Vegetables

Are beets high in oxalate?

Lower-oxalate swap: Radishes, grade A, about <1 mg per 1/2 cup sliced.

Beets are high in oxalate: about 44 mg per 1/2 cup sliced, cooked, which is 88% of the 50 mg a day many stone clinics aim for, or 44% of the 100 mg others allow.

If your doctor has put you on a low-oxalate diet, eat it with something high in calcium, like milk, yogurt or cheese. Calcium in the same meal binds oxalate in the gut, so less of it reaches your urine. How much calcium, and what if you don't eat dairy.

50 or 100 mg a day: which target is yours

Boiling and draining lowers oxalate, because the soluble part leaches into the water. Compare the raw and boiled rows below.

Why sources disagree on beets

Beets lose some oxalate to the cooking water. Boiled beets run from 37 to 76 mg per 100 g across 3 studies, and Harvard's canned beets measured 90. This page grades the cooked and canned values, since that's how most people eat beets.

Where this number comes from

Each row is one published measurement, converted to a 68 g serving (1/2 cup sliced, cooked). The grade and the range use the rows prepared the way the serving is eaten, and take the middle. How the grades work.

* The study measured soluble oxalate only, which understates the total, so it's shown but doesn't set the grade.

By Oliver Silen · Data checked November 2, 2026 · Not medical advice