I've been reading, listening, and watching various sources regarding the issue of oxalates in certain plants. I realise how much damage I have done to myself over the years. And not only to me but to my kids and animals. For example, my dogs are on a raw food diet, but for years I bulked it out with cooked oatmeal and lentils, and, more recently, sweet potatoes. One of my little dogs had mammary gland cancer masses about 18 mths ago and one of my Labs had a weird neurological thing going on last year. Both are fine now but I can't help feeling both guilty and misled over the decades.

My 22 yr old daughter has had half her thyroid removed, which could also have been caused by oxalate overload. She ate a lot of bran-based cereal while growing up. All my aches and pains over the years may be attributed to the same. 

All those foods we were told are good for us are full of oxalates: spinach, almonds (I consumed so much almond flour on keto), nuts in general, cocoa, chocolate, sesame seeds, beets, strawberries... the list is huge.

I read that issues like kidney stones and breast cancer (like my dog) may be caused by long-term ingestion of oxalate-rich foods. Has anyone else looked into this as a cause of their health problems?

 

Absolutely these among other things are the cause for 90% of our health problems.
Don’t blame yourself, you were duped just like the rest of us. Blame the profiteers.
And it’s not just the oxalates. It’s the grains, seeds, seed oils and just vegetables in general. Then add to that a medical industry that has been bought of by the agricultural industry.
Just be thankful that your eyes have been opened.


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9 hours ago, BevG said:

 

My 22 yr old daughter has had half her thyroid removed, which could also have been caused by oxalate overload.

 

I was just thinking today that I wish I could go back to 1999 knowing what I know now. I used the WIC program here in US, if you are not familiar is a Women Infants and Children food voucher program. They give you cereal, juice, cheese, and peanut butter.  I always thought it was weird to give a kid so much juice, so I finally stopped getting that part.  I too was always pushing "healthy" snacks like almonds, I used to get huge bags of those and pistachios whenever they were on sale. 

I think going forward we need to focus on radiating the results of good nutrition and hope they follow suit. My daughter is still hooked on sweet teas. 

I'm sure you have come across Sally K Norton already. She is really fabulous, but she cautions people not to ditch them too fast and says it could take years to unload all of them. I would say if you are not experiencing the dumping then don't worry about it. Our bodies are really amazing at healing themselves, if we would only get out of the way. 

If you are worried about breast cancer, consider iodine supplementation. Dr Elizabeth Bright is a great resource regarding that. 

I started falling apart in my mid 30's and it accelerated in my 40's. But I had ulcerative colitis really bad. I was told there was nothing I could do about it, no dietary changes required because diet had nothing to do with it. It was an auto-immune condition with an "unknown" cause - maybe it's genetic.

After nearly a decade of suffering, I started looking into diet. I was drinking a pot of coffee in the morning, snacking on nuts and almonds throughout the day, and gorging on spinach-rich salads for lunch and sometimes dinner. Basically, I was a 24/7 oxalate imbiber. 

I quit coffee and my condition improved tremendously, and a couple years later I discovered carnivore and this summer I might legitimately be declared *cured* by my gastroenterologist.

Needless to say, I have no respect for Big Food anymore and almost no faith in the healthcare system at present.

It's crazy though, isn't it? The information just wasn't available. I always considered myself to be quite healthy. No medications. Then I started to get pain all over my diet so went full-tilt into low-carb. The pain did subside only to be replaced by arthritis in my hips. I bet I could have prevented it all along if only I'd known.

I've had the same eye-opening moment. Spinach was my favorite go to. Eating lots and lots like a good boy. It was quite the paradigm shift.