We have been surrounded by popular fad diets & obnoxious suggestions when it comes to our health- be it metabolic, digestive & /or mental health. Specifically, when it comes to metabolic diseases or digestive issues, we are told to eat healthy, eat green vegetables & what not! The question arises what is referred to as healthy? Can all green vegetables be healthy & anti-inflammatory? Spinach is assumed to be a healthy green vegetable, but do you know 50% of the population consuming Spinach experience chronic inflammation &/or bloating? Surprised? Shocked? The reason is Spinach is high in OXALIC ACID & if our gut cannot detoxify this acid, it leads to inflammation & even risk of Kidney stone.
However, it is not only Spinach but a lot of other green vegetables, nuts & food items which are assumed to be healthy. Today, we are going to decode one of the most important compound- OXALATE said to cause inflammatory trouble if we do not have folks in our that can metabolize it.
So what is OXALATE?
Oxalate is a term used to describe the interaction between Oxalic acid & other substances in our system. This oxalic acid is highly acidic in nature & is a potential toxin for our body & health. In fact, this acid is used as bleach for clothing material. Now you can imagine how harmful this acid is for our body & tissues & cells if it is not detoxified before it enters our blood stream.
The irony is our body produces this acid on its own. We also convert Vitamin C into this molecule when we consume vitamin C rich foods(which has become an obsession now given that we are too much worried about our immune system). This happens when oxalate comes in contact with cadmium in zinc, lead & copper. Generally oxalate binds with other minerals & then finds its way out of the system. However the problem arises when we reintroduce oxalic acid/oxalate into our body when we consume food high in oxalic acid.
Why are Oxalates that bad?
When these oxalates bind with the nutrients, it renders these nutrients useless for our body & therefore our cells do not get required nutrients. This is the reason oxalates are called anti-nutrients.
Oxalates have affinity for some specific nutrients such as Magnesium, Iron & calcium.
Magnesium: This mineral acts as a catalyst for more than 300 of our biological functions. A lot of them are associated with optimising our gut health. In fact Magnesium is associated with our digestion process. Magnesium also helps in optimising acidic (pH) levels of our gut. Without magnesium, the gut environment may impact our gut lining leading to Leaky gut. This is supposed to be associated with risk of onset of Ulcerative Colitis, constipation, Diarrhea & abdominal pain.
Iron: Oxalate has affinity for Iron. Iron is required to carry oxygen throughout the system. Without Iron, our body will not have energy to heal wounds, promote digestion or fend off attack from harmful stomach bacteria. Infant iron interact with our intestinal flora & is responsible for replication & survival for almost every bacteria in our body (including those in our gut).
Calcium: Oxalate has special affinity for Calcium. Although calcium has the least influence on our gut health, it has a major role to play in our overall wellness. Calcium is the most significant eliminator of oxalates. When they bind together, calcium oxalate becomes a waste product. If we don’t have enough calcium left to usher the oxalates out, they end up in our kidneys. While there are many types of kidney stones, the majority are comprised of calcium oxalate.
Our gut microbiome has a larger role to play in metabolising & detoxifying this oxalic acid. Our gut microbiome has an abundance of a specific microbe- Oxalobactor which is responsible for metabolising & detoxifying this oxalic acid so that our bloodstream & tissues & cells do get overburdened with excess oxalate. If our gut does not have this microbe active, our body excesses oxalic acid/oxalate which can be a toxin for our cells & tissues. This excess oxalate warns our immune system that our body is about to get attacked. Our immune system gets into action & they do what they know of doing in such a situation- Inflammation. This low grade inflammation makes the bad gut gone & inflammation ceases to exist.
However, if we do not know that we do not microbe in our gut that releases enzyme oxalobacter formigenes & that these high oxalate food are playing a spoilsport & we keep on consuming these foods- remember our doctor/nutritionist told that Spinach is healthy, almonds is healthy, beetroot is healthy, our microbes release harmful gases which alarms our immune system is regular which keep on creating inflammation. Such excess inflammation can have a body wide impact & imbalances our gut microbiome- making bad folks overgrow & hence demanding more of these foods- causing more release of toxins & hence inflammation & this goes on–. This results in the onset of chronic diseases such as bloating, IBS, autoimmune diseases, crohn’s disease & so on.
This enzyme oxalobacter formigenes if released by our gut microbes can actually reduce risk of kidney stone by 70%.
Some of the food which are high oxalate acid /oxalate include Spinach, Almonds beetroot, Beans, Beer, Chocolate, Coffee, Nuts, Orange, Lemon, Black Tea, Cashew, Raspberries, Stevia, Sweet Potatoes, Wheat Bran.
To summarise, there is nothing called a universal healthy diet! If you are being told to consume a lot of spinach, almonds, nuts or even oranges, please take that advice with a pinch of salt. If you are facing inflammatory issues after consuming such foods & perplexed what is going wrong, probably, your gut microbes are not able to release enzymes- oxalobacter formigenes that can detoxify oxalate. The best foot forward is to decode your gut microbiome composition to learn what foods should be must haves for you & which foods you should give it a miss. Want to know more about how you can sequence your gut microbiome & retrain your unique biology to determine personalised dietary recommendations that will work for your metabolic & digestive health? Find us at www.genefitletics.com
so what are we meant to eat then? if you want to carry on with this stuff atleast talk about solutions.
Like I said in the last paragraph “The best foot forward is to decode your gut microbiome composition to learn what foods should be must haves for you & which foods you should give it a miss.” So if you really want to decode your gut microbiome composition, sign up here http://genefitletics.com/gut-intelligence-solution/
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