Gout Foodie Questions

[Gout Foodie]

Gout Foodie Questions is a compilation of topics written for Gout Foodies. If you’re not sure you’re Gout Foodie, see Questions for Gout Sufferers.

To control gout through diet, you have to be a Gout Dieter. These are people who can answer yes to all the following questions:
1. Do you want to manage your gout mostly using diet and lifestyle improvements?
2. Do you know your current uric acid level?
3. Do you have a safe target uric acid level?
4. Do you follow a healthy eating plan, or actively working towards healthy eating?

If you answer yes to the first question, but not yes to all 4, You are a Gout Foodie.

Each week, I get several questions that strongly suggest the writer is a Gout Foodie. Many of those do not deserve a new topic. There are some common themes. And, I may split this topic to cover common questions, in future. But, for now, I’ll group all short foodie questions here. Also, I’ll move old topics here, if they are relevant to current Gout Foodie issues.

[Pavan K]

[feedback from What Gout Foods Can I Eat?]

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Hi

Hope you are doing well and i am badminton play and i will do exercises on daily basis, recently my shoulder was paining when i am playing badminton. I went to an orthopedic and he asked me to check out my uric acid levels and they took my blood samples the report says, my Uric acid Levels are 7.4. is this in critical condition? my age is 27.

About Me and my Diet

I am Working in night shifts as i am working in nights my eating habits are totally different compared with others.

1) while going to office at 7 PM in the evening i will just take more water and green tea i dont take anything.
2) i will go to dinner at night 10:30 or 11 PM and then i will finish my office at early morning 5 AM IST.
3) i will warm up in my room like push ups.. etc..then i will go to badminton, i will play for 2 hrs.
4) while coming i will drink a glass of ragi malt and have some idly and dosa.. then i will hit the bed after that. I will wake up in the evening 6PM get ready and go to office. It continues same.

Last but not least on Week ends, we will have week offs Saturday and sunday i will consume alcohol with Chiken something, i will eat and hit the bed again.

DO I NEED TO DO ANY CHANGES on MY DIET….

IF YES, Please Advice me accordingly…. i will fallow.

[Keith Taylor]

With uric acid over 7mg/dL, your health is at serious risk. Uric acid crystals are growing in your body every day. You will have some pain free days. But, gout attacks will spread to more parts of your body. They will become more frequent, and more intense.

As you are only just over 7, you might be able to improve your diet. Diet changes can take a long time to be effective, so you can also consider uric acid lowering treatment from your doctor.

I have to say that your current diet is terrible! No fruit! No vegetables!

My immediate advice is to start eating fruit and vegetables. They should be at least half of your total daily calorie intake. After that, post details of your usual weekly food and drink intake, plus your height and weight. Then I can assess where you can make more improvements.

[Antoine Sovoh]

[reply to forum email Gout Forum Update Service]

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Dear Keith and Forum Members,

Recently my symptoms have worsened. I would therefore like to observe a strict safe diet. However, this not an easy task considering the long list of “do not eat” foods.

I have excluded meat and poultry from my diet. However, it seems some fish have lower amount of purine. I would appreciate much if someone could list me those safe fish for gout sufferers.

Also, sources state that some beans are good while other types are bad. Could someone list me the least harmful beans for gout sufferers?

I thank you so much for your needed guidance.

Truly, yours.
Antoine

[Keith Taylor]

You cannot plan a uric acid lowering diet without your uric acid test result history.

Please post your latest uric acid test result, and as much history as you can manage. When you get the results from your doctor, please ask them to include the measurement scale used – e.g. mg/dL, mmol/L etc.

Once we have that, we can plan a diet based around the food you want to eat. I have to say though, a diet of fish and beans is not a healthy balanced diet. Antoine, what vegetables do you like? What fruit do you like?

[marcus hotblack]

[feedback from What Gout Foods Can I Eat?]

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Hi really interested in the new research on purine rich foods. Vegetables all ok Yipee cutting out mushrooms spinach and cauliflower was not helping my happiness.

Working in India has its benefits as its a very vegetarian society still I have had many attacks here.so how do I get all the detail.

Beef is banned her which is a help but not when I go back home to Australia and BBQs!!

I love dairy too which I hang out for so that is good, but what proper cheeses are low fat? the only cheese easy to get is processed crap or Paneer.

oh and what about beans and lentils and nuts.

is there also an alcohol best to worst? I have been socialising on a glass of red wine or a couple of gin Tonics….beer is history .

it is still is all so confusing.

[Keith Taylor]

Hi Marcus,

I can see from your questions that I’ve made a piss-poor job of my page at What Gout Foods Can I Eat? It’s not unusual for me to waffle on so that the main points get missed. Not unusual, but not good enough!

I’ve started putting a TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) caption on some pages. I can see I need on for that page, so I’ll test one out here, then publish it later:

TL;DR What Gout Foods Can I Eat?
1. Gout diet should follow a gout treatment plan.
2. Excess calories, excess iron, and excess purines (in that order of importance) should be controlled in keeping with your uric acid target.
3. Binge eating, starvation, and Free Fatty Acids (especially stearic acid) should be controlled in keeping with your gout pain management plan.
4. If you can’t be bothered with gout treatment plans, your best action is to follow a Mediterranean style diet, or Alkaline diet.
5. It’s never about what you should eat, or should avoid. Gout diet must balance your personal eating preferences (e.g if you like beef, balance it with lots of veg and a pint of skim milk).

So please stop reading all the stupid nonsense about beef, cheese, legumes, and alcohol. It’s pointless.

Marcus, let’s get some management plans in place to get proper personal gout control.

Everybody else: that 5 point summary still looks long-winded to me. How can I shorten it?

[Galonisland]

[feedback via Gout Helpdesk]

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I use Chia and Hemp seeds to help the inflammation of my gout.

I know if I go more then two days with out using the Chia or Hemp seeds I suffer.

[Keith Taylor]

That’s very interesting.

I’ve only come across chia seeds once in relation to gout. That was during some research into Free Fatty Acids (FFAs). I recall a suggestion that the omega oils in chia could help reduce inflammation in certain genetic types. However, I was unable to find specific research. Does anyone have any knowledge of relevant research.

I cannot find anything about hemp in relation to gout inflammation.

Obviously, if these work to control your pain, then that is good. However, it is not good to avoid controlling uric acid. If excess uric acid is left untreated, the burden of uric acid crystals becomes increasingly dangerous. I strongly recommend that you start a uric acid lowering plan immediately.

[GoutPal HelpDesk]

Gout & Finger
This gouty finger question is from Charles, via the gout helpdesk.

Charles’ post includes a photograph of his finger. If anyone else would like to post photographs, the easiest way is to send them to the Gout Helpdesk. You can use the form at the bottom of most pages, or directly in the Gout Helpdesk.

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i think ill share a little bout myelf with you now, i hope thats ok ^ _ ^ please dont feel pressure to reply back quickly and im sure you are very busy with things on the forum

ill try and keep my story as short as possible.

im a 29 year old male currentley living in japan, but origonaly from the UK.

ive always been health concious and ate very carefuly. Ive played various sports and matial arts since i was a child and have always maintained a athletic physiche.

in july 2014 i underwent surgery on my stomach, and during the surgery i recived nerve damage. i can no longer lie down, and my stomach can no longer digest most foods. it just sits there.

throu 2014 – mid 2015 was horrific, my weight fell from 11stone to 6 stone. all my muscle mass dissapeared and could no longer even walk.

eventualy with time i experimented with what food my stomach could break down, and what it could not. the one food that saved my body was sardines. i couldnt digest vegitables, carbs, bread, rice, soup, even water would not filter through my body. but sardines seemed to digest. its very confusing and cant explain it myself.

so for one whole year i ate nothing but sardines, breakfast, lunch and dinner. it was a matter of survival haha. it was better than being fed through an IV lay in hospital. with time i descovered that i could also digest avacado. so each meal every day, i would have avacado and sardines.

before the surgery i had planed to move to japan with my wife, but the complications from the surgery ment i had to perstpone untill 3 months ago.

inve now added a few vegitables in to my diet and also chicken and nuts. but my body still cant digest any simple or complex carbs liek bread, pasta, rice, noodles.

so for the last 12 months every day my diet has been

Breakfast – chicken breast / avacado

lunch – sardines / vegitables

snack – chicken breast / avacado

dinner – sardines / vegitables

night time snack – full 90g pack of nuts

i never drink coffe or alchohol or potato chips/chocolate/sodas.

being on this diet for 12 months has never caused me any issues, none digestive, or physiological. and the protein amount is still high enough to carry on my weight and strenght training.

upon moving to japan 3 months ago. i suddenley became obssesed with soy source haha. having being forced on such a restrictive diet because of the surgery, when i find something my body can tolorate, I tend to have that in large quantaties.

I find myself finishing a whole bottle of soy sorce in just under a week. which i have for every meal with my chicken, or sardines. so thats about 2 shot glasses for each meal, 4 meals a day.

suddenly about 2 weeks ago, for a reason i cant explane, I woke up with a very sore finger that was a little difficult to bend. It is the middle finger on my right hand. i thought i had broke it during the night, or fractured it. the pain wasnt excruciating, i could still do everything i needed to do, just aa little tender.

The following day, i woke up to find the finger had gone red and very swolen, bending it was quite difficult, and the pain was a little different. it was like a hot throbbing. i thought id been bitten by a spider or infection or somethng. its been very cold here, so i thought my finger had swollen because of the cold ( my fingers are always very cold and numb, perhaps bad circulation)

a few days passed at it started to go down. and then suddenley woke up a day later and BAM it eas back up again.

i started reaserching and came across gout. although i hadnt considered it at the time because i always thought it effected the big toe or ankles. my other joints are fine.

then i began looking at the cuases of gout and uric acid in the body. and the diets that cause gout. i was shocked to discover that what ive been eating for a whole year was the worst possible advocate for gout. sardines and meet every day for every meal.

But I wonder why now? ive been on this diet for a year? and nothing has changed in my eating habbits.

but i realised that the unbelivable amount of soy sorce i was drinking every day was just rediculous and perhaps contrebuted. or perhaps was the trigger. i also very sneekily had quite a few snacks this christmas that i really shouldnt have, chocolates, some cake, a few sips of my wifes beer. just following the festive spirit ^ _ ^ v even if it did effect my stomach. i just wanted to share with people.

wheather the amount of soy source ive been consuming these last 3 months (about a 1L per week) or it was the combination of my high protein diet, then start snacking on the snacks tipped me over the edge, im really not sure.

or even how long it takes for this kind of thing to develop. in just 3 months~ 12 months, im not sure.

Ive attatched a picture to this message, just for refference ^ _ ^

because of my age and my healthy life style, (other than a ballenced diet) i wasnt sure how this could happen or if this could even be gout. when people describe the pain, it really sounds horrific, the pain im in really isnt all that bad, its similart to hitting your finger with a hammer, it throbs and burns and swells. but its nothing close to what others discribe.

my worst nightmare is that ive caused some dammage to my kidneys and that they cant filter the uric acid as best they can. or even worse the risk of kidney stones.

im also an artist, and the thought of the joints in my fingers becoming damaged over time terrifies me.

since, a few days ago, i have completley cut out soy sorce, and sardines, and sea food in genaral (japan is heaven for fish food lovers, its the basis of the countries entire diet)

i only eat chicken and carrots/brockly/musrooms for every meal with water or organic soba tea.

is gout something you can get just one because of undulgance? or is it something you have perminently once you have the first flare up? I hope my changes in diet will regulate my uric acid levels.

i just wanted to ask if you have any thoughts on this or any advice you might be able to offer.

thank you for your time
kind and best regards

Charles

[Irma Reitz]

Fructose – good or bad for gout?

I am trying to plan a healthy diet for my gout. There is loads of info on the site and I’m sifting through it. Just a quick question regarding fructose. I was advised by the health store “expert” to avoid all sugars including fructose. I’m trying to cut down on protein and wanted to have fruit and yogurt for breakfast. Would that be ok? Or even just a banana and s glass of milk when I’m on the run? I’ve spent years eating an Atkins/Banting type diet (high protein, low carb)to try to control my weight, which is probably why I’ve developed gout.

[Gout Foodie]

Hi Irma. I guess it is a hearty welcome to one of the few lady gout sufferers. Mostly it is older blokes like me. Fructose: I recently read some medical research where the main point was that fructose is very highly correlated with gout, but that the medical pathway is not well understood. That said, being a vegan, I eat 3-4 pieces of fruit every day as well as eating a whole lot of veggies, nuts and lentils. I also take 500mg of Allopurinol. I personally have found very little correlation between what I eat and the amount of gout I get. I can’t see any pattern. What I am pretty sure about is that my gout is part of what is some what euphemistically called metabolic syndrome aka being too fat. What is certain is that being vegan has brought my blood sugar levels back to normal ranges. I have lost some weight, but need to lose another 10kg. Good luck! Gout sucks. It is very debilitating.

[Keith Taylor]

Rod’s right to mention blood sugar levels. That’s the thing to get checked if you’re worried about too much sugar in your diet.

Unfortunately, there’s some very bad science that keeps getting written about on the Internet. This is largely promoted by a small group of people who make significant amounts of money selling fad diets or “special reports”.

Sugar can be a problem for gout sufferers where it leads to excess weight. Where it’s part of a healthy balanced diet, it should not be a problem. Therefore, a few pieces of fruit are OK. The things to watch are added sugars. Fructose is common, but any sugars added to food must be examined carefully. It’s not just sugar, though. Many processed foods have other additives besides sugar. Many of these are associated with increased uric acid. So, it’s best to change processed foods for natural whole foods.

Also, Irma, you mention cutting down on protein. It’s good to restrict animal protein. But, protein is good for gout. Therefore dairy proteins and plant proteins are a good replacement.

[Donald.milotte]

Is there any beer safe for gout
I read thru all these posts looking for someone to suggest a possibly safe beer to have in moderation with gout. Despite being entitled “Lite Beers and Pilsners”, I could not find anything helpful. But that has been my experience using this website – very little useful information.

[Richielyons76]

Hello thanks so much for this website im a gout sufferer..

Is there any alcohol wich isnt is bad as the others

hope you dont fing my question cheeky !
yours sincerely
Richard Lyons

[Keith Taylor]

Hi Donald.milotte and Richielyons76

Alcohol is part of gout diet. Gout diet is part of gout treatment. There’s no point in discussing gout treatment without relevant information about uric acid levels, and plans to contain them.

Anyway, your question summaries are:

Is there any beer safe for gout

and

Is there any alcohol which is not as bad as the others

I put the 2 specific questions into the gout search engine. That’s the box labeled ‘Google Custom Search’ that sits top-right of every GoutPal page. At the top of the results is the same result for both questions:
What Is The Best Alcoholic Beverage To Drink With Gout?

I suggest you read that. Then, start a new topic about alcohol, uric acid, and your gout. Include information about the part that alcohol plays in your diet. Include information about your uric acid, and what you are doing to control it.

Since writing that article about alcohol and gout, I’ve refined the personal gout management plan that I mentioned. Now, I call gout management plans Structured Gout Help. If you want structured gout help, you must first start a GoutPal Gout Diary.

[olivia ragasa]

Gout help

I want to know what kind of vegetables high in uric acid

[Keith Taylor]

I include vegetables in my list of foods high in uric acid. But, as I explain on that page, vegetables have no significant impact on uric acid.

I strongly recommend you post about your gout, and what specific help you need, in a separate topic. You can ask any questions about your gout, right now. Please add enough information about your gout, so that I can answer you properly. Especially, tell me what you want to do that you can’t do because of gout. Then, I can help you beat gout.

[Elana Grossi]

Gout and Sushi

Would Ike to know if raw salmon is as bad for gout as cooked one ?

[Keith Taylor]

Salmon isn’t particularly bad. Just limit to 4oz portion, no more than twice a week. How can I make food that I like, better for my gout?. Eat with 4 times the amount of veg, compared to salmon.

Make with less salmon and more veg.

[Emily Darke]

Have a food question

When cooking corned beef and cabbage will the purines in the meat be absorbed by the veggies?

[Keith Taylor]

Sorry, Emily, but I don’t know what you mean by that. How can you absorb purines? Perhaps you can post a link to what you have read. Then, I might be able to explain it.

But, corned beef with cabbage??? Surely it should be smoked gammon? 😀

Make with more cabbage, less ham.

[Ron Taylor]

The Gout

I eat Kasha autumn wheat cold cereal with almond milk.

Will that hurt my gout?

[nobody]

If you are as I suspect talking about a product sweetened with something containing lots of fructose, that’s not recommended.
Of course the amounts you eat matters more than the exact product. And what matters is your whole diet. Generally though, it’d be best if you could get used to eating unsweetened stuff.

[Keith Taylor]

You suspect right, nobody, except it is sweetened with cane sugar. But like you say, it’s better to get used to unsweetened cereals. In particular, these breakfast biscuits are widely available in the original 100% whole wheat versions (delicious with a moderate serving of real fruit). In this case, Ron even got the name wrong! Because it’s Kashi Autumn Wheat: https://www.amazon.com/Kashi-Organic-Promise-Cereal-Biscuits/dp/B001E5E06U

7g of sugar per recommended serving, which probably means more like 12g. That is approx one-quarter of the recommended daily sugar intake.

“Will that hurt my gout?” Oh yes! But personally, I’d worry more about heart disease and diabetes than dying of gout.

To all Gout Foodies write out 100 times:
“Of course the amounts you eat matters more than the exact product. And what matters [most] is your whole diet.“

[Author]

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