Let me guess. You’ve been told to avoid oxalate because you had a kidney stone and now you have NO idea what to eat. I’m here for you!
The feeling that you can’t eat all of your favorite healthy foods, like fruits and vegetables is one of the most frustrating things about a low oxalate diet. As a kidney stone dietitian I promise, you CAN (and SHOULD!) eat fruits and vegetables for kidney stone prevention.
In fact, MOST fruits are low oxalate. Read on to learn more!
Table of Contents
Who Needs Low Oxalate Fruit?
Before we dive into the world of low oxalate fruit, it is important to understand who actually NEEDS low oxalate fruit in the first place.
Hint: Just because you have oxalate kidney stones does NOT mean you need a low oxalate diet! (1)
The key to make sure a low oxalate diet will prevent kidney stones is a 24-hour urine test. This test will tell you and your doctor why your body is making kidney stones. Without it, it is a guess what will actually prevent stones for YOU! Kidney stone nutrition is different for everyone.
If your oxalate is high on a 24-hour urine test, you might need to cut back on how much oxalate you eat. Eating enough calcium is usually a more effective way to lower urine oxalate.
If you do not have high urine oxalate, you do not need a low oxalate diet. A low oxalate diet will likely not prevent kidney stones for you. You don’t need to worry about low oxalate fruit!
If you’ve never had a 24-hour urine test, check out my tips to ask your doctor for the test!
Kidney Stone Nutrition is A Lot More Than Oxalate
Even if you do need a low oxalate diet, chances are there is A LOT more you can do to prevent kidney stones. (2)
In fact, oxalate is the LEAST of my concerns for most of my patients with kidney stones. Yes, even if they have calcium oxalate kidney stones!
Depending on your 24-hour urine test results, there are many possible nutrition changes you could make to stop kidney stones. Here are some of the most common nutrition changes I recommend for kidney stone prevention:
- Drink more water!
- Watch how much sodium you eat. Most people should aim for about 2,300mg of sodium per day.
- Eat more dairy to help make sure you get enough calcium.
- Eat smaller portions of meat, chicken or fish.
- Push the produce! Eating more fruits and vegetables is one of the most effective ways to ward off kidney stones.
Check out my articles about calcium oxalate and uric acid kidney stones for more detailed information.
It is KEY to make sure your diet is personalized to your 24-hour urine test results. Otherwise, your diet changes may not be targeting your body chemistry, and not doing much to prevent kidney stones for YOU.
Check out Kidney Stone Nutrition School to learn more about how I help people create personalized plans to prevent kidney stones!
Why Eat Low Oxalate Fruit?
If you need a low oxalate diet, low oxalate fruit is an important part of your day!
People who eat more fruits and vegetables tend to have fewer kidney stones. (3) (4) (5) Even on a low oxalate diet, it is incredibly important to still get in your fruits and veggies! You just have to choose lower oxalate fruits and vegetables.
As a reminder, if you don’t have high urine oxalate, all fruits can be eaten for kidney stone prevention!
My Favorite Low Oxalate Fruits
Here are my favorite low oxalate fruits. See below for a more complete list of low oxalate fruit!
Grapes
2mg oxalate per cup
A classic. Both red and green grapes are a great low oxalate fruit option.
Enjoy them plain. Or, get fancy and roast them to add to things like flatbreads, oatmeal or salads!
Blueberries
4mg oxalate per cup
Not all berries are high in oxalate. Blueberries are a great low oxalate fruit option. As a Michigan girl, I LOVE blueberries.
Check out this delicious Blueberry Cobbler recipe!
Pineapple
4mg oxalate per cup
What is better than biting into a juicy piece of pineapple? I love snacking on pineapple chunks. Try grilling pineapple slices to jazz up chicken sandwiches, pizza, salads and even an occasional cocktail! Pineapple is also a delicious addition to stir fry.
Pears
2mg oxalate per pear
I think pears may be one of the most underrated fruits out there. Pears are delicious!
Again, eat them raw. Or, roast them to add to sandwiches, salads, oatmeal, toast or flatbreads.
I also love this Maple Pear and Goat Cheese salad. Exciting salads like these are such a wonderful way to up your produce intake for kidney stone prevention. Note: This salad does have pecans on it, but not all nuts are high oxalate!
Melon
0-1mg oxalate per cup
Melon lovers rejoice! All varieties of melon are a great low oxalate fruit choice. Low oxalate melon includes:
- Watermelon
- Cantaloupe
- Honeydew Melon
Try my Watermelon Lime Sorbet as a delicious frozen summer treat!
Apples
1mg oxalate per apple
Yes! All varieties of apples are low oxalate. By themselves, apples are the perfectly portioned portable snack!
You can also bake apples into a tasty apple crumble, chop them into salads or use as a yogurt topping (sprinkled with a little cinnamon!).
I also love these dried apple slices*!
More Low Oxalate Fruit
I could go on and on with all of the delicious low oxalate fruit options out there. Here are some more of my favorites:
- Apricots
- Bananas
- Blackberries
- Cherries
- Cranberries
- Lemons & Limes
- Plantains
- Plums
- Peaches
- Strawberries
High Oxalate Fruit
If you need a low oxalate diet, there are few very high oxalate fruits that you need to limit.
Here are some very high oxalate fruits:
- Raspberries (48mg oxalate per cup)
- Dates (24mg oxalate per date)
- Canned or Dried Pineapple (24mg & 30mg oxalate per 1/2 cup, respectively)
That is it! Truly, all other fruits can fit in a healthy diet for kidney stones.
Ask your dietitian if you need to avoid oxalate and how to enjoy your favorite fruits! If you can’t find a dietitian who specializes in kidney stones, check out Kidney Stone Nutrition School. My favorite part is helping people understand how many healthy and delicious foods they can eat to prevent kidney stones!
Happy Eating!
Melanie
how can you eat pineapple but not canned pineapple what’s the difference I mean if you drain the syrup or the juice out of it and rinse them off why wouldn’t you be able to eat them
This information has actually been updated in the newest version of the Harvard oxalate list. I’m still working on updating all of my content to reflect this new list. You can get the list here. ALSO, I’d HIHGLY discourage you from a following a strict low oxalate diet. There is simply no data it improves health or prevents stones – and truly could make kidney stones worse as it limits MANY very healthy foods!
So I’m confused, I just saw blackberries being listed as very high oxalates from some nephrology Institute, and on other list they are listed as low or moderate oxalate. Can you comment on that?
Yep! There is a TON of misinformation about the exact amount of oxalate in different foods – even from highly reputable institutions. There is also no definition of what a “high” or “low” oxalate food is – even if we could agree on the exact number. But honestly, it doesn’t matter anyway. I’d HIGHLY recommend checking out this article about how low oxalate diets really aren’t necessary for kidney stones – and this one about how they could even make them worse!
The amount of oxalate per cup or 100 grams is needed for each fruit.
The serving size is specific for each fruit! I choose not to use 100 grams as people generally have no idea how much this is, and isn’t the best to compare across foods.
HI,
Im a little confused about the low oxalate fruit list. On this page you have blueberries as one of the lowest however on your link to the more detailed list blueberries are the highest oxalate fruit.
Great question! An updated Harvard oxalate list came out a few months ago that now lists blueberries as high – but the previous list they were very low. I’m still working on updating all of my content to reflect these changes. However, it is important to know that we’ve been using that old Harvard oxalate list for the past 20 years and patients have been eating a TON of blueberries (because they were deemed “low”) and were STILL not getting any more stones and seeing lower urine oxalate levels. I think this really speaks to how little importance oxalate plays in this whole thing! This article about low oxalate diets might be helpful too!
Thanks Melanie, I found the site oxalatecontent.com which lists by food, they must not have thier list updated as they list blueberries as low as well. Im not using it for kidney stones but for EGFR #’s which have been dropping. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing! There is really NO reason to limit dietary oxalate for CKD. In fact, limiting all of those healthy fruits, veggies and whole grains could actually backfire because we know a diet that includes more plant foods is the MOST effective way to slow the progression of kidney disease. I’d highly recommend working with a dietitian to learn what is best for you!
It seems that oxalatecontent.com uses data from a ResearchGate study on fruit oxalate levels, which shows blueberries as low in oxalates. I found it pretty reliable for what I needed, even though other sources might show different numbers. For example, the Harvard list mentions blueberries have 18.5mg of oxalates, which is still considered low.