Gout diet

Your body can do some weird things. Gout is a great example of some of the amazing, and painful capabilities your system has. Gout is caused by an excess of uric acid within the body. This uric acid results in the development of small crystals that find a resting place within your joints. Since these crystals don’t belong in your joints, and because they are irritants, they cause a painful inflammation that can make moving and walking difficult and painful. Gout can attack anyone but is most often found in men—and not necessarily older men. It can attack males as early as right after they hit puberty. In women, gout doesn’t usually attack until the woman has gone through menopause.

One of the most important things to learn about gout is how to avoid it. Uric acid is found in foods, so it is most important to find out what foods put you at a higher risk to suffer from an excess of this crystal causing acid. In March of 2004, a study by Dr. Hyon K. Choi appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine that found that men who ate large amounts of meat and seafood were more likely to develop gout. Now, there was no guarantee that more meat for everyone equaled definite gout, the study simply showed that more meat made the men 40 percent more likely to get gout and seafood in high amounts made them 50 percent more likely to suffer from gout.

The study also found that the consumption of low fat dairy products actually decreased the risk of gout in the men in the study—even if they were in the group that consumed more meat and seafood. Interestingly, the study linked the foods that can cause cardiovascular disease to those that could cause gout. If you are looking for an official gout diet, there really isn’t one. But using the results of Dr. Choi’s study you can cobble together an eating plan that helps you to avoid gout.



Gout Diet—Foods to Eat
While purine seems to be the enemy of gout sufferers everywhere, you don’t have to avoid every food that contains it. Here are some foods that are high in uric acid producing purine but that, according to Dr. Choi’s study, you can eat without worrying about getting gout:

Beans (legumes and fiber rich beans)
Mushrooms
Peas
Spinach
Cauliflower
Low fat dairy products should also be a big part of your diet because it helps combat the effects of purine rich foods in your system.

Gout Diet—Foods to Avoid
It seems that Dr. Choi found that it is mostly purine rich meats and seafoods that actually cause gout, rather than just any food with high levels of purine. These purine rich foods should be avoided in order to reduce your risk of gout:

Mussels
Sardines
Herring
Heart
Yeast
Sweetbreads
Anchovies
Veal
Bacon
Liver
Salmon
Turkey
If you find you are suffering from pains in your joints, it is important that you see your primary care physician. He or she can prescribe medication to help you reduce or eradicate the symptoms of gout so that you can go back to living your normal active and pain free life. The medications that are out today are so effective, they can completely reduce your need to worry about what foods to avoid. Unfortunately, some people find that they are not able to physically tolerate gout medication. For those gout sufferers, it is necessary to constantly watch the foods you eat.

Gout-Gone – Homeopathic remedy to relieve gout symptoms, including swelling, inflammation and burning pain in small joints, especially the big toe. Helps to support joint health and keep uric acid levels in the healthy range.