Gout Diet Section

Gout And Pizza, Sandwiches, Popcorn & Other Fast Foods

Please read the food tables introduction before using the gout and pizza food table.

Fast foods are convenient, but hidden ingredients make nutritional analysis difficult, and make it hard for you to assess their value in your gout diet. Many pizzas, sandwiches, and other fast foods contain meat, but I cannot assess purine content for these – best to estimate the meat or fish content, then look at the meat or fish nutrition tables to estimate the purine content. Click to browse the Gout And Pizza Food Table

Gout And Candy, Ice Cream, Chocolate & Other Sweets

Please read the food tables introduction before using the gout and candy food table.

The types of food here are generally quite high in calories, and should be limited if you have gout and are above normal weight. Most have limited gout affecting nutrients, but should still be counted in your total food intake to allow you to assess how you can improve your diet. Click to browse the Gout And Candy Food Table

However, my nutrition tables have been added in a piecemeal fashion over the years, and fall short of the comprehensive guide to improving diet for gout sufferers that I wish to present. During my current phase of reorganizing and improving this gouty arthritis website, I will start the process of providing better gout diet information. This is a long-term project, that will start with some simplified tables over the next week or so, and end with a separate website for analyzing and monitoring your complete gout diet.

Diet For Gout Sufferers: New Food Tables

My new food tables will condense data from existing PRAL and purine tables, and add some much-needed data on iron content. For now, I will retain the split by USDA food group, but part of my gout diet project will be to provide better grouping, such as breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper or meat & fish, fruit & veg etc.

You can see the list of tables below, but first let me explain some key points about using the tables.

• The tables are still based on nutrition values per 100g. This does not suit many foods such as condiments, sweeteners, etc, but it is fairly easy to divide the table values for smaller portions, or multiply them for larger portions.
• The tables present exact values, but seasonal variations and cooking methods will cause the values to change, so treat the numbers as a guideline, not a precise measuring tool.
• I will move the existing tables to a new website, which will become the focus for new nutrition tools. I will be heavily influenced by your feedback and your interest in these new tools, so please support my new food diary project.
• The tables work best when used to analyze your existing diet and to help choose between two or more food choices. They should not be used to find foods to avoid, or to find foods to eat exclusively. This can lead to a very restricted food range, which is not usually good for you, as it can lead to a shortage of some essential nutrients. You should read Sensible Gout Diet Restrictions before looking at any of these food tables.

Click to read important nutrition values for gout diets

I understand cherry extracts help reduce uric acid level. Are there any other derivatives from cherries in high enough concentrations to lower uric acid levels.

Cherries, raw cherries, juice and extracts have all been reported to reduce uric acid. Nobody knows exactly why this is so, but it is probably due to antioxidants in cherries. All dark berries, e.g. bilberries, blackberries and black currants, should have a similar effect.

The big question is: are these effects strong enough to reduce uric acid levels low enough to prevent gout? All that I’ve read about antioxidants recently suggests positive effects on uric acid, so an antioxidant rich diet should help.

If you are trying to lower uric acid, you should have regular uric acid tests. This ensures that any action you take to reduce uric acid is working. Remember, if you do this, that uric acid levels fluctuate from day to day, and so you should look for an average downward trend.

Many other sites seem to indicate that lemon juice / cherry juice is helpful for gout sufferers, but, with regard to acidity and your list, it seems that these would be a mistake to ingest. I am thoroughly confused.

Cherry juice is recommended for gout sufferers for reasons other than acidity. Certain compounds within cherry juice are natural anti-inflammatories. Cherry juice gout treatments also benefit from their anti-oxidant properties. Naturally occurring concentrations are tiny compared to equivalent anti-inflammatory drugs (some might argue this is a good thing).

Commercially available cherry juices vary widely in concentration. As with most natural products, active components are also likely to vary between species. It is difficult to measure the exact effects of cherry juice, but if it works for you then use it.

Most other dark berries contain similar compounds. I drink them because they’re delicious. That they might be doing good is welcome, but I’ve never been able to prove this.

Suggested cherry gout cure

Gout Cure Name: fresh cherries

Gout Cure Details: 6 oz. cherry juice in A.M. and approx. 20 fresh cherries late afternoon.This along with at least 6 eight oz. glasses of water

 

Type: Gout Prevention

A reader’s comment about cherry juice:

at breakfast, lunch and after dinner – drank a 12 ounce glass of half water/half unsweetened cherry juice, a pinch of baking soda, and two tablespoons of Bragg’s ACV (Apple Cider Vinegar). Within three days, I have stopped taking my indomethecin, and watched in amazement at the shrinking back to normal of my long swollen ankle.

I’ve moved this page about gout, cherries or cherry juice (first published before 2008) from the old format. You should review the information in the Gout Diet Section before planning how you will introduce cherries or cherry juice into your diet.

Low Purine Diet Tips

A low purine diet is universally recommended as a way of reducing gout attacks. GoutPal has a few more tips and a note of caution to help you manage your diet.

Tip 1

Do not get bogged down with Numbers. The nutrition tables that you use for your low purine diet are only a guideline. Focus on what works best for you. Always consider the total nutrition value per serving. Many tables show values for nutritional density, and often rank foods that you are only likely to eat in small quantities very badly. A small quantity of a high purine food will not normally cause a problem in isolation, but you must consider your total purine intake.

Tip 2

Do not get bogged down with Purines. Just because uric acid is produced from the breakdown of purines does not mean that all foods with purines are bad. You can usually enjoy variety beyond a restrictive low purine diet. There is significant evidence to suggest that vegetables do not cause problems and that dairy products can actually help reduce uric acid levels.

Tip 3

Water is good for gout – drink as much as you can. Opinions vary on how much is enough, but it is important to be constant. Drink water before, with and after each meal. Keep a glass of water by the bed to drink when you wake during the night because of all the water you’ve been drinking! Your urine should be clear at all times – if it isn’t drink a large glass immediately. It might take a few days to get into the habit, but it is well worth the effort.

Milk or fruit juice make useful substitutes to relieve the boredom.

Tip 4

Gravy is bad for you – avoid it like the plague! Many gout sufferers can tolerate moderate amounts of meat and fish in their diets, but hit problems due to sauces. The meat and fish stocks that are used in many sauces and gravies are poison to the gout sufferer. (Sauces with lower amounts of purines, especially dairy-based sauces, should not be a problem as part of a well-balanced, vegetable rich meal.)

Tip 5

Watch your weight. There is evidence that being overweight is a major risk factor for gout. It is certainly much easier to cope with a gout attack when you don’t have extra pounds of body weight pressing on swollen joints. But remember – Do Not Starve – if your body has no food available it will breakdown it’s own tissues, which can lead to gout.

Tip 6

Balance your weight with exercise. Though not a diet tip as such, it is important to consider exercise at the same time as you consider diet. Light to moderate exercise is good for the gout sufferer. Vigorous exercise can actually cause gout attacks as the body consumes it’s own purine rich tissue to supply energy.

If you are following all this advice, but still cannot seem to manage your diet, then you should seriously consider keeping a food diary and seek the advice of a nutritionist who understands gout.

If you have any tips for a low purine diet or general tips for managing gout, please share them on the gout forum.

This page (first published 15th Jan 2006) is copied from the old style GoutPal website, as part of an ongoing upgrade. Most food, drink and lifestyle advice is now contained in the Gout Diet Section

Gout Food: The Good, The Bad & The Healthy

Gout food means the world to gout sufferers, but there are two different approaches.

Some gouties look for good foods to help their gouty arthritis. Others look to avoid foods that will raise uric acid, or increase inflammation.

I need to teach you how both these concepts are based on gout myths. The best approach to gout food is a healthy, balanced diet.

Good Gout Food

Good gout food is anything that helps reduce uric acid, or helps reduce inflammation.

I frequently update the Gout Diet Section with specific examples of these, but you need to be aware of the dangers.

It is wrong to think that just eating good gout foods will fix your gout. Over-reliance on a small group of food items usually leads to poor general nutrition. The last thing you need is adding other health complications to your gout.

Bad Gout Food

Avoiding bad food is vital, both to gout and your general health. This is a great idea when it is based on a firm understanding of how uric acid and inflammatory or acidic conditions affect gout. It is a very bad idea to avoid certain foods because of Internet hearsay, or outdated nutritional advice.

Adequate nutrition is a big subject, but for practical purposes, it’s enough to eat a varied diet where meat and fish are always balanced by twice as much fruit and vegetables.

Purines are rarely significant.

The only truly bad gout foods are trans-fats, iron, and flesh binges.

Trans-fats are common in processed foods to prolong shelf life. Look for hydrogenated on the label – even partially hydrogenated means poison.
Iron is only required by growing children and menstruating females. For everyone else, it just causes gout.
Flesh binges are excess meat or fish meals. 4oz on a plate balanced with other food items is enough. Any more is a binge. If you cannot make a tasty, satisfying, healthy meal with 4oz meat or fish, join the GoutPal Cookery School (actually, there isn’t one yet, but you only have to ask).

Healthy Gout Food

Gout is not an eating disorder! It is a uric acid metabolism imbalance. Stop obsessing about gout food, and start planning how to manage your uric acid levels.
Healthy gout food does not rely on consulting lists of good or bad foods. It is is anything, and everything that forms part of your gout diet, that in turn forms part of your gout management plan. You do have a gout management plan, don’t you?

More Great Gout & Uric Acid Info

I will leave you with the latest list of popular gout and uric acid articles – a short selection of the best from the hundreds of pages of great GoutPal gout support information.

Top Seven Gout & Uric Acid Articles

Allopurinol        (Main Gout Treatments, Cures & Remedies Page)

Allopurinol is more than just a gout beating drug - it is a lifesaver. But is your dose right, or is it making gout worse?

Best Tophi Picture        (Main Gout Treatments, Cures & Remedies Page)

The best tophi pictures are the ones that show them disappearing. See before & after photographs of a remarkable gout treatment.

Privacy Policy

All good sites need a privacy policy. This is a gouty one. Nothing much about gout - it's just a privacy policy for a gout site.

Uric Acid Test Kit        (Main UDRP1: Uric Acid Page)

A uric acid test kit is easy to use, and keeps you in control. Do not waste time and money. Get the best uric acid meter today.

What Causes Uric Acid?        (Main UDRP1: Uric Acid Page)

Want to know what causes uric acid? The simple answer is purines, but where do purines come from? The biggest source is not food

Uric Acid Answers        (Main UDRP1: Uric Acid Page)

Here are all your uric acid answers. If the answer to your uric acid question is not here, it soon will be.

Uric Acid Levels        (Main UDRP1: Uric Acid Page)

All gout sufferers must know their uric acid levels. Learn how to arrange your uric acid blood test at home then fix your gout.

Diet & Gout: Fact & Fiction

I’m amazed at the number of questions I get about specific food items. A random selection from recent questions includes: tomatoes, beef, banana, fish, lemonade, salmon oil, potato chips, coconut, cherry juice, crab, tequila, and broccoli. This is in addition to associated requests for lists of good foods & lists of foods to avoid.

It is bad enough that gout sufferers are so obsessed with food, but even worse, is the way gout diet is approached. Looking for good or bad foods completely misses the point.

In fact, it misses two extremely important points. Foods only make sense in the context of a healthy balanced diet, and a gout diet only makes sense in the context of a good gout management plan.

Healthy Gout Diet Not Individual Foods

Although I publish several lists of foods for various purposes, these are not to tell you which individual foods are good, and which are bad for gout. They should be used to help you analyze your total food intake. After that, you might also use them to improve your overall diet.

Diet And Gout Table (click image for full size)

Terkeltaub & Edwards, two prominent rheumatologists, emphasize the need for overall diet management in their latest book, Gout: Diagnosis and Management of Gouty Arthritis and Hyperuricemia.

Apart from a few food groups, the emphasis is clearly on good balance of all nutrients. Important general diet advice includes:

• Maintain ideal body weight with a 40:30:30 carbohydrates:proteins:fats balanced diet.
• Moderate portion size and good hydration.
• Avoid binge eating and overeating.
• Eat plenty of vegetables in preference to starvation, fad, and strict low purine diets.

Interestingly, the book includes one of the best practical gout diet tips that I have used effectively. Reduce your plate size. They recommend a nine inch plate for main meals. Believe me, this really works, especially if you are born into a culture of “waste not, want not,” where lifetime habits mean you must clear your plate.
Read the rest of Diet And Gout: Fact And Fiction