The compound, called oxalate, is abundant in foods such as spinach, almonds, and sweet potatoes. It is best known for contributing to certain kidney stones, but new research suggests that oxalate left inside the digestive tract may also aggravate intestinal inflammation in people with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.

Published in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CMGH), the study combined patient data with experiments in mice and cultured immune cells. The work was led by postdoctoral scholar Anna Salvador, PhD, RD, LDN, in the laboratory of Shehzad Z. Sheikh, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and genetics at the UNC School of Medicine.