Organic oxalic acid is essential for our body. But when oxalic acid is cooked or processed, it becomes dead, or inorganic, and thus harmful to our body.
What is oxalic acid?
Oxalic acid is a colorless organic compound that occurs naturally in plants, animals, and humans. Organic oxalic acid is an essential element needed to maintain and stimulate peristalsis in our body.
Oxalic acid easily combines with calcium. If oxalic acid and calcium are organic at the time they are combined, the result is beneficial, then oxalic acid helps the digestive system absorb calcium. At the same time, this combination helps to stimulate the peristaltic functions of our body.
But once oxalic acid has become inorganic through cooking or processing, it forms a compound with calcium that destroys the nutritional value of both. This leads to calcium deficiency, which causes bone decay.
When the concentration of inorganic oxalic acid is high, it may precipitate in crystalline form. These tiny crystals can irritate human tissues and become lodged in the stomach, kidneys and bladder as “stones”.
Oxalic acid is present in abundance in many plant foods, its content is especially high in acidic herbs: sorrel, rhubarb, buckwheat. Other plants containing high levels of oxalates (in descending order): carambola, black pepper, parsley, poppy, amaranth, spinach, chard, beets, cocoa, nuts, most berries and beans.
Even tea leaves contain a fair amount of oxalic acid. However, tea drinks usually contain only very small to moderate amounts of oxalate due to the very small amount of leaves used to make them.
Just remember, organic oxalic acid is essential for your body and is completely harmless when taken in organic form. It is inorganic oxalic acid that causes problems in your body. When you drink fresh raw spinach juice, your body uses 100% of all the minerals that spinach has to offer. But when the oxalic acid in spinach is cooked, it becomes inorganic and can cause a range of long-term health problems.
Attention! If you have kidney problems, reduce your intake of oxalic acid, organic and inorganic.
People with recurrent kidney stones tend to absorb higher levels of biologically active oxalates compared to those who are not prone to developing kidney stones. A low oxalate diet requires less than 50 mg of oxalic acid per day.
Below is a list of high oxalate foods. Please take this information as a guide as oxalate levels may vary depending on climate, where plants are grown, soil quality, degree of maturity, and what part of the plant is used. High Oxalate Foods (>10 mg per serving)
Beetroot Celery Dandelion, Greens Eggplant Green Beans Kale Leek Okra Parsley Parsnip Pepper, Green Potato Pumpkin Spinach Squash Yellow in Summer Sweet Potato Chard Tomato Sauce, Canned Turnip Watercress Grape Fig Kiwi Lemon Peel Orange Peel Carombol Wheat Bread Buckwheat Oatmeal Popcorn Wheat Bran Wheat Germ Wheat Flour Almonds Brazil Nuts Tree Nuts Peanut Butter Peanuts Pecans Sesame Seeds Beer Chocolate Cocoa Soy Products Black Tea Green Tea