I'm considering going raw to treat my IBS symptoms, but have heard from doctors that oxalates in leafy greens and nuts can cause kidney stones! I've had stones for a few years and have been vegan for about a year. Has anyone had stones from being vegan or raw?

One common cause of kidney stones is an acidic diet: lots of animal tissue, overcooked, denaturized proteins and refined starches and fats. The kidneys' waste is a delicate balance of acidity, and when it tips too far over into acid, the body marshalls a combination of alkalyzing substances, mostly minerals, to help neutralize the situation. If this is chronic, a buildup pf minerals[stones] result. The other common cause is too much uric acid from animal protein, which likewise results in stones. Thus, the mineral buildup isn't the problem--it's the body's attempt at a solution to a problem, that itself becomes problematic.

These two circumstances are exacerbated by dehydration; lots of meat eaters never get acute kidney stone disorders because, while they may get calcifications, they drink enough water and eat enough alkalyzing, low toxin plant foods to break those calcifications down and urinate them out. Your doctors may have forgotten all of this from when they learned it in second year premed

A vegetarian raw foods diet is high in water, low in uric acid, and high in balanced minerals. I haven't developed kidney stones on raw, and I haven't heard of anyone else developing them, but someone else may chime in.

I think that raw oxalic acid does not do this; it's the cooked stuff that it bad for you. Same with raw, assimilatible calcium in the form of greens versus pasteurized dairy and calcium tablets. I just will never believe that you can compare raw veggies to the other stuff.

I would say a high protein diet, like one that includes lots of animal products, is the major cause of kidney stones. Spinach is high in oxalic acid, and if you are worried, eat lettuces instead.

Prana, do you think that uncooked oxalic acid would be harmful to the body? I have heard that lettuce has opiates but that doesn't mean it would be bad for the body. I just cannot believe that spinach is unhealthy.

Where did you read or hear that raw food doesn't cause stones?

kheaton4,

If you're asking for published research, there isn't any. I'm just going by the general experience of raw foods vegetarians, and by the basic biochemistry that I discuss in my first response, above.