What Is Urinary Oxalate?

Urinary oxalate is an organic acid found in urine. Oxalates are natural molecules that are found in people, animals and plants. Oxalates can be formed in the body or can be obtained from certain foods.

Oxalate-Rich Foods

• Spinach has a high level of oxalate.

  There are a lot of different foods like spinach and nuts that are rich in oxalate. Spinach contains high levels of oxalate because plant leaves contain more oxalate than other plant parts like flowers or roots.

Calcium and Oxalate

• The more calcium a person ingests, the less urinary oxalate that is excreted. Larger people excrete more urinary oxalate than smaller people; therefore, to decrease urinary oxalate in larger people, additional calcium can be consumed.

Health Concerns

• Kidney stones can form with too much urinary oxalate

  One main concern with excess urinary oxalate is that it can create kidney stones in a condition called nephrolithiasis. Research reported by G. C. Curhan in the Journal of Endourology in 1999 stresses that since dietary oxalate only accounts for a small amount of urinary oxalate in the body, restricting oxalate from the diet may not help prevent kidney stone formation.

Cooking and Oxalate

• Cooking foods that are high in oxalates has very little effect on the content of oxalate. For this reason, over-cooking oxalate rich foods will not significantly reduce oxalate consumption.

Is Oxalate Safe?

• Since most people do not have any issues with urinary oxalate levels, they should have no need to be concerned about consuming foods rich in oxalates. In fact, many oxalate-rich foods are very nutritious, like spinach, and can be included in the diet without worry.