<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

We celaics are SO vulnerable to food issues & many of us know from personal experience what a powerful tool diet changes can be to our recovery.  I'm happy to have accidentally found out I have an oxalate problem when I replaced corn & sesame with sorghum muffins.  I'm tickled to see all the chatter about oxalates on this list since then.  Hopefully others will benefit from this as I have.  I feel SOOOO much better overall since taking measures to reduce oxalates in my diet.  I'm more comfortable everywhere & in every way.  Who knew it could be so simple & so quick?  



Until last week I wasn't sure if I had a corn problem, a sesame problem or if my new sorghum muffins was responsible for the improvements.  But last week, when I went to San Jose, I had my usual sorghum muffins for breakfast, but I forgot to take my own snacks & calcium citrate tablets on the trip w/ me.  My husband brought a bag of almonds w/ us so I ate a quite a bit of these, plus I had a large bottle of apple juice -- both foods high in oxalates.  The next day, Thursday, I was quite uncomfortable.  So back I went to avoiding high oxalate foods & including calcium citrate w/ meals.  Ahhh... I felt great again on Friday.  I'm now sure that I have an oxalate retention problem.  



Reducing oxalates isn't difficult, at least for me.  It doesn't require the kind of commitment the GF diet does.  It's more like a little dietary tweaking here & there plus taking a little calcium citrate to yield big results.  Of course, not everyone has an oxalate retention problem, but if you think you do, it's an easy thing to investigate without a huge dietary change, financial investment or risk to your well being. All I did was substitute my highest oxalate foods (corn & sesame & nuts) w/ moderate to low oxalate choices (rice & specific veggies). (The oxalate level of sorghum has not been tested.) 



FYI:  Because so many people have asked, I buy Walgreen's brand of calcium citrate tablets.  However, there are many brands of GF calcium citrate out there (Caltrate for one), just read the label.  I take 1/2 to 1 400 mg calcium citrate tablet with any meal that has a moderate or high oxalate food in it.  I'm just guessing this is enough because I'm getting good results.  I may be just as well off w/ less or even none.  I don't have any specific guidelines about how much to take.  I have been warned not to take calcium citrate with every meal, because it can interfere with absorption of iron, so I try to remember to do that.     



I'm certainly no expert & obviously have a lot more to learn about the oxalate issue.  In my search for more info about oxalates, I stumbled upon a very interesting commercial website that specializes in products to treat serious oxalate retention problems.  (I noticed, BTW, that they use magnesium citrate in addition to calcium citrate to reduce absorption of oxalates in the gut.)  It's certainly worth checking out if you think you might be one of them:  http://www.vulvodynia-treatment.com/about-vulvodynia.html<http://www.vulvodynia-treatment.com/about-vulvodynia.html>  I have no idea if their products are GF.  That's something you'll have to check out for yourselves.   



Valerie in Tacoma


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