Gout and a low purine diet: A diet for gout sufferers is a diet without high purine foods. Here you’ll learn why such a diet is crucial for gout sufferers.
Low Purine Diet for Gout
The actual causes of gout are the crystals that are formed in your joints when there are high levels of uric acid in your bloodstream.
Keep your uric acid down at healthy levels, and you can prevent gout attacks. Which is vital because regularly recurring gout can cause kidney stones, other kidney problems, and, permanently damaged joints.
And one way you can do this as a gout sufferer is through your diet…
The reason diet is so important for gout victims is that uric acid is produced by natural chemical compounds called ‘purines’ in our bodies and foods.
During the processes of providing our energy and protein needs, these purines breakdown and uric acid is formed. Your kidneys process this acid and flush excess out of your system, retaining enough that you body needs.
Sometimes though, for several reasons, your kidneys may fail to do this effectively and you end up with higher-than-normal levels in your blood; leading to gout.
So, if you’re suffering from gout — and once having had a first gout attack you’re very likely to have more — you need to reduce your acid levels. And since purines produce uric acid you need to reduce your purine intake via your diet.
Generally speaking, a low purine diet should avoid; fatty red meats, offal, seafood, poultry, yeast products and dried legumes. And you need to avoid alcohol, especially beer.
A healthy gout diet should include green leafy vegetables, plenty fruit, low-fat dairy produce, essential fatty acid foods, complex carbohydrates, and lots of vitamin C foods. Plus, keep yourself hydrated by drinking 2 – 3 litres of fluid daily of which 50% should be water. But no alcohol or sugary / fizzy drinks!
