Oxalate reference · Beans, lentils and soy
Oxalate in butter and lima beans
2 mg in a 1/2 cup serving, which the Oxalosis and Hyperoxaluria Foundation bands as low. That is 3 mg per 100 g, for the most representative of the 3 forms measured. It sits above 4 of the 83 foods with a page here.
What is worth knowing about butter and lima beans
Butter beans are low, and they are the one large creamy bean that behaves like cannellini in a dish without measuring like it.
The forms are not interchangeable here. Beans, Lima or Butter, boiled 30 min carries 10 mg a serving, so which one is in the cupboard decides the answer more than the food does.
Every preparation measured
| As listed | Band | mg per 100 g | Serving | mg per serving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legumes, Beans, Butter, boiled | low | 3 | 1/2 cup | 2 |
| Legumes, Beans, Lima, dried & boiled or canned | low | 3 | 1/2 cup | 3 |
| Beans, Lima or Butter, boiled 30 min | low | 10 | 1/2 cup | 10 |
Bands are per serving as the OHF lists them, so a food can be high per 100 g and low in the portion anybody eats. Turmeric and dried parsley are the clearest cases of that, and neither is a problem in a kitchen.
Nothing in this category measures lower
Butter and lima beans is the lowest of the 11 beans, lentils and soy with a page here, ranked by the most representative form of each. If something in this category has come off your plate, this is what it can be replaced with.
| Food | Band | mg per serving | Serving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Butter and lima beans (this page) | low | 2 | 1/2 cup |
| Peas | low | 2 | 1/2 cup |
| Lentils | low | 8 | 1/2 cup |
| Chickpeas | low | 9 | 1/2 cup |
| Tofu | low | 10 | 1/2 cup, cubed |
| Baked beans | low | 17 | 1/2 cup |
| Kidney beans | low | 22 | 1/2 cup |
| Pinto and borlotti beans | moderate | 29 | 1/2 cup |
| Soybeans and edamame | moderate | 39 | 1/2 cup |
| Black beans | moderate | 51 | 1/2 cup |
| Cannellini and white beans | moderate | 79 | 1/2 cup |
Before you act on the number
A figure in a table is not a figure in your urine. Oxalate in a plant moves with variety, ripeness, soil, season and cooking — boiling leaches a good deal of it into water that is then poured away. What you absorb also depends on what was on the plate with it, because calcium eaten in the same meal binds oxalate in the gut so that it leaves in the stool instead of the urine.
There is no daily target on this site. The OHF publishes bands per serving, not an allowance, and what any one person should aim for depends on their stone chemistry and their own testing. If you have been given a number, that number wins over anything here.
Restriction is not the first move. Guideline advice for recurrent calcium oxalate stones starts with fluid, with normal calcium taken alongside meals, and with less sodium — and it recommends the fruit and vegetables a low-oxalate list tends to strip out.
All 83 foods, and the full published table · Why a low-oxalate list is the wrong tool for planning a diet · Why calcium belongs with the meal, not off the plate
