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Low Oxalate · a food tracker that counts soluble and insoluble oxalate separately
Common questions
Why does the app split soluble from insoluble oxalate?
Because only one of them matters much. Soluble oxalate is the fraction that crosses the gut wall and ends up in your urine, where stones form. Insoluble oxalate is largely bound already and passes through.
Most published charts give a single total, which is why two foods with the same number can behave differently. This app splits them on every entry.
Why does cooking method change the number?
Oxalate is one of the few dietary compounds you can substantially cook away. Boiling removes roughly 30–87% of soluble oxalate if you discard the water. Steaming removes less. Baking and roasting remove none at all.
That is why a baked potato with skin sits on the high-oxalate lists while peeled boiled potato is manageable. Every entry carries a preparation method, and the number changes accordingly.
Why does the app track calcium?
Because calcium is the mechanism, not a side note. Calcium binds oxalate in your gut so it leaves in stool instead of being absorbed into your urine.
Cutting calcium alongside oxalate backfires: in controlled feeding, dropping calcium from 1,002 mg to 391 mg a day raised urinary oxalate by 28%. So hit your calcium, and hit it at the same meal as the oxalate. This app checks that pairing meal by meal, not just as a daily total.
A food I eat isn't in the database
Use Food → Custom food to add it with your own values. It saves permanently and appears in search.
Searches that come back empty are also recorded locally under More → Your data, and you can send the list in one tap. That is the fastest way to get foods added.
Where do the numbers come from?
They derive from published oxalate analyses used by US kidney-stone programmes, supplemented by published soluble/insoluble fractionation studies.
Oxalate varies with cultivar, soil, season and preparation more than most nutrients. Treat every figure as a band, not a measurement.
Which protocol should I choose?
Clinical 100 is what most stone programmes prescribe and the sensible default. Ease-In steps down gradually if you would rather not drop all at once. Strict 50 is for people still forming stones despite compliance, and Moderate 200 reflects the caution against over-restricting produce.
If a urologist or dietitian has given you a number, use Set my own.
This app is a food-logging tool, not medical advice.
Reducing dietary oxalate is standard clinical practice for recurrent calcium oxalate kidney stones, and most stone programmes aim for around 100 mg a day. The broader claim — that oxalate drives inflammation, joint pain and fatigue in people without stones — is not established. This app supports both without pretending they have the same standing.
Oxalate figures vary with cultivar, soil, season and preparation. Treat them as bands, not measurements.
Restrictive diets can cause deficiencies, and cutting calcium alongside oxalate actively raises the oxalate your kidneys see. Flank pain, blood in urine, or pain on urination needs a doctor, not a food log. If you form stones, ask for a 24-hour urine collection — it tells you far more than any app can.
If you are pregnant, nursing, feeding a child, or managing kidney disease, speak to a clinician before restricting anything.
Contact
Bugs, missing foods, or anything else: lowoxalate8@gmail.com
Missing foods are the most useful thing you can send. Include the food and a link to the label or database entry and it goes into the next update.