It's Eric Bakker, naturopath.
Thanks for checking out my video.
Oxalates, oxalic acid, what is this junk?
I get lots of questions, as you know.
I've received a few of them lately, asking me all about oxalic acid.
What the hell is this stuff?
You know?
Does it make you sick?
Does it make your hair fall out?
What does it do?
Well, many foods contain also what we call anti-nutrients, or in you're in America, anti-nutrients.
All right?
And we're talking stuff like phytic acid.
We could be talking oxalic acid.
We could be talking lectins.
So there are different things in foods, because foods are stuff that contain chemicals in
them, good stuff and maybe not so good stuff.
It stands to reason that there could be nutrients in these foods that may not be so good for
us after all.
So oxalic acid is very common in a lot of vegetables, or we call it oxalate, and it
becomes an acid.
It actually binds to different things in the body, so calcium oxalates, for example, iron
oxalates.
So the body will bind, if oxalate comes into the body, what I'm saying is it will bind
to different minerals, and this is what we call an anti-nutrient because it's not so
good for us.
But when I did research and I looked at the highest oxalate-containing foods, many of
them also are very high calcium-containing foods for that reason.
So if you eat spinach all the time like I do, for example, now I just received a question
saying, "Don't eat spinach.
It's got oxalic acid in it.
It's bad."
What a load of crap.
I eat spinach nearly every day.
I haven't grown breasts or gone retarded yet, and my kidneys are in perfectly good shape.
Doctors, urologists, the kidney specialists, for a long time told people to avoid oxalic
acid with a slightly dodgy kidney.
That recommendation no longer rings true.
Most urologists now know that oxalate in the diet is only bad if the person's got a dickey
kidney, or has a really sensitive kidney, or a problem in that area.
99.9% of people, in my opinion, who've got reasonably healthy kidneys, can definitely
withstand oxalates in their diet.
Now, I'm not talking about eating nine pounds of spinach for breakfast, and five pounds
for lunch, and then having 25 pounds for dinner, or juicing it and drinking it day and night.
When people do dumb things they get dumb consequences.
Okay?
If you keep hitting your head against a wall, well, it's probably going to bleed after a
while.
So if you eat way too much oxalate-containing food ...
And go to Google, chocolate, lots of oxalic acid.
There are many different vegetables with oxalic acid, and so if you're going to eat a huge,
hugely rich oxalate diet, you'll probably get a problem, but the same holds true if
you eat anything in stupid, large amounts.
You're going to get problems.
Okay?
I'm talking here common sense.
If you're going to eat normal portion of spinach several times a week, like me, you ain't going
to have problem with oxalates, all right, especially if you don't eat a high protein
diet alongside it.
Now this is the key.
Okay?
High proteins we know can create a lot of nitrogen waste, for example, and put a strain
on kidney function.
Now, if you eat meat several times a day and lots of oxalate foods like chocolate and spinach,
for example, you could well end up with a problem, especially if you drink several cups
of coffee, don't drink water, and have cold beer or wine at night as well.
So you're dehydrating yourself with the alcohol.
All right?
You're not drinking enough water because you're drinking other beverages.
You're putting high oxalates in the diet.
You're probably going to get a problem.
Now, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to work it out.
Drinking a few glasses of water a day, I'm not talking 20, I'm talking maybe several
glasses, two, three, four, whatever you fancy, eating fresh spinach like I do, not a problem.
You will not get a problem with calcium in your body.
There is so much hype and crap online about anti-nutrients, it makes me sick, absolutely
sick.
A lot of it's misinformation, when people read something and they immediately jump on
the bandwagon.
You know?
If you knew, for example, how dangerous flying was, all right, long haul flying ... I've
got pilots, for example, who have developed tumors from flying in aircraft.
Nobody talks about that, but everyone's started to talk about the dangers of radiation exposure
when you're 30,000 feet up.
If that really got published seriously out there, lots of people would be freaking out
about flying, yet everybody flies.
All right?
It's all about exposure.
It's all about how much you do.
If I have a puff on a Cuban cigar, does it mean I'm going to die of lung cancer?
Likely not, but if I have that Cuban cigar morning, noon and night, probably going to
get divorced, probably going to get lung cancer, probably going to get sick.
All right?
But if I have it every now and then, and I do like a little cigar, it's not a problem.
Life's here to enjoy, people.
It's not to fear, so don't fear oxalates, but if you've got one kidney left, or if you've
got a seriously bad blood pressure problem, or something like that, you may have some
issues you need to discuss with your doctor.
But don't just drop oxalate-containing foods because some fool on the internet says that
they're not good for your health.
If that were the case, you'd never go in the sun.
You'd never drink any kind of water unless it was pure.
You'd likely eat one percent of foods that you're eating now, and you'd live a miserable
life.
Life's meant to be fun.
Thanks for tuning in.