Name: How Spinach, Nuts, Dark Chocolate Can Inflame the Body: Toxic Superfoods
Uploaded: 2026-07-01T01:06:26.000Z
Description: Are the oxalate chemical compounds in our favorite “health foods” making us sick?

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Are the oxalate chemical compounds in our favorite “health foods” making us sick?

Watch our exclusive episode, only on <a href="https://www.ntd.com/vital-signs" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">NTD</a>.

It’s well known that plants have layered defenses against being eaten by insects and grazing herbivores—from physical thorns and spikes to chemical toxins poisonous to animal predators.

However, has enough thought really been given to how the latter may impact humans? Author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Toxic-Superfoods-Oxalate-Overload-Sick/dp/0593139585">Toxic Superfoods</a>” Sally K. Norton would say it definitely hasn’t.

In people’s awakening to the possible toxic impact of high-oxalate foods, including spinach, dark chocolate, and almonds, “the biggest hurdle is … of thinking of plants from a Disney movie like, oh, the plants are here for us, and they want to be all sweet and eaten and all perfectly safe,” she says—but “that’s not their job.”

“They’re out there fighting the fight of nature, which is a tough place to be to survive, and some of what they do is poisonous to us.”

Norton joins “Vital Signs with Brendon Fallon” to signal how the risk of oxalates extends beyond mere kidney stones to assaults that may span the digestive, immune, and nervous systems.

“It can get neurotoxicity going. It can get inflammatory swelling and pain syndromes that affect your joints and connective tissue,” she says, citing her own relief from arthritis and irritable bowel syndrome after cutting oxalates as proof of their impact.

On “Vital Signs,” Norton reveals bodily signs that oxalate toxicity may be impacting you, a strategy for detoxing your diet, and how to manage the “oxalate shedding” side effect of cutting oxalate intake.

Norton is a graduate of Cornell University, and holds a master’s degree in public health.

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Related/Referenced studies/reports:

<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8566947/">Oxalate Alters Cellular Bioenergetics, Redox Homeostasis, Antibacterial Response, and Immune Response in Macrophages</a>

<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8729829/">High Oxalate Concentrations Correlate with Increased Risk for Sudden Cardiac Death in Dialysis Patients</a>

<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC124017/">Oxalobacter formigenes and Its Potential Role in Human Health – PMC</a>

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Vital Signs’ host, guests, and contributors offer general information on improving health and wellness. This is not intended as diagnosis or medical advice. You should consult your medical doctor or holistic doctor before enacting any suggested strategies for health and wellness improvement, including those in relation to preventing or treating specific diseases featured on this program.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the views of NTD.

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