Got Gout? Here's What To Eat And Avoid

Content

• Healthy Recipes For Gout
• Top Health Categories
• Should I Avoid Meat If I Have Gout?

Like other joint diseases, gout can be painful and disabling—yet people with this condition sometimes fail to seek treatment due to misinformation. Studies report that gout is often associated with the metabolic syndrome – a condition characterized by abdominal fat, Insulin resistance and high triglyceride levels. Lowering triglycerides with a weight-loss diet has been shown to increase the kidney’s excretion of urate in patients with gout. If you or a loved one is living with gout, it’s important to know how to decrease your risk of a painful flare. Achieving a healthy weight, limiting foods high in purine, and good control of other medical conditions can decrease your risk.

Healthy Recipes For Gout

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. But learning about the resources available to you, working with your healthcare provider, and making smart lifestyle changes can help you to feel more empowered. Most of all, be patient with yourself and remember that each patient's journey is unique.

Regular exercise can help you lose weight if you are overweight, or maintain your weight if you are at a normal weight. Talk to your healthcare provider before you begin an exercise program. Up to 4 percent of American adults have gout, and our rising rates of obesity certainly increase our risk. But don’t believe everything you hear when it comes to diet advice and gout. Not everyone needs to follow a rigid diet to treat gout, but avoiding foods that are high in purines may help. Check with your doctor or dietitian to see if you should follow this diet.

Top Health Categories

Eating tart cherries – or drinking tart cherry juice -- may lower your risk of gout attacks. The red-purple pigments in the fruit – called anthocyanins – have powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and are thought to provide protection. While a healthy diet can help control how much uric acid is in your system, you may still need medicine to prevent future attacks. Following a gout diet, along with limiting calories and getting regular exercise, can also improve your overall health by helping you achieve and maintain a healthy weight. There is some evidence that eating cherries is associated with a reduced risk of gout attacks.

Is cheese bad for gout?

Dairy Foods and Gout
Full-fat dairy products like whole milk and ice cream are often discouraged for people with gout. However, studies have shown that increasing the amount of dairy products you eat, including cheese, yogurt, and ice cream, may reduce your risk of developing gout.

How to lose weight Guide Learn about the top 18 weight-loss tips… though perhaps you only need to use one or two. We are not aware of any evidence proving this, and this guide will explore why, or why not, this may be true. Choose lean sources, such as soy, lean meats, and poultry without the skin.

Health.com may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Asparagus, cauliflower, spinach, and mushrooms are higher in purines than other vegetables. But if you like these foods, there’s no reason to avoid them completely, says Sandon. Wine is a better choice, but heavy drinking is a bad idea for everyone, and people who get gout are no exception, says Sandon, who is a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.

Do Acidic Foods Lead To High Uric Acid?

In previous eras, gout was considered a disease of rich people. The thinking was that only the wealthy could afford the rich foods, alcoholic beverages, and inactive lifestyles associated with the disease. One study linked the consumption of HFCS to increased blood uric acid levels in women. For this reason, it is recommended to limit the intake of foods and beverages sweetened with HFCS to decrease the risk of developing gout. This plant-based sweetener is a calorie-free, sugar-free alternative, which is especially beneficial if you have diabetes.

Gout is a type of arthritis caused by the body’s inability to metabolize uric acid, which results in elevated levels of uric acid in the blood. When uric acid levels are too high, the acid manifests as deposits in the joints or tissue, which results in painful joint inflammation. The good news is that gout can normally be controlled by a change in lifestyle alone. from inflammatory gout, you probably know that what you eat can have a profound effect on your symptoms.

Even more confusing is that it is unclear whether these patients were eating much less meat than usual, given that they were told to avoid saturated fat. Uric acid levels fell by about 2 points, which is about the same as in the Peixoto low-purine diet study, although that group had much lower uric acid levels to begin with. For anyone who’s recently been diagnosed with gout or is at risk for developing gout, keeping a special eye on your food intake becomes so much more important to do on a daily basis. Whether you’re looking to reduce the side effects and symptoms of gout or lessen your vulnerability to developing gout, avoiding certain foods and favoring others is a great way to help out your body. Maintaining a normal weight helps to balance the body’s levels of uric acid, and also exerts less pressure on joints.

Get more information about treatment goals for inflammatory arthritis, which includes both pain management and the prevention of joint and organ damage. Some research suggests that drinking coffee in moderation, especially regular caffeinated coffee, may be associated with a reduced risk of gout. Drinking coffee may not be appropriate if you have other medical conditions. Talk to your doctor about how much coffee is right for you.

Are apples anti inflammatory?

Whoever first said “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” was onto something. Research suggests that eating some apple on a daily basis might lower levels of cholesterol as well as C-reactive protein (CRP), a key marker of inflammation in the blood.

Alcoholic beverages and regular soda also increase the body’s production of uric acid. As for soda, the high fructose corn syrup is likely to blame, due to how fructose is metabolized in the body, which can lead to overproduction of uric acid. Similar associations haven’t been found for artificially-sweetened diet soda.

Consider substituting eggs, which are nutritionally comparable to organs but lower in fat. Eggs are good sources of vitamins A, D, and B12; choline, iron, selenium, and zinc. Another tip is to make a cocktail with your favorite spirit, such as vodka or rum, and dilute the drink with as much water or non-alcoholic mixer as possible.

But even then, it’s best to avoid beer and liquor and stick to safer choices such as red wine. It is best to avoid foods with added sugars if you suffer from gout. Fool your sweet tooth and eat strawberries and kiwi in place of cakes and cookies. Cherries are especially beneficial; studies show that people who eat cherries or consume cherry juice experience fewer gout attacks. Be sure to eat lots of fruits that are rich in vitamin C as it helps the kidneys remove uric acid from your system.

Eat A Healthy Diet

Many gout sufferers are told to limit fat and protein intake to prevent attacks and ease symptoms. While this is generally true, nuts and beans are not dangerous fats and proteins for people at risk for gout. Gout sufferers are generally advised to avoid full-fat dairy like whole milk, heavy cream, and ice cream, but low-fat dairy products may actually help prevent gout. Studies have shown that increasing a person’s intake of low-fat dairy products reduces uric acid levels—preventing the development of gout and gout attacks. Maintain a healthy body weightAn obese person is three times more likely to develop gout than someone with a normal body weight. Avoid crash diets, since fast or extreme weight loss can increase the amount of uric acid in the body.

Never Miss A Beat!

Purines make up 15 percent of the uric acid found in the body. Too much uric acid can lead to problems, including kidney stones and gout. Beer is high in a type of purine that is easy for your body to absorb, and hard liquor has been shown to elevate gout risk too.