Gout Dietary Advice

Role Of Purines In Gout Causing Foods

If you have experienced horrible gout pain, you surely don’t want it to happen again.

Your doctor might suggest maintaining healthy serum uric acid levels by taking urate-lowering medicine.

But did you know that food and drink affects gout? And do you know what element in the food instigates the pain? It is purines.

What Are Purines?

Purines are chemicals that are naturally present in your body and in certain foods. Too many purines in your diet can lead to gout.

This article explains the role of high purine foods in causing gout, what foods are beneficial and what foods are bad for gout.

What is Gout?

Gout is a serious form of arthritis caused by uric acid crystal accumulation around the joints.

It is a common type of inflammatory arthritis that occurs in men more than women. Moreover, older people are more affected by it than younger adults.

Gout occurs in people with high uric acid levels in their blood. Uric acid is present in every human being and it is essential for healthy bodily functioning. However, if your body produces too much uric acid level it results in gout.

Purines And Uric Acid

The human body breaks down purine compounds into uric acid.

The more high purine foods you eat will result in higher uric acid levels.

Uric acid is a waste substance that generally dissolves harmlessly in the blood before the kidney filters and eliminates it from the body.

However, when this does not happen, uric acid levels can increase suddenly. This is what causes uric acid crystals to form and attack your joints.

Hence, having a healthy and low purine diet is the best option to avoid high uric acid levels that cause gout and the unbearable pain that comes with it.

List of High Purine Foods

If you suffer from gout avoid foods that are high in purines.

All types of meat, including certain fish are high in purines. A person suffering with gout should be following a low purine diet and be avoiding all the foods below.

• Seafood including shellfish, sardines, tuna, anchovies, and herring
• Beer, wine, champagne
• Whiskey
• Red meat
• Organ meat, for instance, liver, heart, and kidney
• Game meat such as veal, venison, and duck

List of Low Purine Foods

A low purine diet is a neccessity to lower the uric acid levels in the bloodstream, which also reduces the risk of hyperuricemia and similar conditions.

Supplements containing montmorency cherry or turmeric can help maintain healthy uric acid levels.

If you are dealing with gout already, just a little bit of an increase in purines can result in a gout flare up.

Therefore, managing the purine intake helps in reducing the possibility of gout symptoms.

You also need to take steps for immediate gout pain relief.

Here are some low purine foods that you can start to include in your diet.

• Low-fat dairy products
• Whole grains
• Legumes
• Tea, especially green tea
• Coffee
• Eggs
• Fruits, although some like tomatoes have been known to trigger gout attacks. Dark fruits like blueberries are good.
• Vegetables

Advantages Of A Low Purine Diet

Purines, uric acid and gout go hand in hand. You can’t seperate one from the other.

Control your purine intake and you’ll control your uric acid levels and prevent such things as gout and kidney stone production.

Conclusion

Whatever we eat and drink directly impacts our health.

A low purine diet is important to manage hyperuricemia that leads to gout.