“Grape Tomatoes”?

[anon discussion]

Hi –

Thank you for hosting this forum. Looking forward to learning and talking.

First question: It’s relatively minor, but I can’t find any information as to purines, uric acid and grape tomatoes. It came up because it happens to be what my grocery store had for sale and I picked up a couple of small packages, but have recently been through a gout attack and am more keen than I was to review all foods. This is one food I can’t find reviewed for gout-related concerns either online or in some of the helpful-seeming apps I can download to my phone.

I do like the information out there on tomatoes seeming to say that while technically they may be low in purines, some gout sufferers do find they are an issue. However, I’m treating tomatoes as a somewhat separate question for now.

Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts on how I might want to see grape tomatoes, I would appreciate it.

Photos in this article seemed to be helpful to distinguish between grape and cherry tomatoes:
https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-grape-and-cherry-tomatoes-word-of-mouth-206683

[nobody]

Hi,

Tomatoes redux: some minerals, a little fructose, basically no proteins.
In order to make your life easier, I would suggest the following approach when it comes to purines: roots, seeds and seed packaging (fruits and such) are all fine except for legumes.

More generally, looking at every single thing you might eat in order to explain gout attacks or prevent them is a fool’s errand. Diets need to be assessed as a whole, not by judging the parts on arbitrary crietria.
The most important part of gout management is typically not what you eat anyway. How many times have you got the amount of uric acid in your blood measured and what was the latest result?

[anon discussion]

Thanks, but does anyone have information on grape tomatoes (not tomatoes)? I don’t think it’s such a bad ignorant terrible thing to ask for more information about a specific food, if someone else out there might have the information. Thanks for the broader ideas around roots, seeds, legumes. I”ll check more into it.

Uric acid levels have been measured, and at least two attacks have warranted hospital visits in the last few years.

[nobody]

Asking about speicifc foods would be fine if it didn’t distract from the work of avoiding more hospital visits and worse.
Gout is typically easily cured, but not with tomatoes.

Grape tomatoes are just another kind of tomato. Unless you have diabetes or some kind of rare allergy, the only differences between varieties of tomatoes you need to be concerned about is how they keep and how they taste.

[kyiv stoner]

Thanks for review!

[Paul Evans]

Everything in moderation but I find Tomatoes are my biggest trigger…. eating a large Pizza will trigger an attack for me…. stress and lack of sleep, getting drunk or drinking more than once or owice a week will also trigger me off…. since covid I have worked from home and put on weight and that has made me susceptable to all kinds of ankle/leg swelling problems (but less joint pain asfter the initial attack

[anon discussion]

Hi – thanks for the response –

So far, I do not seem to be having issues with tomatoes in moderation, that I’ve noticed. However, I’m mindful that others do report such issues (as you have done) so that’s why I was being careful.

I made this post about grape tomatoes awhile back. It’s not all relevant to that particular post, but filling in some overall gaps for me:

– I noted my first attack (when I first clearly realized I had gout) three years ago. About 2 years later I started trying to do more about it, and about 6-9 months ago, after my second emergency room visit, I made radical changes in diet and exercise, and temporarily halted the allopurinol. I did pay attention to some of the points on this goutpal website including that it’s not so much a matter of one right answer, but working to understand the best path. AT least that’s my recollection. I learned that my doctor, and a podiatrist, did have experience, and could help somewhat (some stretching exercises from the podiatrist for example seemed to help) but I also needed to be very involved.

I did test recently within normal uric acid (I don’t know the number, that’s all I was told so far by my PCP, though I can track it down). My symptoms have abated, but are not gone. Some of them were what I understood to be classic gout, but some of them were difficulty walking for weeks and months, and loss of some sensation in my feet at times, and sensitivity to heat and cold. The worst of those was about 1.5 years ago. I’m up against it as far as small-town medical administrations and decision-making and such.

The small town doctors here can try to be helpful, but one way or another the overall medical system gets to me. I had a low point a few months ago where I asked for a referral to a nutritionist, my very nice PCP was happy to oblige, I got a call from the nutrionist office to set up an appointment, and the front desk admin person who was calling me had never heard of gout. She decided before she would make an appointment for me, she would need to check with their billing. She came back and refused to make an appointment for me because gout has to do with the joints and they don’t treat that. I should have asked to speak to someone who was more qualified, but eventually I gave up on that place, but eventually did have a sit-down with a nutritionist. I tell the story to illustrate that it has been uphill to get food advice from a professional. Interestingly, I talked to my insurance and they are ok (they said) with paying for me to see a nutritionist the issue was not coming from them.

I have a secret weapon which is that I realized a friend of mine has identical symptoms and has largely or entirely overcome them. She is very active (a rancher) and younger. We have spent several hours going over foods and a variety of topics. Among others, I have given up pretty much all bread for now (other than wraps on sandwiches). Also I am drinking a lot more water. She paid a heavy price to learn all that she was passing along to me, in terms of reading and self-discipline and trying certain things, and her ideas have largely born out with me, and I”m grateful for her help.

I have a theory that another issue has been making sure I get more oxygen. That may sound a bit off the usual path, but it’s just a theory, somewhat underscored by the efforts I’ve made on air circulation at my house, and maybe a lifetime of just not being in very good condition, and now it’s perhaps helped also by aerobics type exercise.

I think the exercise (about 5x per week, an aerobics class, to my modest ability levels) has helped a bit. “Diet and exercise, who knew?” is a joke I make now to friends, but for me, for the moment, things are somewhat improved. I won’t say it’s fixed, but about 75% ameliorated. It’s still lurking there though. I don’t dare get reckless yet about what I eat.

I also quit caffeine recently (I was strongly addicted, and essentially substituting tea for water).

You mention Pizza. Pizza is a top food love for me, but I haven’t touched it in a year or two. Eventually I may give it a try, but for now I have been avoiding breads and most cheese, and yes, the tomato concern is still in my mind.

Basically I have a lot of salads, boiled vegetables and fruit and berries. A few nuts (that’s probably not doing me that much good, I don’t know). Almost no meat, fish or foul, but have lately been trying some small portions of wild salmon. On that, I don’t know if that’s bad or not. Some of what I’m doing may be terrible, but perhaps is counter-acted and masked by other things I’m doing? Lots and lots more water than I used to drink.

All of these modified a bit by paying attention to an app or website or two that help me remember within those and other food classes, what’s particularly dangerous-seeming. I would say “don’t pay attention to me” though as other people here I’m sure have more savvy on these points than I have, but I figure I’ll add my thinking to the pot.

[nobody]

The normal uric acid range is not to be used to control gout. If you still have symptoms after years on allopurinol, chances are your uric acid remains too high because the dose you’re taking is too low. So do get ahold of your numbers!
There are affordable devices which measure the amount of oxygen in your blood. Because that’s a vital part of our metabolism, getting oxygen typically happens automatically and most people would have enough most of the time without needing to exercise or anything like that. Exercise might help getting fresh blood where it’s needed however.
You should make sure you’re getting enough protein. People would not normally get nearly enough from vegetables (unless they think of legumes as vegetables). If you used to eat too much protein, eating less might have helped but actually depriving your body of the amount of protein it needs is extremely unhealthy in the long run!

[Author]

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