Oxalic Acid In Spinach

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Yes, raw spinach has some oxalic acid, but I believe it is the inorganic oxalic

acid in cooked spinach that is most harmful. This is an avian site but has some

excellent information on various foods and herbs.

Diana of Dewberry Hill (who joyfully uses raw spinach)

 

http://www.holisticbird.org/diet/foods.htm

 

Spinach high in carotenes and chlorophyll also fights cancer. Reduces

cholesterol.by accelerating the conversion of cholesterol to coprostanol , which

is excreted. High in calcium and oxylate, which cancel each other out. Spinach

and the Oxalate Debate

 

Cooked spinach is not good for you at all - especially in large and/or constant

quantities. Raw, on the other hand, is OK in *reasonable* amounts. Caution is

still the by word here as it does some freaky things to the assimilation and

absorption of some nutrients.

 

The basic problem with cooked or raw spinach is that if one is predisposed to

gouty afflictions - eat it sparingly as it contains purines. It can also assist

in the development of kidney stones as it also contains a higher-than-average

amount of active oxalates.

 

Oxalic acid prevents calcium absorption.

 

To delve a little deeper...'organic' oxalic acid is one of the important

elements needed to maintain the tone of, and to stimulate peristalsis

(contractions of the intestines, occurring in waves, which propel the intestinal

contents onward). When a food is raw, whether whole or in the form of juice,

every atom in such food is vital organic and replete with enzymes. Therefore,

the oxalic acid in our raw veggies and their juices is organic, and as such is

not only beneficial (in normal doses) but essential for the physiological

functions of the body.

 

The oxalic acid in cooked and processed foods, however, is definitely dead, or

inorganic, and as such is both pernicious and destructive. Oxalic acid readily

combines with calcium. If these are both organic, the result is a beneficial

constructive combination, as the former helps the digestive assimilation of the

latter, at the same time stimulating the peristaltic functions in the body.

 

When the oxalic acid has become inorganic by cooking or processing the foods

that contain it, then this acid forms an interlocking compound with the calcium

even combining with the calcium in other foods eaten during the same meal,

destroying the nourishing value of both. This results in such a serious

deficiency of calcium that it has been known to cause decomposition of the

bones. This is why one should never eat cooked or canned spinach.

 

As to the oxalic acid itself, when converted into an inorganic acid by cooking

or processing the food, it often results in causing inorganic oxalic acid

crystals to form in the kidneys.

 

Please keep in mind, however, that certain herbs - i.e., wood sorrel have so

much oxalic acid within that too much ingested can cause severe stomach & kidney

irritation, kidney damage, internal bleeding and/or diarrhea. Minimal amounts in

a salad, if one is healthy, would be alright but I still wouldn't recommend it.

Sheep's Sorrel, a constituent of Essiac, on the other hand is considered a

low-toxicity plant if not ingested in excessive amounts - especially shouldn't

be ingested by those with severely compromised renal systems.

 

Oxalic acid forms notably insoluble salts with calcium, as I have said, and in

this form is also found in the dock and rhubarb families (Rumex and Rheum)

especially, but is also in many common foods - tea, beet, parsley, and, of

course, spinach - and in small quantities in many other types of plant material.

The main potential problem with oxalates is in some types of urinary stones,

formed by precipitation of excessive oxalates in acid urine.

 

All my texts refer to the oxalic problem in dogs as being directly related to

the same calcium absorption problem that humans suffer from ingestion.

 

So...basically...don't go overboard. If you feel the need to feed this highly

nutritious plant to anyone (animal or man) - go raw only and limit it's intake.

 

1/2 cup contains an enormous amount of nutrients:

 

vit. A 737.1 RE

folate 131.2 mcg

iron 3.2 mg

magnesium 78.3 mg

calcium 122.4 mg

vit C 8.8 mg

riboflavin 0.2 mg

potassium 419.0 mg

vit. B6 0.2 mg

 

Rev. Debra L. Moore, D.N. Doctor of Naturology

 

 

 

 

 

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