Low Purine Diet Explained With List Of Foods To Eat Or Avoid

Content

• Which Foods Are Safe For Gout?
• Take On Chronic Pain Where It Lives
• Learn More About Arthritis
• Which Foods Should You Avoid When You Have Gout?

Dairy products, such as milk, cheese, and yogurt, are low in purines, and they are a good fit for a diet to manage or prevent gout. They are good protein alternatives to meat, and reduced-fat dairy products are lower in saturated fat than full-fat ones. Gout is a form of arthritis that happens when the uric acid levels in your blood get too high. Commonly affected joints include your big toe, ankles, elbows, knees, wrists, and fingers. Seafood�Seafood often has high levels of purine, but Mayo Clinic notes that the benefits of eating seafood generally outweigh the risk of gout attacks.

For a list of foods high in purines, see our article on this website. Avoid or severely limit high-purine foods, such as organ meats, herring, anchovies and mackerel. Red meat that has been cured or processed, and seafood are associated with increased risk of gout. Because all meat, poultry and fish contain purines, limit your intake.

Which Foods Are Safe For Gout?

For example, a 12-ounce can of cola contains about 150 calories and 40 grams, or about 9.5 teaspoons, of added sugars. In addition, sugar-sweetened beverages have been associated with an increased risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, weight gain, and dental caries. Additionally, refined carbs like white bread, cakes and cookies should be avoided. Although they are not high in purines or fructose, they are low in nutrients and may raise your uric acid levels . Most people who have the condition experience these symptoms because their bodies can’t remove the excess uric acid efficiently.

A 2014 systematic review and meta-analysis of long-term coffee consumption found that people who consumed 3–5 cups of coffee per day had the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease. Some research indicates that people who drink coffee are less likely to develop gout. For example, a 2010 analysis of data from female participants in the Nurses’ Health Study found that gout risk decreased as coffee consumption increased.

Take On Chronic Pain Where It Lives

Lean sources of protein, including chicken, turkey, fish, and tofu, are better choices than beef or pork. Gout is a painful type of arthritis, or inflammation of joints, particularly in the big toe and knee joints. It happens as a result of hyperuricemia, or too much uric acid in the blood. The gout diet resembles the healthy eating plan recommended for most people in many ways.

Are blueberries bad for gout?

You may want to try adding some of the following foods to your diet: Dark berries. These include blueberries, blackberries, and cherries. These berries contain chemicals that may lower uric acid.

Intense joint inflammation occurs when white blood cells engulf the crystals of uric acid and release chemicals that promote inflammation. The resulting inflammation causes pain, heat, and redness of the joint. Being overweight increases the risk of developing gout, and losing weight lowers the risk of gout. Research suggests that reducing the number of calories and losing weight — even without a purine-restricted diet — lower uric acid levels and reduce the number of gout attacks. Studies have found that vitamin C may lower uric acid levels.

Other foods can contribute to gout by increasing the risk of weight gain. Anti-inflammatory and pain medications are common for treating gout, but what you eat can affect symptoms, too. In general, losing extra pounds and avoiding certain high-purine foods may help prevent flare-ups. Your body breaks down these purines during normal cell metabolism, and also after you’ve eaten purine-rich foods, she says. If your body is unable to handle all the uric acid that results from the breakdown of purines, that's when gout can emerge. It’s not necessary to avoid all high-purine foods if you have gout.

Check your tolerance for fruits, vegetables and other foods high in fructose. In a study of 633 gout sufferers followed for a year, those who had eaten cherries in the past few days were 35% less likely to have an acute gout attack than those who hadn’t. Prediabetes is a condition that often leads to type 2 diabetes within several years, but making certain lifestyle choices can usually prevent type 2 diabetes. Coffee is linked to a lower risk for gout as well as prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. It boost metabolism, and research supports that coffee drinkers have lower risk for obesity. Red meat, such as beef and pork, and poultry, such as chicken and turkey, are also high in purines.

Gout Diet: Foods To Eat And Those To Avoid

Gout sufferers should avoid foods that are rich in purines such as meat, offal, oily fish, and mushrooms. Alcohol and fructose-sweetened foods can also increase uric acid levels and should therefore be avoided. A gout diet helps in decreasing uric acid build up within the joints.

Learn More About Arthritis

This used to be treated with a strict diet, but now there are medicines that can control it. These medicines have largely replaced the need to restrict what you eat. Avoid sweeteners high in fructose such as honey, brown sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, golden syrup and palm sugar.

Is chocolate bad for gout?

Chocolate can lower uric acid crystallization, according to a 2018 study . Lowering uric acid crystallization can be key to controlling your gout. Chocolate has polyphenols associated with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Inflammation reduction is helpful in providing relief from a gout attack.

Most notably, cherries and cherry juice extract have been shown to decrease the likelihood of recurrent gout attacks. This is due to anthocyanins, which are a pigment in the skin of the fruit that has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Increasing your water intake is another particularly helpful diet modification that will help address hyperuricemia, as it helps the kidneys process it and excrete it as urine. As mentioned above, certain shellfish is high in purines and therefore should be avoided by those suffering with gout.

(Once a week, great. Every day, not so much.) The same is true of mushrooms and spinach, which contain high amounts of purines—at least by vegetable standards. While some of the gout research on these veggies is mixed, if you want to play it safe, they’re probably best consumed sparingly. While some studies show that caffeine can actually protect against gout pain, others find that sudden spikes in caffeine intake can trigger a gout attack. Most people with gout will still needmedicationeven if they follow a diet for gout. Some people with gout find it helpful to eliminate specific high-purine foods from their diet.

Which Foods Should You Avoid When You Have Gout?

The higher the starting uric acid level, the greater the decline. Gout has a storied history, with rumors of famous sufferers ranging from Alexander the Great to King Henry VIII to Benjamin Franklin. Once known as the “Rich Man’s Disease” or the “Disease of Kings,” gout was thought to be an affliction of the wealthy.

Alcohol is processed by the liver where it’s turned into lactic acid. The presence of lactic acid can make it harder for the kidneys to get rid of uric acid, causing it to build up in your blood and make it more likely you’ll have an attack of gout. And as much as I prefer focusing on what you should eat to prevent health scares, there are just so many clear trigger foods for gout. Further discussion of best treatment for gout is outside the scope of this article. But there are foods thought to be protective; namely dairy, cherries, andcoffee, in decreasing order of evidence. While most fruits are very low in fructose, a few are very high.