Gout and Tomatoes: Gazpacho

One day, I hear that gout and tomatoes are good together.The next day I hear tomatoes are bad for gout.The truth is that tomatoes are tasty and this delicious gout recipe is scientifically proven to lower uric acid.

Gout And Tomatoes Warning

Many people with gout avoid tomatoes, claiming they cause gout. There are two possible reasons for this.

Allergic reaction

Uric acid lowering effect

An allergic reaction might cause an inflammatory response that could aggravate gout. If you have this type of allergy, you should avoid this recipe.

The study that I have adapted this recipe from showed that daily consumption of this soup lowers uric acid. Although this was only 1-1.2mg/dL, if your level is, say 7mg/dL, the drop below 6mg/dL could cause some urate crystals to start dissolving. This causes the same reaction as when you are taking urate lowering medication - as the crystals dissolve, they can trigger a gout attack. For this reason, many gout patients on urate lowering therapies are also given pain relief such as colchicine or NSAIDs. I have written a fuller explanation of this in my article on allopurinol medication.

Gazpacho For Gout

Tomatoes form about half of this gazpacho recipe. There are thousands of different gazpacho recipes. This one is a simple one, based on an experiment that proved that high-antioxidant recipes can lower uric acid ⁽¹⁾.

In this experiment, the gazpacho was served in two 250ml portions as a snack, morning and afternoon. This is very much in keeping with my gout diet plan. A healthy snack between meals makes you less likely to fill your plate at meal time, and less likely to refill it with seconds. Little and often is the GoutPal way. Make the most of it with this cold soup.

I present the recipe as near to the original form as I can, but you should adapt and improve it to your taste. I find that just adding a teaspoon or two of Tabasco, or other chili sauce improves the flavor, and the antioxidants.

I have calculated quantities to make about one liter, which will last for two days with two snacks per day. If you improve it, please send me your version, and share your experience of gout and tomatoes.

Ingredients

Food	Qty.	Measure	Note
Tomatoes	2	cups	approx 2 large tomatoes
Cucumber	2/3	cup	approx 3" slice of standard size cucumber
Green Pepper	1/2	cup	1 small pepper, might be slightly less than 1/2 cup
Onion - chopped	2	tbsp	approx. half medium onion
Garlic	1 or 2	cloves	to taste
Salt	1	tsp	to taste
Extra Virgin Olive Oil	4	tsp
Wine Vinegar	4	tsp
Sugar	1	tsp	to taste
Water	3/4	cup	use more or less for thinner or thicker soup

Method

Wash and roughly chop all vegetables.

Place chopped vegetables in blender with all liquids. Blitz until smooth.

Add salt and sugar to taste.

Pour into airtight container, seal and refrigerate overnight to infuse flavors.

Serve one quarter of the soup as a snack mid morning and mid afternoon.

Nutrition

Fresh vegetables vary in nutritional content due to season, variety and growing conditions, so judge these nutrition data as guidelines rather than absolutes.

I have written extra nutritional notes in my Gout Food Analysis pages, where you can see the specific details for tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper, onion, garlic, salt, olive oil, wine vinegar, sugar and water.

Food	Serving	Weight	KCals	PRAL	AR	IF	FF	NR
Gazpacho	250ml	190g	70	-4.8	Medium	77	4.4	4.5

⁽¹⁾Consumption of High-Pressurized Vegetable Soup Increases Plasma Vitamin C and Decreases Oxidative Stress and Inflammatory Biomarkers in Healthy Humans

Concepción Sánchez-Moreno, M. Pilar Cano, Begoña de Ancos, Lucía Plaza, Begoña Olmedilla, Fernando Granado and Antonio Martín

The American Society for Nutritional Sciences J. Nutr. 134:3021-3025, November 2004

Do you have a recipe for gout and tomatoes? Do you have any questions about gout and tomatoes? Please discuss gout and tomatoes on the Gout Pal Forum.

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