🧂 High-Sodium Vegetables — Kidney Stone Risk Guide

Vegetables are the widest-oxalate-spread food group in the database: a cucumber measures around 1 mg of oxalate per serving while a half-cup of cooked spinach approaches 493 mg. That spread is why blanket advice like 'eat more vegetables' does not work for stone patients. What matters is the specific leaf, the serving, and the preparation. Boiling and draining can remove a meaningful share of soluble oxalate from many greens, and pairing any higher-oxalate vegetable with a calcium-rich food at the same meal reduces absorption. Low-oxalate anchors in this group include cucumber, lettuce, and most squash varieties; the leafy dark greens are the ones to portion carefully.

Sodium is the hidden dial in stone prevention: excess sodium makes the kidneys excrete more calcium, and urinary calcium is a primary stone ingredient. The general target is under 2,300 mg of sodium per day, and processed and packaged foods are where sodium hides — not the saltshaker. For stone patients who also track oxalate, the two columns interact: a food can be low in oxalate but risky through sodium, which is why the full picture matters rather than a single nutrient.

Among the 11 vegetables foods shown here, the list is ranked by oxalate per serving so the safest options are immediately visible — scan the top of the grid for daily staples and treat the lower entries as portion foods.