Our Mission
KidneyStone patients face a confusing landscape of dietary advice. Some foods are clearly safe; others are clearly problematic. But most fall somewhere in between — and the difference often comes down to a single number: oxalate content.
We built OxalateWatch to make that number easy to find, understand, and act on. No sign-ups, no paywalls, no medical jargon. Just lab-measured oxalate data from one of the world's leading research institutions, paired with USDA nutrition values, in a format that tells you what you need to know in seconds.
Why Trust Our Data?
📊 Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (2024)
Our oxalate values come from the most comprehensive publicly available oxalate database, compiled by Dr. John Knight at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and published through the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Oxalosis & Hyperoxaluria Foundation (OHF). This dataset contains lab-measured oxalate content for over 1,200 foods — the gold standard in the field.
🔬 USDA FoodData Central
Nutrition data — sodium, protein, calcium, water content — comes from the USDA FoodData Central database (SR Legacy 2018 and Foundation Foods). Every value we show is traceable to a specific USDA FDC ID.
📋 Clinical Guidelines
Our safety thresholds and dietary recommendations are aligned with guidelines from the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and the American Urological Association (AUA). We reference peer-reviewed literature from Nutrients, Journal of Urology, and other indexed journals.
Our Rating System
Every food receives one of three ratings based on its oxalate content per standard serving:
- 🟢 Safe — Less than 25 mg oxalate per serving. These foods are generally well-tolerated by most kidney stone patients.
- 🟡 Caution — 25–99 mg oxalate per serving. These foods can fit into a kidney-stone diet with portion control and balance.
- 🔴 Avoid — 100 mg or more per serving. These are high-oxalate foods that most stone formers should limit or avoid.
We also flag sodium, animal protein, and calcium content — because oxalate is not the only factor that matters. High sodium increases calcium in urine, and animal protein raises uric acid levels. Calcium from food, on the other hand, can actually help by binding oxalate in the gut.
What We Don't Do
- We do not provide medical advice. This is dietary reference information.
- We do not recommend specific dosages of supplements or medications.
- We do not diagnose, treat, or claim to cure any condition.
- We do not use automated content generation. Every data point is traceable to a published source.
Our Data Sources
hsph.harvard.edu/oxalate-table
fdc.nal.usda.gov
DOI: 10.1016/j.juro.2014.05.006
Questions or feedback? Contact us.