On the Trying Low Oxalates group, you may see us mention that oxalate is a plant poison. It does seem to be in a different category than other plant toxins, because unlike most plant toxins, Susan Owens (who started this group) has pointed out that oxalate cannot be manipulated by the liver to make oxalate less dangerous. Oxalate cannot be “detoxed”.
So while we want you to know that oxalate can be a human poison - the danger is in the dose! The higher the dose, the greater the potential danger. We say this because we are hoping to make a distinction. Oxalate is a mild poison, but only in the sense that you need a big dose in order for it to be immediately lethal. So you can consume small amounts of it and your body does know how to handle it in smaller amounts.
(Keep in mind that alcohol is also poison, so that provides needed perspective. Obviously, many people are able to have the odd drink and have no ill effects from it).
Because oxalate is something the body can excrete, it means you don't necessarily have to reduce oxalate to zero to do well . But oxalate is not perfectly benign either. It's a more nuanced discussion, which takes us into the grey area of a “threshold phenomenon”.
Please know that we want you to really understand - and that may take time.
This is important to remember: we don't have to be scared of small amounts of oxalate! It may even be beneficial in small amounts, as oxalate may be something that feeds certain species of our gut microbes (like oxalobacter formigenes). This doesn’t mean that we don’t treat it with respect.
We also understand how serious the impact of oxalate can be, particularly if you have more compromised health or your diet has been extremely high in it. As we reduce oxalate in our diet, we may have symptoms resulting from oxalate being mobilized (see our Announcement post on dumping). We know more and more about this phenomenon because of what our members report! And we keep learning about what oxalate can be doing to us.
So I'm going to post a number of items here which demonstrate how serious the affects of oxalate can be. We will also keep this post in the Announcements, so that it will be easy to find for reference. I encourage any members who find good links to add to this list to alert a moderator! We will try to add to this over time.
Kohmani EF. Oxalic acid in foods and its behavior and fate in the diet. Journal of Nutrition. (1939) 18(3):233-246,1939
"Green Smoothie Cleanse" Causing Acute Oxalate Nephropathy.
Oral administration of oxalate-enriched spinach extract as an improved methodology for the induction of dietary hyperoxaluric nephrocalcinosis in experimental rats.
[DIEFFENBACHIA POISONING].
A review of oxalate poisoning in domestic animals: tolerance and performance aspects.
Common plant toxicology: a comparison of national and southwest Ohio data trends on plant poisonings in the 21st century.
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