Comments on: Five Strategies for Success on the Low Oxalate Diet

By: Heidi

Heidi — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 19:47:17 +0000

Welcome, Katie. I make up most of my recipes or adapt/modify them from interesting recipes I find in cookbooks or on the web. The Trying Low Oxalates Yahoo Group and Facebook Group are both good resources for recipes. The Yahoo group is also the place you'll want to go to get your up-to-date and relatively comprehensive food list. The VP Foundation published a low oxalate cookbook about 8 years back that is very useful if you follow a standard American diet and eat wheat. If you are gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, Paleo etc. you probably will do better just searching the web and the above resources for recipes. All of the links for the cookbook and groups are on my resources page.

By: Katie

Katie — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 15:13:09 +0000

I have just had to go on a low oxalate diet. I’m finding it very frustrating and overwhelming. I’ve been trying to find cookbooks for low oxalate diets. Also many of the lists I’ve found that say what foods are high or low in oxalates contradict each other. Do you have a cookbook that you use and a list of foods that are low, moderate, high and very high? I’m in need of help. I enjoyed your post above.

Katie

By: Heidi

Heidi — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 03:15:30 +0000

Thanks, John.

By: john

john — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:13:17 +0000

i have tried some of the receipes great

By: Heidi

Heidi — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 21:18:59 +0000

Thanks for your thoughts, Diana. This is an interesting theory. I know most of my cravings come when I’m sad, sick or overwhelmed, so I probably am seeking some type of pleasure. If this is the case, I would think finding something else that is pleasurable would also take care of the craving, as would doing something that created endorphins. I imagine this is one of the reasons they suggest a walk or exercise as an alternative to giving in to cravings. If I can make myself do it, I know this often works. For me, giving into a craving for sweets isn’t the end of the world because I usually don’t want more than a bite or two. But if I’m craving a salty, carby snack like popcorn or chips, having even one is a problem. I can’t seem to stop and would eat the whole bag or more if it’s available. And that would be an hypoglycemia and oxalate nightmare! I actually completely ditched all cravings for about six months when I was eating a strict low carb Paleo diet, but I slowly let non-Paleo foods back in and now I’m fighting cravings again. I’m trying to get back to strict Paleo, but this time around it’s been much harder! We’ll see. Thanks again.

By: Diana

Diana — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 20:40:37 +0000

Heidi, my life currently parallels yours pretty closely. I have been low oxalate (since February) this year and I have just started a new course of study with the Psychology of Eating, which is causing my stress levels to rise a bit. I have been noticing that I am eating (snacking) at odd times of the day, straying from my usual ‘planned’ times of eating. Fortunately for me I crave high fat foods, like yogurt, sunflower seed or coconut butter. On afternoon I craved sunflower butter badly and ate 2 tbsp in one sitting, which I know is the maximum amount to keep oxalate to a medium. In my course of study I have learned that when our stress levels rise, our cortisol levels also rise, decreasing our sense of pleasure. I believe that when we crave foods under stressful conditions, our bodies are craving the ‘pleasure’ that the body is lacking at the time. Food is nothing more than a very tasty package of pleasure. If there is a food that I crave that is medium to high oxalate (like potato chips!), I go ahead and eat a small amount of it, savor it, tasting every bite and experience the pleasure –in turn the pleasure signals in my brain gets lit up and the cravings stop. If I deny myself the pleasure of tasting just one bite, then I end up snacking on many other foods just to find the right one – a process the body goes thru in order to satisfy the craving! Choosing the food you crave wisely is good advice. Other things you can do instead of going for the food is take a walk or do something completely different. Sometimes our bodies are not craving food, but craving attention in other ways. Thanks for sharing