A mere Google search of 'nutrients vegetarians lack' returned me surprising results. Well, I knew protein was a big one, hence the grocery trip that filled my kitchen with tofu, various beans, and nuts. What I didn't know was that calcium is also a difficult nutrient to obtain from a vegetarian diet. Foods like spinach and swiss chard, although high in calcium, also contain oxalic acid—which actually inhibits the uptake of calcium.
Interestingly, calcium oxalate (the product that forms when the calcium combines with oxalic acid and does not get taken up by your body) is a major component of urinary stones. So when searching for which foods high in oxalates, you come across a lot of sites dedicated to the prevention of urinary stones. But beware! There's a whole lot of crap out there; one site posted so many foods with oxalates, you'd think you should never eat again for fear of keeling immediately over with osteoporosis.
What I've gathered from my searches is that high oxalate foods should not be consumed as a primary source of calcium. Although some sites encourage the elimination of these foods all together, I'm not sure if I'm sold on that point of view. Although soy also contains a great deal of oxalates, tofu is fortified with extra calcium to help with uptake.
So the solution? Go make my tofu fried rice... Or MikeDub's "Quick and Easy Thai" Soup!
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