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Diet drinks have the sugar replaced with artificial sweeteners.
In the case of Diet Red Bull, the sweeteners are Acesulfame K and Sucralose.
The only link to gout I can find with Acesulfame K and gout is an inconclusive report that it may reduce uric acid at certain dosages in rats. In “Studies on the effect of Acesulfame K on the Streptozotocin-diabetes in rats,” Meyer and colleagues state:
The concentration of the uric acid was significantly different in the mid-dose group … results are believed to have occurred fortuitously and are not related to treatment with the sweetener.
Sucralose (also known as Splenda) is a trade name for trichlorogalactosucrose. I cannot find any research into the effects of this sweetener on uric acid or gout.
Other diet drinks may use various artificial sweeteners. Again, I can find little gout-related research. However in one report on aspartame (Aspartame: neuropsychologic and neurophysiologic evaluation of acute and chronic effects), Spiers and colleagues found that aspartame had no effect on uric acid and several other blood chemicals.
From this, I assume that diet drinks may be beneficial for gout if they reduce the amount of sugar in your diet and/or promote weight loss. Of course, an excess of any single food or drink will always run the risk of upsetting the metabolism and producing uric acid, so moderation remains important, as it does with most aspects of gout diet management.
Low fat foods are a very uncertain area. Naturally low fat foods, e.g. air-popped popcorn, are generally good for gout if they aid gradual weight loss.
Unfortunately, many low fat foods are highly processed, often highly sweetened, and generally unhealthy. It pays to read the labels, and gather specific nutritional information about all foods, especially processed foods. Very often they are packed with unnatural additives that will have your uric acid levels shooting up the scale.
I think soda in general triggers gout attaches. This has been my experience. When you drink lots of soda you don't drink the water your body needs to wash out the acid.
Diet Mountain Dew is Gout City.
Cut back on the soda, cut back on the gout attaches.
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