You will hear oxalate demonized by Sally K. Norton, who has just published a book about her theory. It’s called Toxic Superfoods: How Oxalate Overload Is Making You Sick—and How to Get Better. Publishers Weekly calls it “informative.”
Norton believes that the push for “superfoods” was wrong. I agree with her on that, but she claims that many of these so-called superfoods are actually toxic to us because of the oxalate they contain, and she recommends a low-oxalate diet.
There is still disagreement over whether a low-oxalate diet to prevent further episodes of kidney stones is worthwhile. Some say no and argue that its effectiveness has been poorly studied and that it may invite worse health down the road. Foods are not made up exclusively of oxalate; they contain a number of different chemicals that all play different roles in our health, and banishing them from our diet can lead to deficiencies and to unintended consequences.
Others, however, point to guidelines from expert medical societies that seem to endorse a low-oxalate diet to manage kidney stones but even there, nuance is called for. The American Urological Association does not recommend a low-oxalate diet, but rather the limited intake of food high in oxalate, which is not the same thing.
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Oxalate in the diet is thus not the ultimate boogeyman we might assume it is for kidney stones, even though oxalate has clearly been shown to be crucial to the formation of most of these stones.
