Other and oxalates: 82 foods rated

Almond butter concentrates the almond the way peanut butter concentrates the peanut, and almond is the higher of the two in oxalate. A tablespoon is about twenty almonds arriving without being chewed or counted.

• Noonan SC & Savage GP, Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8 (1999)
• USDA FoodData Central

Cocoa is one of the highest-oxalate foods there is, and cocoa mass is the whole ground bean — the cocoa butter in it dilutes the load a little against cocoa powder, which is the same solids with the fat pressed out. The percentage on a wrapper is how much of this a bar contains.

• Schroder T, Vanhanen L & Savage G, J Food Compos Anal 24:7 (2011) 916-922, oxalate content in commercially produced cocoa and dark chocolate

Cocoa nibs are crushed roasted beans eaten as a snack - by the handful, unlike every other cocoa product here. That is what puts them at the top: not a higher oxalate concentration than cocoa mass, but a much larger portion.

• Schroder T, Vanhanen L & Savage G, J Food Compos Anal 24:7 (2011) 916-922, oxalate content in commercially produced cocoa and dark chocolate

Cocoa powder is the bean with its fat pressed out, so its oxalate concentrates per gram with everything else. It is also the form used by the spoonful in drinks and baking, which is the one thing keeping the dose down.

• Schroder T, Vanhanen L & Savage G, J Food Compos Anal 24:7 (2011) 916-922, oxalate content in commercially produced cocoa and dark chocolate

Dairy-free chocolate loses the one thing that helped: the milk calcium that bound part of the oxalate. It also tends to run at a higher cocoa percentage, because something has to replace the milk solids. Two changes, both in the same direction.

• Jaeger Ph et al., Nephron Physiol 98 (2004)
• Holmes R et al., Kidney Int 59 (2001)

Dark chocolate's oxalate rises with the cocoa percentage, which makes the number on the front of the bar the best guide available - but it is a direction, not a ratio. The oxalate is held in the non-fat cocoa solids; the percentage counts cocoa butter as well, and a higher figure means more of both. So an 85 per cent bar is higher than a 45, and not by the arithmetic of 85 over 45. The healthier the bar reads, the higher it sits here.

• Schroder T, Vanhanen L & Savage G, J Food Compos Anal 24:7 (2011) 916-922, oxalate content in commercially produced cocoa and dark chocolate

Peanut butter concentrates the peanut - a tablespoon is around thirty nuts - and it is eaten spread rather than counted. The bread it goes on contributes nothing here, but a glass of milk with it does, because the calcium binds the oxalate before it can be absorbed.

• Jaeger Ph et al., Nephron Physiol 98 (2004)
• Holmes R et al., Kidney Int 59 (2001)

Almond cream is almond milk with more almond and less water, so its oxalate sits where the ratio puts it - and the ratio is on the label as a percentage. It is a cooking cream, which means it arrives in a sauce rather than in a glass.

• Noonan SC & Savage GP, Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8 (1999)
• USDA FoodData Central

Almond yoghurt is fermented almond milk, and fermentation does not remove oxalate - bacteria eat sugars, not organic acids of this kind. What it does change is the calcium: many are fortified, and that calcium binds oxalate in the same pot.

• Jaeger Ph et al., Nephron Physiol 98 (2004)
• Holmes R et al., Kidney Int 59 (2001)

Beetroot juice powder is a concentrated source of oxalates, far higher by weight than fresh beetroot. Use only small amounts if you limit oxalate.

Chocolate without a further word could be a 90 per cent bar or a coating that is mostly sugar and vegetable fat, and the oxalate follows the cocoa. Follow it with one correction: the oxalate is in the non-fat cocoa SOLIDS, while the percentage on the front counts the cocoa butter too, and butter carries none. The number is a reliable direction and a poor ratio. Where no percentage is given, the colour is the only clue and it is a rough one.

• Schroder T, Vanhanen L & Savage G, J Food Compos Anal 24:7 (2011) 916-922, oxalate content in commercially produced cocoa and dark chocolate

Chocolate chips are formulated with less cocoa butter and more sugar than a bar, so per gram they carry less oxalate than the dark chocolate they resemble. They are also baked into things, which spreads a handful across a whole batch.

• Schroder T, Vanhanen L & Savage G, J Food Compos Anal 24:7 (2011) 916-922, oxalate content in commercially produced cocoa and dark chocolate

Granola's oxalates come mainly from its nuts, seeds, cocoa or wheat bran, so check the mix. A nut-light granola is lower in oxalate.

Hazelnut spread is mostly sugar and oil - the hazelnuts are typically a tenth of the jar - so the oxalate arrives heavily diluted compared with the nuts themselves. It also carries milk powder, and that calcium binds some of what oxalate there is.

• Jaeger Ph et al., Nephron Physiol 98 (2004)
• Holmes R et al., Kidney Int 59 (2001)

Milk chocolate is lower on this axis for two reasons at once: less cocoa, and the milk brings calcium that binds part of the oxalate before it can be absorbed. It is the rare case where the less virtuous version of a food is the easier one.

• Jaeger Ph et al., Nephron Physiol 98 (2004)
• Holmes R et al., Kidney Int 59 (2001)

Tahini is ground sesame, and sesame is high in oxalate - but tahini is used by the spoonful in a sauce rather than eaten as a food, which is what keeps it moderate. Unhulled sesame carries more than hulled, because the hull is where it concentrates.

• Noonan SC & Savage GP, Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8 (1999)
• USDA FoodData Central

Breadcrumbs are dried bread from refined flour - the bran and germ that carry the oxalate were milled out before the loaf, and drying changes nothing more. As a coating or a binder, the serving is a spoonful of crumbs.

• Noonan S.C. & Savage G.P., Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8:1 (1999) 64-74, oxalate content of foods and its effect on humans

Cashew cheese is blended nuts, and nuts are not a low-oxalate group - the cashew sits in the middle of them. It is eaten in cheese-sized portions rather than handfuls, which is what keeps it here.

• Noonan S.C. & Savage G.P., Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8:1 (1999) 64-74, oxalate content of foods and its effect on humans

Cornflakes are degermed maize, rolled and toasted - the germ and bran went out at the mill, and what remains is mostly starch. The bowl is big for a breakfast cereal, but there is little oxalate in it to count.

• Noonan S.C. & Savage G.P., Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8:1 (1999) 64-74, oxalate content of foods and its effect on humans

A croissant is refined wheat flour and butter - the milling took the bran and germ, and the lamination adds fat, not plant fibre. The oxalate a wholemeal loaf would carry is simply not in the dough.

• Noonan S.C. & Savage G.P., Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8:1 (1999) 64-74, oxalate content of foods and its effect on humans

Fermented tofu comes from the soybean, which carries oxalate like any pulse - but the processing matters more than the bean. Fermented tofu is tofu first, set with a CALCIUM salt that binds the soybean's oxalate in the curd, and the brine it matures in adds nothing on this axis. Oxalate is water-soluble, so what is boiled and drained differs from what is steamed or eaten whole.

• Gad S. et al., Food Chemistry 8:3 (1982) 169-177, oxalate of pulses and the effect of cooking

French fries are peeled potato and oil: the skin, where a potato keeps its oxalate, is gone before the fryer, and the blanching water takes a little more. The oil adds nothing on this axis.

• Noonan S.C. & Savage G.P., Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8:1 (1999) 64-74, oxalate content of foods and its effect on humans

Hummus is chickpeas and tahini, and both carry oxalate - sesame more than the chickpea. What holds it down is the rest of the jar: lemon, oil and water make up much of it, and the lemon brings citrate, which works against stone formation. Quinteros measured soluble oxalate in beans, chickpeas and lentils and found that every cooking method reduces it — the loss going into the water rather than disappearing.

• Quinteros A et al., Int J Food Sci Nutr 54:5 (2003) 373-377, soluble oxalate in beans, chickpeas and lentils

Ketchup concentrates tomato, and the tomato's oxalate concentrates with it. Ketchup arrives in small repeated squeezes rather than one serving, so the concentration is real and the dose at any one time is not.

• Noonan S.C. & Savage G.P., Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8:1 (1999) 64-74, oxalate content of foods and its effect on humans

Miso comes from the soybean, which carries oxalate like any pulse - but the processing matters more than the bean. Miso is a salted paste eaten by the spoonful in a broth, and that portion is what keeps it low whatever the paste holds. Oxalate is water-soluble, so what is boiled and drained differs from what is steamed or eaten whole.

• Gad S. et al., Food Chemistry 8:3 (1982) 169-177, oxalate of pulses and the effect of cooking

Natto comes from the soybean, which carries oxalate like any pulse - but the processing matters more than the bean. Natto is the whole bean fermented as it is, with nothing pressed or strained out, so it keeps what the bean had. Oxalate is water-soluble, so what is boiled and drained differs from what is steamed or eaten whole.

• Gad S. et al., Food Chemistry 8:3 (1982) 169-177, oxalate of pulses and the effect of cooking

Oat cream is an oat drink thickened with oil: the oats are milled and strained before they ever reach it, and the bran stays in the strainer. The dilution and the straining take the oxalate out.

• Noonan S.C. & Savage G.P., Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8:1 (1999) 64-74, oxalate content of foods and its effect on humans

Pasta is refined durum wheat - semolina with the bran and germ milled out - then dried, then boiled, and the boiling water leaches a little more oxalate before going down the drain.

• Noonan S.C. & Savage G.P., Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8:1 (1999) 64-74, oxalate content of foods and its effect on humans

Pesto is basil, pine nuts, cheese and oil. Basil is a herb and herbs measure high by weight, but a jar is mostly oil - and the parmesan in it brings calcium that binds part of the oxalate the basil contributed.

• Noonan S.C. & Savage G.P., Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8:1 (1999) 64-74, oxalate content of foods and its effect on humans

Potato flakes are peeled potato, cooked and dried - and a potato keeps its oxalate in the skin, which peeling removes. The drying concentrates, but what it concentrates is flesh, and the flesh is the low part.

• Noonan S.C. & Savage G.P., Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8:1 (1999) 64-74, oxalate content of foods and its effect on humans

Soy cream comes from the soybean, which carries oxalate like any pulse - but the processing matters more than the bean. Soy cream is strained and then diluted: the okara stays in the filter and what reaches the carton is mostly water and oil. Oxalate is water-soluble, so what is boiled and drained differs from what is steamed or eaten whole.

• Gad S. et al., Food Chemistry 8:3 (1982) 169-177, oxalate of pulses and the effect of cooking

Tempeh comes from the soybean, which carries oxalate like any pulse - but the processing matters more than the bean. Tempeh is the whole bean, bound by its culture rather than strained, so nothing is drained away before it is eaten. Oxalate is water-soluble, so what is boiled and drained differs from what is steamed or eaten whole.

• Gad S. et al., Food Chemistry 8:3 (1982) 169-177, oxalate of pulses and the effect of cooking

Tofu comes from the soybean, which carries oxalate like any pulse - but the processing matters more than the bean. Tofu is set with a CALCIUM salt, and that calcium binds the soybean's oxalate in the curd; the whey that is pressed out takes the soluble part with it. Oxalate is water-soluble, so what is boiled and drained differs from what is steamed or eaten whole.

• Gad S. et al., Food Chemistry 8:3 (1982) 169-177, oxalate of pulses and the effect of cooking

Tomato powder concentrates tomato, and the tomato's oxalate concentrates with it. Tomato powder is the most concentrated tomato format there is, and it hides in soup mixes and seasoning blends where nobody weighs it.

• Noonan S.C. & Savage G.P., Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8:1 (1999) 64-74, oxalate content of foods and its effect on humans

Tomato sauce concentrates tomato, and the tomato's oxalate concentrates with it. Tomato sauce is eaten as a plate-sized portion rather than a spoonful, which is what makes the concentration count here.

• Noonan S.C. & Savage G.P., Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8:1 (1999) 64-74, oxalate content of foods and its effect on humans

A tortilla is maize treated with lime: the hull goes, and the nixtamalisation adds calcium, which binds what little oxalate is left. Two removals and a binder - this axis has almost nothing left to count.

• Noonan S.C. & Savage G.P., Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 8:1 (1999) 64-74, oxalate content of foods and its effect on humans
• Jaeger Ph. et al., Nephron Physiol 98 (2004) 64-71, dietary intake and intestinal absorption of oxalate