they act as calcium binders in insoluble compounds, which accumulate in the leaves and bark of the plant and are subsequently eliminated in the fall. This is how plants get rid of excess calcium and oxalates. But not people.

Kidney stones
Kidney stones

A prerequisite for the formation of oxalate stones and sand is the frequent use of foods containing mostly calcium oxalates. To avoid falling victim to them, it is good to avoid foods rich in oxalates.

Foods rich in oxalates are: chocolate, dock, spinach, nettle, sorrel, figs, potatoes, rhubarb, nuts, ripe and green beans, plums, tomatoes and red grapes, iced tea.

Scientists explain that these popular products contain high levels of the substance oxalate - the chemical that causes the formation of small crystals made of minerals and salt.

Red grapes
Red grapes

To reduce the risk, the advice is to drink as much fluid as possible. Drinking water is the best solution, but so can lemonade, as lemons are high in citrates.

Mainly men are predisposed to the unfavorable accumulation of oxalates in the body. The risk jumps significantly after the 1940s. Postmenopausal women with low estrogen levels and those with removed ovaries are also at similar risk.

When such a problem already exists, it is good, in addition to avoiding these foods, to reduce, but not stop, salt intake. Meat should also be kept to a minimum. It is good for the body to get enough calcium, as it helps the oxalate to be absorbed by the body.

Genetically predisposed people should see a doctor to see if they are producing too much oxalate.

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