Foods And Drinks To Enjoy If You Have Gout
Purines are chemical compounds that occur naturally in our bodies and also are present in some foods and beverages.5 Uric acid is produced when the body breaks down purines.5 If you have gout, its best to eat gout-friendly meals that include mostly lower-purine foods.5 Consider adding these to your grocery list6,7:
- Lean meat and poultry
- Beans/legumes
- Nuts and seeds
- Fruits
- Vegetables
Weight Management And Exercise
The Arthritis Foundation emphasizes how important it is for people with gout to manage their weight.
Obesity is a risk factor for developing gout. If a person with gout has excess weight, losing a few pounds can help them:
- reduce pressure on painful joints
- lower the risk of heart disease
- build strength and flexibility
To achieve this, the person should ask a doctor about a suitable diet to help them manage their weight and an exercise plan.
Anyone who smokes should also ask a doctor to help them with a plan to quit.
The Mediterranean diet contains plants, grains, and healthy fats. It may help people manage their weight while encouraging them to eat healthily.
Diet For Gout And High Uric Acid Levels
Diet for gout and high uric acid levels
In the middle ages, gout was known as the disease of the wealthy. Nowadays, it is one of the most common metabolism illnesses among adults that is associated with nutrition. Gout results from excessively high uric acid levels in the blood. There are two types of gout, primary gout, which is congenital and secondary gout, which is an acquired disease. Primary gout is the result of a metabolism problem associated with insufficient removal of waste by the kidneys. In the case of the second form, the gout is caused by illnesses such as tumours, anaemia and diabetes with kidney function problems. Nutrition-related causes include total fasting and the increased consumption of meat and alcohol.
Recommended Reading: Is Onions Good For Gout
Foods And Drinks To Avoid If You Have Gout
As you plan gout-friendly meals to cook at home, its important to keep in mind that some foods and drinks are associated with a higher risk of gout attacks than others.5 The next time you go to the grocery store, do your best to steer clear of these items6,7:
- Red meat and organ meats
- Shellfish
- Refined carbohydrate products
- Processed foods
- Sugary/sweet beverages
Does Fructose Cause Gout
Fructose is a sugar that is found in fruits and vegetables. It is also found in high levels in foods sweetened with corn syrup, such as bread, cereal, soft drinks and fruit juices. An American study found that men who drank five to six servings of fructose-sweetened soft drinks per week were more likely to have gout. However there is no research showing that fructose actually causes gout. Cutting down the amount of food artificially sweetened with high fructose corn syrup may be beneficial for your overall health. However naturally occurring fructose in fruit and vegetables also provides general health benefits and should not be completely avoided without advice from your doctor or dietitian.
Recommended Reading: Cherry Juice For Gout Mayo Clinic
Can I Drink Alcohol
Drinking alcohol can increase your risk of a gout attack as it can raise the level of uric acid in your blood. While it is possible to control gout attacks without completely cutting out alcohol, try to reduce the amount of alcohol you drink and avoid binge drinking . Talk to your doctor or read the Australian government guidelines on recommended alcohol intake.
Dark Chocolate Almond Mousse
Fructose can increase the risk of gout and gout attacks, even though theyre not purine-rich. You can satisfy your clients sweet tooth with this sugar-free mousse which has the bonus of packing 10 grams of fiber.
Click here to add Dark Chocolate Almond Mousse to your clients That Clean Life meal plan.
Recommended Reading: Gout And Almonds
Chicken Or Eggplant Parmigiana
Making chicken parmigiana is similar to recipe #2 above, if you are baking the chicken breasts. Same benefits chicken or eggplant less of a gout threat than red meat. This will take a little more prep time to set up the three breading stations. Yet, it is still a straight-forward and worth-while dish with no cutting of vegetables.
Bread crumbs and sauce can be whatever flavor you want to use. If you have been getting frequent gout flares or just getting over one, avoid the breadcrumbs that contain yeast extract. Note that yeast extract is a derivative of MSG, a gout starter.
You can replace the chicken with eggplants, or even vegetarian meatballs from the store. Make enough and youll have plenty of leftovers and guarantees you have another gout-friendly meal.
* Get Products For Gout: Top CBD products for athletes Joint and muscle pain relief
Be Choosy About Carbs
Carbs can be helpful or harmful to your gout health. The most helpful carbs are found in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes. Sweet potatoes, beans, apples, and popcorn can all be served in wholesome and delicious ways as part of a healthy gout diet.
Other carbs come as natural and refined sugars. Candy, sports drinks, some breakfast cereal, and some pasta sauces all contribute to dietary sugar from unhealthy carbs.
You May Like: Side Effects Of Allopurinol And Alcohol
How Can Diet Affect Gout
Purines naturally occur in red meat, seafood and some vegetables. For decades, health care professionals thought people with gout should avoid all foods high in purines. That’s not the case anymore. You can say goodbye to long lists of eat-this-and-not-that foods. New research shows that not all high-purine foods must be nixed to control gout.
It is common for people with gout to have other conditions that are a part of “metabolic syndrome”-high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol or triglycerides, and excess body fat around the waist. Therefore, a gout diet now looks very similar to a heart-healthy diet. A focus on vegetables, nuts, legumes, whole grains and fatty fish like salmon will not only prevent gout flares but will also keep you at a healthy weight and protect your heart.
Fresh Fruit And Vegetables
Add plenty of fruits and vegetables to your diet. Enjoy a whole apple as a snack between meals or try eating a cup of raw, sliced vegetables, such as carrots and celery, to stave off afternoon hunger pangs. You may want to add dip or dressing to improve the flavor but do so in moderation. Dressings are high in fat and not recommended for a diet for gout. Aim to eat at least two portions of fruit and three servings of vegetables each day. A medium-sized banana, orange or apple counts as a serving of fruit while a cup of raw vegetables equals one serving.
Don’t Miss: Almond Good For Gout
The Orange Yogurt Marinade:
I personally think that this is the best part of the recipe. Did you know that plain greek yogurt can make an absolutely delicious and moist marinade for chicken? All you have to do is add a little sweetness to it and its ready to go! In this recipe we use fresh squeezed orange juice and spices. Let the chicken sit in the marinade for a few hours, or overnight and it will be so tasty and moist, you will be wondering why you dont make yogurt marinades more often! If you dont have orange, try using fresh squeezed lemon juice!
How Does Food Affect Gout
If you have gout, certain foods may trigger an attack by raising your uric acid levels.
Trigger foods are commonly high in purines, a substance found naturally in foods. When you digest purines, your body makes uric acid as a waste product .
This is not a concern for healthy people, as they efficiently remove excess uric acid from the body.
However, people with gout cant efficiently remove excess uric acid. Thus, a high-purine diet may let uric acid accumulate and cause a gout attack (
10 ).
Foods that commonly trigger gout attacks include organ meats, red meats, seafood,alcohol and beer. They contain a moderate-to-high amount of purines .
However, there is one exception to this rule. Research shows that high-purine vegetables do not trigger gout attacks .
And interestingly, fructose and sugar-sweetened beverages can increase the risk of gout and gout attacks, even though theyre not purine-rich (
16 ).
For instance, a study including over 125,000 participants found that people who consumed the most fructose had a 62% higher risk of developing gout .
On the other hand, research shows that low-fat dairy products, soy products and vitamin C supplements may help prevent gout attacks by reducing blood uric acid levels (
Summary: Foods can either raise or lower your uric acid levels, depending on their purine content. However, fructose can raise your uric acid levels even though it is not purine-rich.
Don’t Miss: Is Tofu Good For Gout
Day Gout Friendly Meal Plan
Notes:
All meat, poultry and fish used in a dish must be no more than 4 ounces per serving in order to get the right balance between their high nutritional value and moderately high purine content.
Cherries should be eaten everyday, as one of your allotted snacks, so you wont forget to take them: studies have shown they are actually able to reduce uric acid. You can eat other fruits outside of your designated snack times.
In some countries the main meal of the day is lunch, whilst in others its dinner. Swap lunches and dinners to suit your culture.
Monday
- Lunch: Mixed salad, baked apple.
- Afternoon snack: 1 cup of fresh cherries.
- Dinner: Baked wild salmon with potatoes, broccoli and carrots.
- Late snack: 1 slice of carrot cake.
*Based on suggested menus in Christine Craggs-Hintons excellent book Coping with Gout published by Sheldon Press, London SW1P 4ST.
Diet Management For Gout
Introduction
Goals of dietary management for gout :
The general principles of a gout diet :
References
| Last reviewed |
Recommended Reading: Allopurinol And Alcohol Interaction
Choose A Diet You Can Live With
If you are overweight, losing weight can protect you from gout flare-ups. However, losing weight fast can do more harm than good for gout, as rapid weight loss can raise uric acid levels in your bloodstream. Avoid fad diets and “crash” diets. Consider consulting a dietician, who can help you choose a diet plan that works for you.
Grilled Or Baked Chicken Breast
Have you ever been in a fast food or fast casual restaurant, looked at your grilled chicken order and said, I can make this? Learning to grill, pan-fry or bake chicken breasts is easier than you think. Plus, it tastes so much fresher when you cook you own.
Eating chicken and turkey is less of a gout risk than beef and pork. Here is a another gout-friendly recipe with just six ingredients chicken, lemon, garlic, salt, olive oil and basil.
To simplify things even more, you can bake this instead of frying. Also, there is large variety of dry rubs or marinades you can buy to find a favorite.
Make sure the ingredients in the rub powders and marinades are not gout starters like monosodium glutamate , yeast extract and shellfish ingredients.
Also Check: Onion And Gout
If You Have Gout A Painful Type Of Arthritis You May Be Trying To Limit Purines In Your Diet Heres What You Need To Know To Get Started
Has your doctor suggested that you or someone you love go on a low-purine diet to help with the painful symptoms of gout? If so, its important to understand what a low-purine diet is, and how it may help manage gout as part of your overall gout treatment plan.
Gout is a type of arthritis that develops when high levels of a chemical called uric acid in the blood cause uric acid crystals to build up in a joint. This can lead to inflammation and pain, often in the big toe, as well as other joints. Gout attacks, or flares, are often extremely and suddenly painful and debilitating.
In most people, the body produces a manageable amount of uric acid, and the kidneys eliminate any excess through the urine. In a person with gout, however, the body doesnt have good control over the amount of uric acid in the blood. The goal of gout treatment is to lower the level of uric acid back to normal so it wont cause problems, says Calvin R. Brown, Jr., MD, professor of medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University in Chicago. Depending on your specific needs, a combination of medication to manage gout and lifestyle changes, including a low-purine diet, can help you reach that target.
Its very important to get uric acid levels to a healthy level and keep them there. Without proper treatment, gout flares can become more frequent, affect more joints, and lead to bone and joint damage as well as these other significant gout complications.
What Is The Recommended Diet For Gout Sufferers
There are no foods that can completely prevent the symptoms of gout, but a diet low in purines may help to reduce the frequency of attacks. Following a nutritionally balanced, healthy diet that is low in saturated and trans fats and rich in unprocessed foods can help to reduce the risk of gout attacks. Care needs to be taken with certain vegetables such as asparagus, beans, cauliflower, lentils, mushrooms and spinach as these contain medium levels of purines.
While these dont need to be avoided completely, portion size is important a moderate intake should not increase the risks of gout. All other vegetables should be eaten freely. There is also evidence to suggest that a high consumption of low-fat dairy products , limiting sugary drinks and having a daily vitamin C supplement of 500mg may reduce the risk of gout. Speak to your GP before starting new supplements or altering your diet to manage gout.
It is important to note that it is the quantity of purine-rich food consumed that is more important than the purine content in each food. However, if a patient is keen to measure quantities of food, a maximum total daily purine intake of around 200mg is recommended.
Also Check: Is Pistachio Bad For Gout
Low Purine Meal Planning For Gout
Eating purine-rich foods frequently can increase uric acid levels, which results in gout and could be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and metabolic syndrome. Foods that are very high in purines include:
- Wild or farmed game .
- Organ meats .
- Extracts of meat and yeast
- Fish roe .
- Scallops, herrings, mackerel, trout, anchovies, sardines, sprats, whitebait.
- Crayfish and lobster.
When evaluating whether a food puts your client at a higher risk of gout, two important points should be taken into consideration: the amount of total purines in the food and what types of purine bases are included.
Foods with a high ratio of hypoxanthine are considered to be a high risk for hyperuricemia which includes animal meats, fish meats, and some shrimps. A high intake of these foods is related to elevated serum uric acid concentrations and a higher risk of gout. Because liver and milt also contain a high amount of purines, heavy consumption of these foods is not recommended even if the purines are mainly adenine and guanine.
These high-purine foods can be substituted with low-purine items in your client’s meal plan, such as dairy products, cereals, beans, vegetables, mushrooms, and soybean products. A low-purine diet can work along with medication to lower the levels of uric acid and the risk of recurring gout attacks. It can also manage pain, swelling, and inflammation of the joints.
So There You Have It: 42 Well
*Postscript*
You can change things up by substituting other nutritious options, such as:
- Mashed avocado, chopped red onion & tomato, on toasted sourdough, topped with a poached egg.
- Peanut butter and sliced banana on one wholemeal toast slice.
- Turkey breast instead of chicken breast.
- Baked potato with 1 cup max. of sauteed mushrooms .
- Smoked haddock, grilled tomatoes and poached egg / scrambled eggs.
- Roasted red pepper risotto with brown risotto rice, vegetable stock, no wine.
- Baked or grilled hake with salsa verde and steamed vegetables.
- Wholegrain penne pasta with onion, garlic, red and yellow bell peppers, zucchini, dried Italian herbs, and fresh basil.
Remember the meat, poultry and fish in these listings have to be restricted to a 4 oz serving since they generally have a moderately-high purine content.
But what about pork?
Except in certain religious communities, pork is the most widely consumed meat, so is it safe to eat in a gout diet?
It is, but only in moderation. However, there are several important health and moral issues being hotly debated which I cover in another article: Pork and Gout: Safe For Gout Sufferers?
Don’t Miss: Onions Bad For Gout