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Comment by jeffbee | Hacker News Reader

Wait how easy do I need to go on the almonds? I’ve been eating maybe half a pound a week.

Despite your statement I don’t think this knowledge is automatically distributed amongst vegans.

Almonds are one of the highest-oxalate foods but I think generally it's fine unless you're prone to calcium oxalate kidney stones. But most people find out they're prone when they get their first stone.

I've gotten two and don't recommend. Things that help, short of the sort of restrictions I'm stuck with: drink lots of water with high-oxalate foods, and eat foods high in calcium with them. The calcium binds with the oxalate in your guts instead of your kidneys and passes right out. Some people dissolve a calcium pill in the water they boil spinach in.

They can see tiny stones in your kidneys with a scan so it's possible to check before you get a real problem, though I don't know if they would without any symptoms.

> Despite significantly more dietary oxalates (254 mg/day) and oxalate-containing foods such as nuts, vegetables, and whole grains, participants with higher DASH scores have a 40–50% decreased risk of kidney stones [68]. This is perhaps attributed to the protective and synergistic effects of phytate, potassium, calcium, and other phytochemicals all abundant in the DASH dietary pattern. Similar findings regarding the protective role of vegetables on urolithiasis risk were reported by Zhuo et al. [69]. While animal protein consumption was associated with higher kidney stone risk, vegetable and tea consumption were associated with a decreased risk of stone formation.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7600777/

A lot of the "common sense" about oxalates just sound like social media memes.

It's possible to eat a DASH diet while leaving out the foods with the highest oxalates. It's what I do myself.

Avoiding high-oxalate foods if you're prone to oxalate stones isn't a meme, it was the advice of my urologist and the printed pamphlets he gave me. Along with drinking plenty of water, especially with meals as I mentioned above. As for calcium, it's mentioned as protective in your quote.

A̶r̶s̶e̶n̶i̶c̶ Cyanide is the thing to watch for I believe. Stay away from bitter almonds, roasted should be fine. You'd have to eat a 25 Kg bag of sweet almonds to get into trouble. Not sure about the cumulative effects though, that might be worth checking into.

Not Arsenic, but rather bitter almonds contain compounds that the body degrades into cyanide.

Ah yes, that was it, sorry for mixing those up. But regardless, bad idea to eat any sizeable quantity of bitter almonds.

Cyanogenic glycosides. Amygdalin in bitter almond.

I assume this issue is the same with almond milk? I'm almost always buying oatmilk, though.

That stuff is not what you think, look up a video on it to be enlightened.

Almond milk or oat milk?

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