Today I want to talk about food ruts.
Not junk food ruts.
Healthy food ruts.
Because this is something I see over and over again in the chronic illness and wellness world.
And honestly? I’ve done it myself, and learned the hard way twice.
When “Healthy” Starts Working Against You
A woman I follow on Instagram and interviewed for my YouTube channel, who recovered from ME/CFS, shared something interesting recently.
During her recovery she transitioned from a high-carb, meat-heavy diet to more plants, especially slow carbs and fermented foods. She also did a lot of self-discovery and mindset work.
The changes were very helpful for her recovery.
But after eating this way for many years, she recently she discovered she had kidney stones!
The likely culprit?
An oxalate-heavy diet.
Oxalates are natural compounds found in many healthy foods. High concetrations of oxalates are found in raw spinach, almonds, dark chocolate, beets, sweet potatoes, raspberries, and more. This Instagram friend of mine had been eating a sweet potato a day and other high-oxalate foods.
In high quantities over long periods of time, oxalates can:
- Contribute to kidney stones
- Irritate the urinary tract
- Potentially interfere with iron and mineral absorption
So she’s now doing a low-oxalate elimination diet to reset.
Not because plants are bad.
But because too much of the same foods for too long can create problems.
Another Story: The Opposite Direction
Another friend of mine who recovered from CFS ate Paleo for about seven years. (Higher protein, low carb).
It was one part of her recovery along with lifestyle and mindset changes.
But after many years she started feeling sluggish.
So she experimented.
She shifted to fully plant-based for about two years. She was a green smoothy queen. She said she felt lighter. But the results didn’t last forever.
Now she’s back to a mixed diet, and sometimes even does short Paleo periods again.
Her takeaway wasn’t that one diet was right or wrong.
It was that different phases of life sometimes call for different nutritional approaches. And that elimination over a long period of time can have setbacks.
My Own Food Rut
Before I developed CFS, I was eating a lot of kidney beans and raw tomatoes, along with moderate amounts of meat, carbs, and vegetables.
When I started searching for answers for my symptoms, I found blogs about “leaky gut.”
I realized my diet was actually super high in lectins.
Lectins are compounds found in foods like beans, tomatoes, grains, and legumes.
And suddenly I found myself reading wellness blogs from confident MDs preaching “Lectins are bad. Avoid them at all costs. A leaky gut is the reason for all your health problems.”
So I obliged. I felt relief. I then began to add on a mountain of supplements I felt I was dependent on.
The “Perfect” Diet That Wasn’t
My diet became extremely “clean.”
Basically:
- Meat
- Romaine lettuce
- Very low lectins
- Low oxalates
- Lots of supplements.
But there was a problem.
I was eating a huge amount of protein for a long, long time and lots of supplements.
I maintained this diet for almost 4 years – a full year after I was fully recovered from all chronic health symptoms.
But at one point I noticed something odd:
My urine started looking strange — sometimes cloudy, almost always with floaty particles.
Around the same time I read about a man in the opposite situation who was also having kidney issues from having a low-protein, high-oxalate plant heavy diet — also describing weird stuff in his urine.
Neither of us had infections or tested positive for bacteria in our urine.
Just kidneys signaling something might be a bit off.
The kidneys seem to be a bit of a bellwether when we’re eating:
- way too much protein
- too little protein and too many carbs
- or very high levels of oxalates
- too many supplements
The body tends to give signals.
I’ve been there: Extreme Supplements
Another thing I’ve seen—especially in the health recovery—is extreme supplement dosing.
I was once taking about 40 supplements a day before I ultimately found my way out of CFS (the supplements were a crutch; not the answer if you’ve read or watched my story.)
A very recent example of how supplements can sometimes do harm that caught my attention was when Real Housewives alum and successful entrepreneur and influencer Bethenny Frankel shared that she developed stage-3 kidney disease.
She suspects a combination of factors may have contributed, including taking very concentrated turmeric supplements (she was promoting them on her Instagram), while admittedly not drinking enough water.
Turmeric in food amounts is usually safe, but concentrated extracts (especially high-dose curcumin capsules) can contain large amounts of oxalates and other compounds that the kidneys must filter.
When taken in very high doses—particularly without adequate hydration—it can put extra strain on the kidneys for some people.
The encouraging part is that early-stage kidney issues are often reversible or improvable with dietary changes, hydration, and stopping the excess supplement load.
It’s a good reminder that more isn’t always better: many compounds that are healing in culinary or moderate supplemental doses can become stressful to the body when taken in extreme concentrations day after day.
Elimination Diets Can Be Helpful, But Here’s the Catch
Here’s the tricky part.
I’m not going to tell you to “just eat a balanced diet.” Like most regular MDs are trained to say.
Because the truth is:
The majority of people I know who healed from chronic illness benefited from an elimination diet at some point.
Removing certain foods temporarily can:
- calm gut inflammation
- reduce symptoms
- help identify sensitivities
For many people it’s a useful short-term tool. For instance, I know many people with Long Covid who found reducing high-histamine foods provide temporary relief.
But what I see all the time — and what I personally did — was then staying on those diets for way too long.
Months turn into years.
And slowly the diet becomes more and more restricted. Many people have told me:
The fear and stress around the foods became worse than the actual food itself.
A body in fight-or-flight can’t digest things easily.
Note: This is not to just say start eating foods that trigger symptoms. Most of us had to do things before we got there. In my case, getting out of a water-damaged house (the byproducts of mold were very high in my body before my husband and I moved), optimizing my sleep where repair happens, and ultimately rewiring my brain (which I’ve written a lot about).
Each of us is unique
Our genetics and microbiomes affect what we can best digest. One friend of mine was eating a higher-fat Mediterranean diet during his CFS recovery journey. He ended up in the hospital with gallstones needing surgery to his gallbladder a sign he was consuming too many fats.
He since found a lower fat diet, with lower-fat protein and plentiful beans and legumes (properly prepared) helped him (what he credits 10% of his full recovery to).
Another friend of mine, whose family is Greek, found a Mediterranean diet helped her thrive.
There’s One More Option: Preparation and Pairing
Something that gets lost in the wellness world is that many traditional food cultures didn’t just eliminate foods — they prepared them differently.
Many compounds people worry about today can actually be reduced through how food is prepared.
Preparing Foods to Reduce Lectins
For example:
Beans and legumes naturally contain lectins.
But traditional preparation methods dramatically reduce them:
- Soaking beans overnight
- Cooking them thoroughly
- Pressure cooking
- Fermenting foods
These methods break down lectins and make the foods easier to digest.
Many cultures have been doing this for thousands of years.
My grandma would always soak beans and peeled her potatoes. And in the spaghetti sauce she’d make, she would slow cook the tomatoes for a very long time.
Lowering Oxalates Through Food Pairing
Oxalates work a little differently.
You often don’t need to eliminate them entirely — you can reduce absorption by pairing foods thoughtfully.
For example:
Calcium binds oxalates in the gut, helping prevent them from being absorbed into the bloodstream.
So meals like these where they’re together can make a difference:
- Spinach salad with cheese or yogurt dressing
- Almond butter with yogurt or milk
- Dark chocolate after a calcium-rich meal
What you do not want to do is to eat high oxalate foods without calcium in one meal, then eat a lot of calcium in the next meal. Because then the oxalate will bind to calcium in the urinary track where it can form a stone.
Hydration also is key — drinking enough water helps the kidneys process oxalates.
Cooking methods can help, too.
Boiling certain vegetables (like spinach) can reduce oxalates because some leach into the cooking water.
When I Finally Found My Balance
Eventually I moved toward what felt like a balanced, healthy diet.
All the food groups.
Variety of vegetables and fruit.
Good but not extreme amount of quality proteins (grass-fed beef, pasture raised chicken, occasionally wild salmon)
Healthy Carbs including sprouted grains (I still avoided gluten-rich grains)
Some nuts
Fermented foods here and there
My dairy was mostly yogurt rather than milk or cheese, and I avoided added sugar.
I felt great.
I was thriving.
Then Life Happened
Then I had kids.
And something funny happened.
My diet slowly shifted again.
Skipping meals.
Tons of dark chocolate.
Lots of almond butter on almond toast.
Both healthy foods.
But both also very high in oxalates.
Recently I noticed something familiar again — that same weird stuff in my pee.
When I reduced the almond butter and chocolate, it seemed to have a noticeable impact.
Not proof of anything definitive.
But enough of a signal to remind me:
The body often tells us when we’re stuck in a food rut.
The Real Lesson
The takeaway isn’t:
- Oxalates are bad
- Lectins are bad
- Protein is bad (we need it to survive and repair!)
None of those things are the enemy.
The real issue is extreme repetition without factoring preparation and ideal food pairing.
Eating the same “superfoods” every single day for years can overload certain metabolic pathways.
Especially foods like:
- spinach
- almonds
- sweet potatoes
- dark chocolate
- turmeric
- high-doses of protein powders
All healthy foods.
But not meant to dominate a diet indefinitely.
A Better Approach
Instead of chasing the perfect diet, it may help to think in terms of dietary rotation and preparation.
Life gets busy, and I’m not perfect, but this is a reminder to you and to myself to:
Rotate our greens.
Rotate our protein sources.
Rotate our carbs.
Use preparation methods like soaking, fermenting, and cooking when it helps that food unlock more good nutrients and reduce things that decrease absorption.
Pair foods that go together well rather than counteract.
For those of us who run low on iron/hemoglobin: I tend to run low on Iron and hemoglobin. I learned not to eat high oxalates with iron-rich foods as they can bind to iron. I learned it’s good to pair iron-rich foods with high Vitamin C, low oxalate food for best absorption, and other B-vitamin rich food. It’s not great to eat iron rich foods with calcium rich foods as the calcium can block iron absorption.
I also have read a lot on how it’s great to eat with the seasons. It’s sunny now (finally) and I’m eating more salads and fruits.
Sometimes elimination diets are helpful.
But they work best when they are temporary tools, not lifelong rules.
The goal isn’t perfection. (As a busy mom, I’m not perfect! This is more like a note to myself after recently realizing I was in a food rut.)
The goal is to staying flexible enough to listen when our bodies nudge us to change course.
