The Low Oxalate Diet: Complete Food List & Protocol

What "Low" Actually Means

The most useful daily oxalate categories (Susan Owens / TLO framework):

• Very low: under 40 mg/day — therapeutic for active dumping
• Low: 40-100 mg/day — standard protocol target
• Moderate: 100-200 mg/day — long-term maintenance after clearance
• High: 200-500 mg/day — problematic for most adults
• Very high: over 500 mg/day — the standard "healthy" diet

For perspective: one cup of cooked spinach contains roughly 755 mg of oxalate. One ounce of almonds contains roughly 122 mg. One medium baked sweet potato contains roughly 140 mg. Eat all three in a single day and you're already 10x over the "low" target before breakfast tomorrow.

Free Foods (Essentially Zero Oxalate)

These are your backbone. Eat them without counting:

• All meats: beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey, duck, game — 0 mg
• All fish and shellfish: salmon, sardines, mackerel, cod, shrimp, scallops, oysters — 0 mg
• Eggs: 0 mg
• Butter and ghee: 0 mg
• Animal fats: tallow, lard, duck fat — 0 mg
• Olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil: 0-1 mg
• Hard cheeses: cheddar, parmesan, gouda — under 1 mg/oz
• Cream, whole milk, Greek yogurt: under 1 mg/serving
• Salt, vinegar, most fresh herbs in small amounts

An all-meat carnivore diet is, mechanically, a near-zero oxalate diet — which is why many people with severe oxalate burden find dramatic symptom relief on carnivore. (See Judy Cho on carnivore for the detailed case.)

Low-Oxalate Vegetables (under 10 mg per serving)

The vegetables that won't derail you. Approximate values per typical serving (1 cup raw or 1/2 cup cooked unless noted):

• Cauliflower: 1 mg
• Cabbage (green or red): 1 mg
• Iceberg lettuce: 1 mg
• Romaine lettuce: 2 mg
• Mushrooms (white button): 2 mg
• Cucumber (peeled): 2 mg
• Bok choy: 1 mg
• Onions (cooked): 4 mg
• Bell peppers (red, yellow, green): 5-7 mg
• Zucchini (peeled): 6 mg
• Asparagus: 6 mg
• Yellow squash: 7 mg
• Garlic (in small amounts): negligible

Boil and discard the cooking water for any vegetable you're unsure about. Boiling pulls 30-87% of soluble oxalate into the water.

Low-Oxalate Fruits

Per typical serving (1 medium fruit or 1 cup):

• Bananas (ripe): 3 mg
• Apples (peeled): 1-2 mg
• Blueberries: 4 mg
• Mango: 2 mg
• Cherries (sweet): 7 mg
• Cantaloupe: 3 mg
• Honeydew: 1 mg
• Watermelon: 1 mg
• Papaya: 1 mg
• Lemon and lime juice: 5-7 mg per cup (and the citrate is actively helpful)
• Peaches and nectarines: 4 mg
• Plums: 7 mg

Berries are tricky: blueberries are fine, blackberries and raspberries are moderate (15-25 mg/cup), and strawberries are high (over 30 mg/cup).

Foods To Avoid (200+ mg per serving)

These are the catastrophic ones. Single servings can blow your entire daily budget:

• Spinach (cooked): ~755 mg per cup
• Swiss chard (cooked): ~700 mg per cup
• Beet greens (cooked): ~916 mg per cup
• Rhubarb (stewed): ~860 mg per cup
• Almonds: ~122 mg per ounce (about 23 nuts)
• Almond flour: ~488 mg per 1/4 cup
• Almond butter: ~80 mg per tablespoon
• Peanuts: ~38 mg per ounce
• Sesame seeds and tahini: ~150 mg per ounce
• Buckwheat: ~133 mg per cup cooked
• Cassava and tapioca: 1,260+ mg per cup raw cassava
• Sweet potato (baked): ~140 mg per medium
• Beets: ~75-150 mg per cup
• Dark chocolate: ~85-200 mg per ounce
• Soy products (tofu, tempeh, soy milk): highly variable, often 30-100+ mg per serving
• Star fruit: ~80-280 mg per fruit (also nephrotoxic in CKD)

Note that "baby spinach in your salad" is roughly the same offender as cooked spinach. Raw vs cooked changes density slightly, not the toxicity ceiling.

Moderate Foods (Use Sparingly)

Foods in the 10-50 mg/serving range. Workable in small amounts; will torpedo your budget if you eat them like staples:

• Quinoa: ~20 mg per cup cooked (some sources higher)
• White rice: 0-2 mg cooked (effectively a free food)
• Brown rice: ~10 mg per cup cooked
• Oats: ~10-20 mg per cup cooked
• Carrots (cooked): ~6-10 mg per 1/2 cup
• Broccoli: ~6 mg per 1/2 cup cooked
• Brussels sprouts: ~10 mg per 1/2 cup cooked
• Green beans: ~15 mg per 1/2 cup cooked
• Avocado: ~19 mg per half
• Tomatoes (raw or cooked): ~7-10 mg per medium
• Strawberries: ~30 mg per cup
• Oranges: ~24 mg per medium
• Pumpkin and winter squash: ~16-28 mg per 1/2 cup

The Transition Protocol

How you taper matters as much as where you land. The protocol that minimizes dumping:

• Week 0: Track current intake honestly. Most people are shocked by their starting number.
• Weeks 1-4: Cut 10% per week from the biggest offenders first. Replace spinach with cooked cabbage, almond flour with coconut flour, sweet potato with white rice.
• Weeks 5-8: Continue 5-10% reductions. Add calcium citrate with every meal. Start B6 (P5P).
• Weeks 9-12: You should be in the 100-200 mg/day range. Hold here for 2-4 weeks if dumping is intense.
• Months 4-6: Settle into the 40-100 mg/day target. Continue full support stack. Expect ongoing dumping waves.
• Months 6-12+: Maintain. Re-evaluate body burden via symptom resolution. Most people see major improvement by month 6.

See the full oxalate detox protocol for the exact supplement timing and binder strategy.

Hidden Sources That Wreck Your Numbers

The foods most people don't think to count:

• Almond milk: uses pulverized almonds, often 25-50 mg per cup
• Protein powders: pea, soy, and especially "greens" powders are oxalate bombs
• Chocolate, cocoa powder, mocha drinks: 50-200+ mg per serving
• Tea (especially black tea): ~14 mg per cup; iced tea drinkers can accumulate huge daily totals
• Hummus, tahini-based dressings: sesame is loaded
• Energy bars and protein bars: often almond, soy, and cocoa stacked together
• Pesto: basil is low but pine nuts and parmesan in quantity add up
• Curry powder, cumin, black pepper: high per gram, usually fine in small amounts
• Greens smoothies: the single worst category — concentrated spinach, kale, swiss chard

Mainstream nutrition won't tell you that the "daily green smoothie" trend may be the single most efficient way to develop systemic oxalate overload that's ever been marketed.

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