Ask almost anyone what they need to do to lose a few pounds, and theyll probably say:Cut back on the carbs.As a nutrition coach, Ive heard it hundreds of times.

While the low carb movement has waxed and waned in popularity since theAtkinsrevival of the late 90s and early 2000s, most folks now assume that carbohydrates are inherently fattening.

Health-conscious diners order bunless hamburgers, skip the baked potato side dish, and send the bread basket back to the kitchen. (Or dont, and feel guilty about it.)

In the past few years, Ill bet youve heard (or thought) at least one of the following:

Seems simple and logical. Which is the problem.

These simplistic statements about good foods and bad foods ignore biological complexity and the bigger picture.

Lets look closer.

Yes, they do.

No.

(Insulins actually a satiety hormone in other words, it makes you feel full so the idea that on its own it leads to fat gain doesnt make sense.)

That depends. Are we talking about processed corn syrup? Probably.

But if were talking about whole grains, not really.

Well, if youre talking about processed carbs, the answer is a resounding yes.

But if youre talking about whole, minimally processed carbs, thats a different story.

Of course it can.

Is it because it is low in carbs?

Maybe. Maybe not.

You bet it can.

As a weight loss strategy, cutting carbs (while reducing the total number of calories) clearly works pretty well for some people.If it didnt, then Atkins would have never been popular in the first place.

Heres the thing, though: Carb reduction costs us.

You see, most of us require some level of carbohydrates to function at our best over the long term.

Sure, we can cut carbs temporarily if we need to lose weight quickly. But for most of us, keeping carbs too low for too long can have disastrous consequences.

This is especially true for those of us who work out.

If youre sedentary, your carb needs are lower. So you might be able to get away with more restriction.

But if you like to exercise regularly and enthusiastically, restricting your carb intake too drastically can lead to:

In other words: Your metabolism might slow, your stress hormones go up and your muscle-building hormones go down.

You feel lousy, spaced-out, sluggish, cranky and maybe even sick.

Most vexing of all: You probably dont even lose that much weight in the long term.

If youre interested in the details and some research, read on. If you just want to know what to do, skip to the end.

In order to function properly and to maintain an appropriate metabolism, our body produces an important hormone called T3.T3 is the most active thyroid hormone and is incredibly important for blood glucose management and proper metabolic function.

Low T3 levels can lead to a condition called euthyroid sick syndrome, in which people are constantly cold and sluggish. (Imagine your metabolic body motor idling at a slower speed.)

A landmark study, known as the Vermont Study, found that T3 is very sensitive to calorie and carbohydrate intake. When calories and carbs are too low, your T3 levels drop.

In addition, the Vermont Study found that another hormone,reverse T3 (rT3), is also sensitive to calorie and carbohydrate intake. Reverse T3, as the name implies, inhibits T3.

Getting enough carbs can lower reverse T3. Not eating enough carbs will increase it, thus blocking the important work of T3.

The Vermont Study is far from alone. Other research confirms that ketogenic (ultra-low carb) diets reduce T3 levels as rapidly as starvation.

Additional studies show that when calories are held constant (in this case at 2100 calories), reducing carbohydrates from 409 g to 202 g and then to 104 g significantly reduced serum T3 levels (from 91 to 86 to 69 ng/dL respectively).

Finally, French researchers examined four calorically equal diets (2800 calories in this case), lasting 1 week each. Two of these diets contained 250 grams of carbs, which is a fairly typical proportion. The low-carb diet included 71 grams of carbs, and the high-carb diet included 533 grams of carbs.

T3 levels were equal on the normal and high carb diets (ranging from 163.3 to 169.5 ng/100 mL). However, on the low carb diet they fell to 148.6 ng/100 mL on average. And of course, rT3 correspondingly rose on the low carb diet, but not on the standard or high carb diets.

Thyroid hormones are important for more than just weight loss; they also have profound effects on our overall health and energy levels.

Thus, when you dont eat enough, and/or eat enough carbs while training:

If youre active, youneed adequate energy and carb intakes for a healthy thyroid.

Research consistently shows that people who exercise regularly need to eat enough carbs or their testosterone will fall while their cortisol levels rise. This is a sure-fire recipe for losing muscle and gaining fat.

Incidentally, its also a marker for excessive training stress.

In a study in Life Sciences, men who ate a high carbohydrate versus a low carbohydrate diet for 10 days had higher levels of testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin, and lower levels of cortisol.

A few years later, another study took this research a step further. This time the subjects included men and women who exercised regularly. And in addition to considering the effect of their diet on hormones, researchers put them through some performance tests.

Once again, when the subjects ate a low carb diet, their testosterone (and other anabolic hormones) went down, while their cortisol went up.

And, after following a low carb diet for just three days, only two of the six participants were able to complete the cycling test! Meanwhile, when following the higher carb diet for three days, all six participants were able to complete the test.

In 2010, researchers reconsidered the same question this time in relation to intense exercise. In this particular study, subjects eating the low carb diet (where 30% of their calories came from carbs) saw a drop of 43% in their testosterone to cortisol ratio. Not good. Meanwhile, the control group (who got 60% of their calories from carbs) saw no change in their testosterone/ cortisol ratios.

Thus:

We now know that eating too low-carb for too long can cause significant disruptions to many hormones.

This seems especially true for women, whose bodies may be more sensitive than mens to low energy or carbohydrate availability (perhaps because of the evolutionary importance of having enough body fat and nutrients to sustain a pregnancy).

While organs like our gonads or thyroid make hormones, Mission Control of our hormone production system is the central nervous system (CNS), i.e. the brain.

Our hypothalamus and pituitary glands, which sit in the brain, are exquisitely sensitive to things like energy availability and stress (which can include life stress and exercise stress).

The hypothalamus and pituitary work together with other glands such as the adrenal glands. This partnership is often known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal, orHPA, axis.

Thus, when women dont eat enough calories or carbohydrate or even when women eat enough calories but not enough carbohydrate they face hypothalamic amenorrhea.

This means disrupted hormones and stopped or irregular periods because of the HPAs response to perceived starvation and stress.

In hypothalamic amenorrhea, hormone levels plummet, and the cascade is felt throughout the system. You end up with low levels of luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.

In addition, weve already seen that not eating enough carbohydrate tends to increase cortisol levels. When cortisol rises, it signals your HPA axis to further decrease pituitary activity. Not good.

Your HPA axis regulates functions such as stress response, mood, digestion, immune system, libido, metabolism and energy levels.

And your pituitary in particular is responsible for synthesizing and secreting growth hormone, thyroid stimulating hormone, prolactin, LH, FSH and other incredibly important hormones.

With all this said, heres the takeaway message: Many women try to eat low-carb, wanting to be healthier.

Yet because low-carb diets can significantly disrupt hormone production, women with too-low carb intakes especially active women can face:

ironically, this is the exact opposite of what they wanted in the first place.

When we think about building muscle, we usually think of protein. But research shows that lowering carb intake can affect your muscle mass even if protein remained constant.

In other words, even if youre guzzling protein shakes or eating steak 5 times a day, you could be losing muscle if you arent getting enough carbs.

A recent study from the Netherlands compared three diets:

All diets had the same total calories and the same amount of protein 15%. (Yes, a little low, but more or less adequate.)

The result? For starters, pretty consistent with other research.

But heres the interesting wrinkle. In this study, the researchers also measured urinary nitrogen excretion to see how the diets affected protein breakdown.

In this case,the low carb dietincreasedmuscle breakdown, because severely low carbs lowered insulin levels.

Again, youd assume that protein intake would determine muscle breakdown. And you might assume based on what youve heard that having higher insulin is always bad.

In fact, insulin is crucial for building muscle.

When you get enough carbs to meet your needs, you replenish muscle glycogen and create an anabolic (building-up) hormonal environment. You get strong and buff. Thats good.

Conversely, when you dont eat enough carbohydrate, muscle glycogen is depleted and a catabolic (breaking-down) hormonal environment is created, whichmeansmore protein breakdown and less protein synthesis. This means slower muscle growth or even muscle loss.

The bottom line? Not eating enough carbohydrates can lower T3 levels, disrupt cortisol to testosterone ratios, interfere with a womans delicate hormone balance, contribute to muscle loss, and prevent muscle gains.

Definitely not what most of us want!

But wait a minute.

Even if all of this is true, arent low carb diets better for fat loss?

And arent fat-adapted athletes performing just as well as athletes who eat a lot of carbs?

The logic seems so clear and appealing: High carbs lead to insulin which leads to fat storage. Low carbs keep insulin low, which should get you effortlessly lean while you enjoy chicken wings, salmon, eggs, and butter.

Indeed, many people who try low-carb dieting are initially pleased by an immediate weight loss which is mostly water and glycogen. So, in the short term, itseems like low-carb diets are superior.

But does long-term evidence support low-carb dieting?

Research says no. Over the long haul, any differences between low-carb and other diets even out.

Most studies that suggest low-carb diets are superior suffer from a common methodological flaw: They usually dont match protein intake between groups. This means that the low carb group often ends up consuming significantly more protein.

We know that getting plenty of protein has many advantages:

In other words, the big secret might be a high protein diet rather than a low carb diet.

So lets play fair and look ata study where protein was matched. In this study,subjects who ate a moderate carb diet (40% calories from carbs) reported significantly better mood, and lost about the same amount of weight as those on a ketogenic low-carb diet (5% calories from carbs).

Actually, the group who ate a moderate amount of carbs showed a small (though not statistically significant) tendency to lose more body fat as compared to those on a low carb diet (5.5 kg vs 3.4 kg in 6 weeks).

Both diets improved insulin sensitivity. However, the ketogenic diet also increased LDL cholesterol and inflammatory markers and subjects who were on it felt less energetic.

Thus, in this study:

Makes you wonder why low carb gets so much hype, doesnt it?

Especially considering that a recent review of long-term low carb versus low fat diets the largest of its kind so far found that both low carb and low fat diets reduced peoples weight and improved their metabolic risk factors.

In this review, both diets had about the same weight loss, changes in waist circumference, and measurements of several metabolic risk factors (blood pressure, blood glucose, insulin).

Still, it would be great to understand more about what makes low carb diets work at all. One recent study asked:Do low carb diets work because they restrict carbs or because they tend to increase protein?

Over the course of one year, the researchers compared four different conditions:

Interestingly, the two groups eating the high protein lost the most weight.

And the real kicker? Varying the levels of fats and carbs seemed to make no difference to body composition.

As our name implies, at Precision Nutrition we dont believe in one-size-fits-all dietary recommendations.

Like most things, carbohydrate requirements fall on a bell curve.

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Carb controversy: Why low-carb diets have got it all wrong ...

I know you are all looking forTHElist. Here is one from a reliable source.We have downloaded one version on their siteto a separate document so it opens with one clicka useful table of oxalate foods. Get yourself acquainted with it. It will tell you much of whatyou need to know. A lot of it will even surprise you. You are not as restricted as you think you are or as you have been told.

A more dramatic list is the 180 high oxalate foods distilled out of the big list. Here are culprits! Not on this list? Probably not very high in oxalate so far as we know with perhaps a few exceptions. Note that quantity is critical. For example black pepper is high in oxalate but the amounts used aresmall enough that total oxalate intake from it is negligible.

The reliable source, as it turns out, needed some updating. Dr Ross Holmes, professor, School of Medicine, University of Alabama,was kind enough to review the work of Dr. Michael Liebmanwho is a professor of Human Nutrition and Food Option at University of Wyoming and determine which food entries on the Harvard list needed changing. We cannot change the original but we have updated our lists accordingly and annotated updates with *** marks. So the lists here are the most recently edited available at present.

Eating a low oxalate diet can be overwhelming and difficult to incorporate into your daily life. I just released a course called The Kidney Stone Prevention Course to help you understand how to implement your physicians prescribed treatment plans.

I have a safe list on my site. Those are foods from 40 mg of oxalate/serving on down. The list shows you the many foods you can eat and remain well within your budget.

We have created two graphs for this article. Of the 177 foods on our master list, many are of concern but can be used in your diet if you control the portion size and how often you use them.

Here they are.

These foods that can add up. The graph shows mg of oxalate in a common portion. The details of the portions are in the list.

These foods, shown in the figure to the left, are high in oxalate, at least 40 mg/serving.

Your budget is about 100 mg/day.

The serving sizes are on the list.

What does this graph mean? Does it mean you can never have chocolate, or a baked potato?

No.

It means if you want to use your whole budget on a treat, do it, but keep track and make sure you do not over spend in any meal or in any one day. Have your baked potato, but maybe share half with your partner. Or, have some hot chocolate but make it with milk because calcium helps reduce oxalate absorption. Eat your cashew nuts, but pay attention to how many. If one handful leads to ten, you cannot have them.

The graph to the left is of the very few dangerously high oxalate foods. It begins where the other graph ended.

There are only six foods, but spinach, being worst of all, has two entries. Be careful of this plot because of its range. It begins at 100 mg/portion and rises to 755 mg/portion in only 7 steps, so the distance from miso soup to spinach is about a 7 fold increase.

Rhubarb and spinach are so high you just cannot eat them. Rice bran is something nobody will miss, but in order to sleep tonight I have to warn you. The same for buckwheat groats.

People like almonds but have a hard time controlling portion size. If you can keep it to 11 almonds a day, alright. Otherwise stay.

If you have to eat any of these foods, caution is hardly a strong enough word.

Are you sure you need to eat them?

Why?

We are saying that oxalate is common in foods, and that you have to be careful, but care is a scarce resource. How much care can you give every bite? The graphs say if you eating moderately high oxalate foods, be careful.

Watch portions.

If you are eating one of the six dangerously high oxalate foods, stop eating it. Just leave.

It is too hard to be careful with those six foods. They have too much oxalate for most of you to handle. So, just say no.

These data arose from a major effort at the Harvard School of Public Health. A world class expert has curated it twice. Harvard can be wrong and so can Ross Holmes, but both will tend to be wrong less often than the average persons who attempt to put complex data into the public domain. We have always appreciated comments, and if anyone has a peer reviewed publication with different food oxalate levels than ours, we will read the paper and see if it warrants our making a change.

Medical research is endlessly argumentative, and food oxalate is no exception. A recent paper contrasts findings from 6 websites and 2 applications and finds some wide variations. Because the results are hard to get from PubMed I have uploaded a PDF for you. It will open as a Google Document. Of the sites, the Harvard site used here as our reference, and the Wake Forest site which is a legacy of an outstanding investigative group have most standing with me. Leaf through the comparisons between them in the 4 charts and in the large table at the very end. On the whole differences are modest. The hyperoxaluria and oxalosis list from the paper has been withdrawn from their site.

Sure, a list is nice. But we helping you here. Lists can run on to hundreds of foods. The picture is meant for focus. Here are the ones to focus on.

Many of you leave the doctors office thinking you will never be able to eat a fruit or vegetable again. If that wasnt bad enough chocolate and nuts are gone, too. Some of this sadly is true, most of it is not. I am here to bring you good news: Almost everything, high oxalate or not, can be incorporated into your diet safely.

Do you need a lowoxalate diet? You mayif your stones contain calcium oxalate crystals and your urine oxalate is high enough to pose risk.

If you do need a low oxalate diet, what is your goal? Less than 100 mg of diet oxalate is good; less than 50 mg is ideal.

If you want to read some of the science about urine oxalate and risk of stones and about how we get to the diet oxalate goals, it is summarized at the end of this article.

Here we assume you do need to lower the oxalate in yourdiet.

Low calcium diets can raise urine oxalate, and the solution may be as simple as a proper calcium intake. There is every reason for stone formers to eat 1000 mg of calcium daily to protect their bones. The common hypercalciuria of calcium stone formers puts bones at special risk when diet calcium is low.

Before changing your whole life around, ask yourself if you are avoiding calcium foods. If so, add them back and ask your doctor to check your urine oxalate again. It may fall enough that a low oxalate diet is not necessary.

If low calcium intake is not your problem, and you need a low oxalate diet, here is my take on how to do it.

Typical diets contain upward of 200 300 mg of oxalate. For stone prevention, a reasonable goal is below 100 mg of oxalate daily. An ideal would be about 50 mg daily if that can be accomplished.

To get there, consider the oxalate contents in common serving portions of all of the foods, and make up a plan for yourself.

Everyone who comes to me is very unhappy thinking they can never have a berry again. This is Baloney. The only berry that is very high in oxalate is raspberries (look at the list). On the other hand, people do not realize avocado, oranges, dates, and even grapefruit and kiwi are very high and need caution.

This doesnt mean you can never have these healthy treats. If you incorporate any of these high oxalate fruits into your morning yogurt you can reduce some of the effects of the oxalate content.

Also look at your portion sizes. You really cannot eat a lot at any one time. Dates are not a good bargain: One date is 24 mg!

Canned pineapple is a problem.

Dried fruits have to be a worry because the water is taken out, soa portion of dried fruit can be gigantic in oxalatecontent. Figs, pineapple and prunes are standouts. Just think: 1/2 cup of dried pineapple is 30 mg not a lot of fruit for a lot of oxalate. If you want dried fruit, think about apples, apricots, and cranberry as lower oxalate options.

Spinach and rhubarb are standouts; stay away.

Other vegetables you need to be aware of are tomato sauce, turnips, okra, and yams (sweet potatoes) along with beans of different sorts.

I am not in the business of taking healthy foods away from people. But in the cases above you really must limit; there is just too much oxalate and these foods do not pair well with high calcium foods the way fruits can be mixed right into your yogurt or cereal and milk.

Many of you have been told to stay away from all green leafy vegetables. This is not true. Look at the list. There are plenty of salad options still available for you including kale. Even though tomato sauce is high in oxalate (see below) that is because of concentration. A whole medium tomato is only 7 mg and who eats more than one at a time?

Many of the salad vegetables are so low in oxalate they are freebies. Eat what you want.

These are Trouble! I put them into their own separate group even though they are vegetables.

From french fries to baked potatoes they are very high oxalate items. One ounce of potato chips has 21 mg of oxalate and who eats one ounce? Not I. Baked potatoes are terrible. One comes in at just under 100 mg of oxalate. Mixing sour cream into the potato will not help much; one tablespoon of sour cream contains only 14 mg of calcium. One ounce of cheddar cheese contains 200 mg of calcium, which could help, but it increases calories, salt and fat. But all in all, why struggle so hard? Potatoes are not ideal for stone formers.

They have no oxalate. They are your main source of calcium. Use them. They can add a lot of salt cheeses and can be caloric. But they reduce oxalate absorption and preserve your bones.

For a stone former who has to watch salt intake, increase calcium intake, and lower oxalate intake, here is how to do that. You cannot have as much cheese as you want because of the salt. So portion sizes are very important. Yogurt, milk, even ice cream are good bargains modest sodium and high calcium. These are a great place to add in a wee bit of chocolate high oxalate foods for those of you who cannot live without these high oxalate treats.

Some of the basic ingredients to make these foods are very high. White flour and brown rice flour are high in oxalate so everything you make from themwill be high.

Even so, as far as kidney stones go, breads are mainly alright because of portion size: not that much flour soone slice is 5-8 mg. French toast andNew York style bagels top the list at 13 mg for two slicesand 40 mg for one bagel as much as anyone will eat of either food.

Spaghetti, one cup cooked is 11 mg and most of us eat more than one cup.

Buckwheat groats, one cup cooked is 133 mg I dont see many of you saying darn it or taking to your bed, but beware. Millet and bulger, wheat berries, rice bran, corn grits, and corn meal, these are widely used and are high. If you are using these, be thoughtful.

Here are some low oxalate options in this category: White rice, hummus, corn flour, corn bran, flax seed, and oat bran are popular and safe.

Since oxalate is only found in plant foods, all the meats are safe. Fish, too.

For our vegetarian friends, tofu and veggieburgers are very high.

These are just dangerous for two reasons.

Obviously they are very high in oxalate.

Secondly, I dont know anybody who just has a few nuts at a time.

Just like chips no one eats one the whole jar is more like it.

But, for one cup of pumpkin sunflower or flax seeds the highest is only 17 mg of oxalate and none for flax. For those of you who love foods in this category seeds are thebetter choice and they can be sprinkled on yogurt and ice cream.

I have good news for my chocolate lovers. I know most of you have been sent home with a list and chocolate is high on it. But if you look at the numbers nuts are a lot worse than chocolate. Chocolate can be mixed in with dairy products, too, so as to reduce oxalate absorption.

Even so I do want to point out that half a brownie is on the high side, and who eats one half?

You can still satisfy your sugar craving but pay attention to your portion size.

Keep in mind, however, that sugar loads increase urine calcium loss which increases stone risk, so there are two reasons why this food group can be a problem.

But even without chocolate,you eat a lot of flour when you eat a piece of cake, so cake can be a problem about 15 mg per piece, like french toast. Pies are half the risk because of their fillings unless they are chocolate pies!

The big enemy here is potato chips. A one ounce serving contains a whopping 21 mg of oxalate. I repeat: A one ounce serving.

Your best bet in this category if youre looking for something crunchy is corn chips one ounce is 7 mg, popcorn one cup is 5 mg, and pretzels, one ounce is 5 mg.

Crackers are OK mainly because they are small and the amount of flour is not that much.

Hot chocolate is the clear loserat 65 mg per cup; carrot juice is the runner up at 27 mg per one cup. Lemonade, tea, tomato juices, rice dream and the like are better but still high. The are 15 18 mg per serving. Lemonade frozen concentrate is 16 mg per 8 ounces so be careful about this as a source of citrate.

Soy milk, for those of you who prefer it, is not a good option. It is very high at 20 mg per cup. We have no data from standard sources for rice milk,cashew milk, and coconut milk;almonds are high in oxalate so the almond milk product will certainly be high.

Tea is so commonly used, here are the details. If you brew your own tea it is high in oxalate. The longer you steep your tea, the more oxalate it will have in it. If you use a sweetened instant iced tea one cup has 0 mg of oxalate.

Here are some juices that are low in oxalate and better substitutes: Apple juice, apricot juice, orange juice, grapefruit juice, grape juice. For all the lemonade drinkers, diet lemonade is low in oxalate.

Here is something very important: Coffee is oxalate free almost, 1mg for a cup (2 mg/cup for decaf). We already told you that coffee drinkers have a reduced stone risk, so lets debunk the coffee myth here: Drink it as you wish.

Everything is good except chocolate milk. Even that is only 7 mg a cup for a sweet treat here and there.

What tops the list in this category is a can of beer: 4 mg of oxalate. All the rest are low and, frankly, the oxalate in a can of beer comes with a lot of fluid. This is not the problem area for stone formers.

If I didnt say this to you I could not sleep well tonight. Water is the clear winner in this whole category. It is free of calories, sugar, and oxalate. Please use it as your main beverage and supplement with the items above.

Chocolate, miso, peanut butter, and tahini are all high.

Miso soups is extremely high 111 mg/cup. Lentil soup is high, and so is clam chowder the potatoes.

This is a dangerous meal if you are a cereal lover. Many cereals are high in oxalate. I am afraid you need to look them up in the list by brand. Unfortunately the healthier cereals are highest in oxalate because they contain more plant based ingredients. Probably having milk in your cereal is wise, but we have no data to show.

Eating a low oxalate diet can be overwhelming and difficult to incorporate into your daily life. I just released a course called The Kidney Stone Prevention Course to help you understand how to implement your physicians prescribed treatment plans.

The first thing you need to do is to learn and remember what are the highest oxalate foods and beverages. Without this in mind it is impossible to shop and cook intelligently. Here is a short list of the highest oxalate foods all in one place.

For those of you who love cereal because it is quick and easy check out the list and see if the one you love is high in oxalate. If it is, choose the next best one with lower oxalate. Put milk in the cereal.

Alternatives to cereal that are also quick and easy: Yogurt or cottage cheese and fruit. The only fruits to worry about are raspberries because no one puts oranges on their yogurt. Bananas, peaches, blueberries and strawberries are perfect toppings.

More trouble, but no oxalate, eggs any way at all. Boil a batch on Sunday and have them for the week for breakfast, and snacks, too.

Your breakfast coffee is free and so is your water. For juices use orange, apple, pineapple, grapefruit all great. If you want tea, dont steep more than a minute and consider adding milk to it. Green tea is better than black.

Typically you are grabbing a salad or a sandwich for lunch, so what now? Many clients tell me they no longer eat salads because their physicians told them to stop all green leafy vegetables.

Im bringing salads back to you.

Arugula, iceberg, romaine lettuces, and kale, are fine as your base. Stay away from spinach. Here are good toppings. Cauliflower, corn, cucumber, mushrooms, onions, peas, scallions, squash and zucchini are all fine. Tomatoes are fine, too; it is only the sauce that is high. Broccoli and green pepper are moderately high so watch the portion size.

Sandwiches will cost you between 12 and 16 mg of oxalate depending on the bread you are using 2 slices. This doesnt mean you can never have a sandwich, it just means you have to keep track of how much. You can have 50 to 100 mg daily. What goes inside between the two slices of bread is usually cheeses and meats which are oxalate free. So sandwiches are not something to be afraid of.

Beef, chicken and fish are all fine, and those the main courses for most of us. You will run into problems if you are a pasta or potato eater. If you are you need to limit the amount of times you have these foods each week and also the quantity each time you use them. Substitutes are a problem: White rice is a nice substitute for potatoes but there are few others. It is more veggies that have to fill in very healthy but not as much fun.

Here is a recipe for cauliflower mashed potatoes you will like and even think, sometimes, is the real thing. There are many versions on the web, choose the one that makes you happy but be careful about the ingredients.

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How To Eat A Low Oxalate Diet | Kidney Stone Evaluation ...

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It might have happened to you... You put a bottle of soda in the freezer for a few minutes just to get it ice cold. When you take the soda out of the freezer, it's still a liquid (nothing unusual has happened just yet). However, the second you twist off the cap, the soda instantly freezes! The process is amazing to watch... but it's a real bummer if you were thirsty (because it's tough to suck ice out of the bottle). This is a great illustration of how carbon dioxide can lower the freezing point of water. Get some ice, some salt, and some plastic bottles of soda water and try this very cool science demo.

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