Is Green Tea High in oxalates; Can it Cause Kidney Stones?

Is green tea high in oxalates
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Is green tea high in oxalates? We will establish that in a moment. But first, a glimpse on this tea. Findings say green tea is the healthiest type of drink in the world and that it has the highest amount of antioxidants compared to all other teas.

That’s the reason many people prefer it over black or white tea. However, if you are in the low oxalate family, the question of whether green tea is high in oxalates, off cause is a serious one.

Tip: Let me also mention that you can lower your daily oxalate intake with the help of an oxalate reducing agent in foods you eat, the manufacture of it says it’s very reliable, see the oxalate neutralizing agent here, why many people find it so helpful – (link).

Back to our main question: is green tea high in oxalates? Answer: according to lab findings, green tea has lower oxalate contents. Research has confirmed that both oolong tea and green teas contain between 0.23 and 1.15 mg/g tea of oxalate levels.

Ordinarily, a beverage or food is considered a moderate oxalate if it has anything between 2.0g and 10g of the oxalic acid chemical. An example of medium oxalate, in this case, would be ginger, which has 2.1 to 10.0 mg of oxalic acid, depending on how concentrated the portion is.

Can You Get Kidney Stones From Green Tea?

Is green tea high in oxalates
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The first thing we need to establish here upfront is, how do kidney stones form. As such, the actual culprit when talking about kidney stones formation may not be oxalates, sometimes the problem lies in the gut. How healthy is your gut, could it be that it is the one allowing unwanted intake of minerals like oxalate and the rest into the blood system.

Doctors call that a leaky gut case, where, due to the inability of your gut to filter and excrete unwanted particles, the minerals end up deposited onto the body tissues after absorption. Heard of fibromyalgia before, or oxalate muscle pain? That’s how they come about.

As in, instead of being excreted calcium oxalate gets absorbed into the blood and gets deposited on joints or damaged tissues of the body as tinny sharp oxalate crystals – this causes unbearable body pains. Now when these crystals get deposited on the renal ducts, doctors call that kidney stones (when they pill up or accumulate to form bigger pebbles. Is green tea high in oxalates…

Now answering to whether green tea can cause kidney, or to be exact on the question, “can you get kidney stones from green tea?” The obvious is true: No. But in general, the level of oxalate sensitivity your body has — could be a deciding factor on oxalate crystal formation. If your sensitivity is low, no reason to worry, but if it is so high that your body absorbs every oxalate molecule into the blood, you may want to consult with your doctor about the amount of green tea you should take.

Nevertheless, an article by WebMD suggests that taking green tea can prevent kidney stones. It points to a research by the Chinese researchers who discovered, that green tea extract bind calcium oxalate to make it less able to clump together to, making them unable to form large kidney stones.

But besides that, let’s be practical – Is Green Tea High in Oxalates?

Is green tea high in oxalates
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Most times, the green tea range of oxalate content on average would be 0.23 + 1.15 mg/g divide by 2, which gives you 0.8mg/g tea or let’s call this per serving.

So if you take let’s say 2 cups of oxalate per day, that would translate to 1.6mg of oxalates going into your system which is not really anything serious to worry about, the math varies according to your consumption.

Does Too much Green Tea Cause Kidney Stones?

Initially, I didn’t even think whether people do ask this same question until I got to know that close to 3,720 people seek to know the answer to this every month (type the phrase: is green tea high in oxalates, to confirm from your end). As explained above, green tea is considered a low oxalate tea, but the real question is, how much green tea is too much for the oxalate sensitive?

See, let’s say you like green tea so much that you consume 6 cups a day. That means you’ll be getting almost 4.8 mg of the chemical (using the average content of oxalate we established in the “let’s be practical” session above,) from this tea.

That’s not a serious amount but the catch is, remember you’ll be taking in other foods which most likely would add oxalates into your system as well. Off cause you don’t want to trigger oxalate symptoms whatsoever.

Is Green Tea High in Oxalates – if consumed in excess?

The thing is, while green tea itself is low in oxalates you also need to consider other foods that you take throughout the day and think of small portions of oxalates coming from different sources.

I personally recommend taking at least not more than three cups of green tea (to ensure you benefit from the numerous health properties this beverage comes with but also protect yourself from the consequences of excessive oxalate intake that could cause kidney stones in the long run).

Does too much green tea cause kidney stones? Well, it seems the answer is no. Nonetheless, too much of anything is never good. But, if you are addicted to this tea, a good way to balance things would be to reduce your daily intake amounts, first by half a cup less of green tea the first three days, then less one cup for the next 3 days and so on…

Another Question: Does Herbal Tea Have Oxalates?

Most people ask about low oxalate herbal teas not really knowing that most kinds of herbal teas actually contain very little oxalate content; – that’s according to this article https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12495262 by NCBI.

That is, based on the test done a while back, a decade and a half ago, herbal teas, exhibited an oxalate content of between trace and 3.0mg/g tea. This means a lover of herbal tea who takes five cups a day, on the higher side would literary be taking 5 x 3mg = 15mg/g herbal tea oxalate – which is still low.

Conclusion – is green tea high in oxalates?

Well, the above research might be too old to rely on, and so depending on the specific type of herbal tea you are inquiring for or your oxalate symptoms, it’s good that you consult with your nutritionist or oxalate specialist near me in your area.

Aha, now that we’ve settled the query “is green tea high in oxalates,” its relation with kidney stones and a bit about herbal teas oxalate content, lets us know about anything you want to add, recommend, or suggestions concerning the topic, in the comment section below!

Readers Comments (1)

  1. Thank you this clears up the concern clearly.

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