If you follow my advice to eat a lot of greens daily, and you should, just make sure

to vary the types of greens to avoid getting too many oxalates.

Watch the video for details.

Kidney stones affect as many as one in ten people in their lifetime and can cause excruciating pain.

Makes me cross my legs just thinking about them.

Oxalate stones are the most common type forming.

When the oxalate concentration in your urine gets so high,

it basically crystallizes out a solution like rock candy.

Some foods, like spinach, have lots of oxalates in them.

Should we try to reduce our intake of oxalates to lower our risk?

It turns out that people who do get stones don't seem to eat any more oxalates on average

than people who don't get stones.

It may be less what you eat and more what you absorb.

People who are predisposed to kidney stones just appear to be born with a higher intestinal

oxalate absorption.

Their guts just really suck it up.

So-called superabsorbers assimilate up to 50 percent more oxalate than non-stone formers.

Overall, the impact of a typical dietary oxalate on the amount of oxalates that end up in the urine appears to be small.

Even a massive dose of dietary oxalates typically only results in a relatively mild increase

in the amount that makes it into your urine.

A 25-fold increase in oxalate consumption doesn't even double the concentration of oxalates

flowing through your kidneys.

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