Alkaline Gout Diets is my review of gout research that supports alkaline diets for gout. Because every gout diet must start with a generally healthy diet that suits each gout sufferer. Then you can make personal changes to account for your stage of gout recovery. So here I review alkaline gout diets science. Then I explain how to decide if such a diet is the best starting point for your GoutPal Dieter Plan.

Alkaline Gout Diets Audience

I wrote Alkaline Gout Diets for people who are considering a GoutPal Dieter Plan. Because you need to be comfortable with healthy eating before starting that plan. Also, you must know your uric acid level and make arrangements for testing during the plan. So if you are new to healthy eating patterns, you should consider starting a GoutPal Plan for Gout Foodies. Once you have established your own healthy eating pattern, you can switch to a Dieters Plan. But if you are not sure what type of gout person you are, start at Questions for Gout Sufferers.

Alkaline Gout Diet Studies

There have been several studies showing the benefits of alkaline gout diets. So I will summarize the main points of 4 important studies as a timeline.

2010: Alkaline Diets Help Excrete Uric Acid

In the first alkaline gout study, Kanbara and colleagues established that alkaline urine helps your kidneys get rid of more uric acid[1]. At the time, I was disappointed that the report did not include any details about blood uric acid levels. However, it made a useful first link between gout and alkaline diets. Also, it included a list of daily foods that were eaten in this experiment. Both diets are around 2,200 calories per day, with the alkaline diet providing 60 g protein. Compared to 102 g protein in the acid diet.

Alkaline Diet for Best Uric Acid Excretion

white rice 100 g, rye bread 70 g, pasta 80 g, starch 20 g, hard tofu 100 g, pressed tofu 30 g, fried tofu 6 g, okara 40 g, green soybeans 10 g, milk 150 g, carrot 20 g, leaf vegetable 65 g, tomato 120 g, pepper (red & yellow) 30 g, pumpkin 80 g, green onion 15 g, onion 50 g, cucumber 60 g, cabbage 60 g, lettuce 30 g, garlic 5 g, potato 100 g, aroid 45 g, yam 30 g, mushroom 40 g, banana 45 g, water melon 90 g, walnuts 15 g, dried seaweed 3 g, sugar 4 g, honey 21 g, olive oil 6 g, salad oil 12 g, dressing 10 g, butter 12 g, soy sauce 9 g, vinegar 3 g, soup prepared from dried bonito and tangle 180 g, alcohol for cooking 15 g, miso (fermented soybeans paste) 9 g, sauce 25 g, chili pepper 1 g, sweet cooking rice wine 4 g, salt 1.3 g, pepper 0.09 g, mayonnaise 12 g.

Acid Diet for Worst Uric Acid Excretion

white rice 200 g, bread 90 g, boiled pasta 45 g, starch 6 g, beef round 100 g, cero 90 g, chicken breast fillet 30 g, squid 30 g, egg 100 g, processed cheese 20 g, carrot 50 g, broccoli 20 g, snap pea 20 g, asparagus 20 g, green onion 10 g, bamboo sprout 65 g, corn 25 g, onion 50 g, burdock 15 g, sprout 20 g, tomato sauce 15 g, soy sauce 6 g, salt 0.8 g, sweet cooking rice wine 12 g, alcohol for cooking 20 g, pepper 0.09 g, miso 9 g, consommé 1 g, soup prepared from dried bonito and tangle 150 g, mayonnaise 12 g, butter 4 g, salad oil 8 g, sugar 9 g, strawberry jam 20 g.

2011: Alkaline Diets Lower Blood Uric Acid

Next, Kanbara investigated the effects of alkaline diet on uric acid more closely[2]. So this later study reveals that alkaline diet reduces uric acid in the blood. Unfortunately, this is only a small study excluding gout sufferers. Also, it only covers a few days. But, it is a good starting point to support the author’s tentative conclusion that alkaline diet could be the safest and most economical way to treat excess uric acid.

Alkaline Diet Reduces Blood Uric Acid Chart
Alkaline Diet Reduces Blood Uric Acid Chart

2012: Alkaline Diets and Purines

The last of Kanbara’s experiments looks at alkaline diets and purines[3]. Because the authors wanted to clarify that reduced uric acid was not due to different purine intake between the groups. So this does not change the team’s view that alkaline diet reduces blood uric acid. Conversely, it highlights:

  • Alkaline diets are lower in purines than equivalent acid diets.
  • As well as producing less uric acid, alkaline diets help us excrete more uric acid.

So alkaline diets should be useful for both under-excreters and over-producers of uric acid. However, I am not aware of any studies of gout sufferers that prove exactly how much benefit we can expect.

2014: Alkaline Diets and Uric Acid Statistics

Despite the lack of specific gout studies, it is useful to note a recent study of long-term effects of alkaline diets on uric acid[4]. Because Esche and colleagues proved that people eating the best alkaline diets are much less likely to have excess uric acid. So we still can’t see how much effect alkaline diet can have. But we can be certain that alkaline diets are good for gout.

Your Alkaline Gout Diet

The greatest problem with adopting healthy alkaline eating patterns is the huge volume of bad information. Because thousands of books, millions of website pages, and several published scientific studies get this wrong. However, I started a separate healthy eating website that explains the problems of ash-based diets in detail. Also, I can give you personal help in the gout forum.

Alkaline Gout Diets Comments

GoutPal visitor responses include:

Is Rye Bread Bad for Gout?

After starting allopurinol, Mike also cut down on his rye bread consumption. Thinking this might help his uric acid cure. Then he discussed his progress in the gout forum. Unfortunately, we never addressed his belief that rye bread might be bad for gout. So I'll publish some relevant research about rye bread for gout soon. As Mike has begun to cure excess uric acid, but is not yet free from gout, he is in an Adjust Uric Acid phase.

In the meantime, you can ask me about my findings in the Gout Forum.

Rye Bread and Gout

Joan suffers from gout and Crohn's disease and wonders if rye bread might help. But it is vital that gout sufferers with comorbidities work with a team of doctors to manage gout. Because each medical specialist has to provide their own expertise. While the gout patient provides experience and aspirations.

In this case, Joan is not thinking about uric acid treatment. Instead, she wonders if rye bread might be causing her gout. So she is in the Gout Causes phase of gout progression.

My upcoming review of rye bread and gout research will be useful for Joan's team. And any other gout sufferers who are thinking about changing their rye bread consumption. Pending publication, you can ask me about my research in the Gout Forum.

Is Rice Good or Bad for Gout?

Tom said…

Which is it with white rice? Good then bad [referring to white rice in the diet lists above]. No real concrete information out there. Not a defined science.

GoutPal Response to Rice & Gout Question

Thanks, Tom for pointing out the confusion. In fact, I need to create a new article about rice that explains the issues for GoutPal Foodies. Because I aimed this article at GoutPal Dieters.

To explain, GoutPal Dieters know that single foods are rarely important. So they focus on establishing a healthy foundation diet. Then they consider changing individual items. By measuring the effects of such changes on the uric acid level in their blood. So in this case, they would start with the alkalizing diet. Because the acid-forming diet doesn’t conform to acceptable health standards. But that judgment is based on the total diet. Not individual food items. However, once a GoutPal Dieter has stabilized their uric acid with a healthy foundation diet. They might proceed to adjust the amount of rice they eat to see if it has any effect.

Contrast this with the GoutPal Foodie approach. That starts with one or two individual food items. In this case rice. Unfortunately, this approach is rarely useful. Because gout is affected by everything we eat in total. Combined with our weight and activity levels. So any single food can only have a minor impact – unless we eat unhealthy amounts of a single food.

Now I can see that I need to try and make it clearer exactly what the purpose of this article is. Also, I might consider an article specifically about rice and gout. However, without some encouragement from readers that will not be a priority. Because as Tom notes: “No real concrete information out there. Not a defined science.”

I believe that the real reason for this is that rice is just another food item that has little impact on gout by itself. So scientists have never studied a link between rice and uric acid. Because there is probably no such link. Having said that, excess rice has been shown to be associated with excess uric acid[5]. But that is better explained as an effect of obesity rather than an effect of rice.


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Alkaline Gout Diets References

  1. Kanbara, Aya, Masayuki Hakoda, and Issei Seyama. “Urine alkalization facilitates uric acid excretion.” Nutrition journal 9, no. 1 (2010): 45.
  2. Kanbara, A., and I. Seyama. “Effect of urine pH on uric acid excretion by manipulating food materials.” Nucleosides, Nucleotides and Nucleic Acids 30, no. 12 (2011): 1066-1071.
  3. Kanbara, Aya, Yoshisuke Miura, Hideyuki Hyogo, Kazuaki Chayama, and Issei Seyama. “Effect of urine pH changed by dietary intervention on uric acid clearance mechanism of pH-dependent excretion of urinary uric acid.” Nutrition journal 11, no. 1 (2012): 39.
  4. Esche, Jonas, Danika Krupp, Gert BM Mensink, and Thomas Remer. “Dietary Potential Renal Acid Load Is Positively Associated with Serum Uric Acid and Odds of Hyperuricemia in the German Adult Population.” The Journal of nutrition 148, no. 1 (2018): 49-55.
  5. Kempner, Walter, Barbara C. Newborg, Ruth L. Peschel, and Jay S. Skyler. “Treatment of massive obesity with rice/reduction diet program: an analysis of 106 patients with at least a 45-kg weight loss.” Archives of internal medicine 135, no. 12 (1975): 1575-1584.
  6. Li, Huipin, Mouming Zhao, Guowan Su, Lianzhu Lin, and Yong Wang. “Effect of soy sauce on serum uric acid levels in hyperuricemic rats and identification of flazin as a potent xanthine oxidase inhibitor.” Journal of agricultural and food chemistry 64, no. 23 (2016): 4725-4734.

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