Joseph Mercola

Oxalic acid is a naturally occurring toxic, corrosive acid. When the oxalic acid has minerals attached to it, it’s called oxalate, which acts as a mineral chelator.

Oxalate forms crystals that your body has a limited capacity to process. Calcium oxalate, for example, which is oxalic acid with calcium attached, form into painful kidney stones.

Unlike some other food-related toxins, oxalate cannot be removed by cooking, soaking or fermenting the food. You also cannot simply take a mineral supplement to address the depletion oxalates causes.

The top three “superfoods” that are very high in oxalate and may cause trouble are spinach, Swiss chard and beet greens. Another high-oxalate food is almonds, which you can easily “overdose” on if you’re eating bread made with almond our or drinking almond milk, or if you’re on a keto or paleo diet, as they both tend to rely heavily on almonds. Dark chocolate is another food that scores high for oxalates.

Oxalate damages cellular membranes causing excess calcium to flood the cell, resulting in accelerated cell death and other metabolic problems that contribute to chronic disease and ill health