Jan 19th 2008 The Trials of Diet and Gout
Gout sufferers are eager to find solutions. At first changes in diet look promising. For many of us these changes do not bring the full results we want, but we do our best anyway.
The usual recommendations are that the diet be changed to reduce foods high in purines. The reasoning is that the body uses purines to make uric acid which in turn makes those needle-like crystals in our joints. Those crystals make gout hugely painful.
High Purine Foods to Avoid
Foods high in purines include red meat and seafood, alcohol, dried peas and beans, asparagus, spinach, and pretty much any food that has protein. Seafood may be the most difficult food on this list for provoking gout attacks.
Obviously it would not be wise to eliminate all protein, so we have to try to avoid the worst ones and eat more of the beneficial foods.
Beneficial Foods
Beneficial foods include bananas, red/blue berries, tomatoes, and vegetables such as kale and cabbage. Foods with a lot of Vitamin C such as oranges and red cabbage are particularly recommended. Low fat dairy products are also supposed to be helpful.
Pineapple is often recommended for the bromelain, but unhappily commercially grown pineapple often lacks this ingredient due to depletion of the soils.
Overall, the American Medical Association suggests a diet in which most of the diet is whole grains, vegetables and fruits with no more than 15% of the calories from meats and soy. They further suggest no more than 30% of the calories come from fats, and that no more than 10% of those be animal fats.
Trying to Stop Gout Pain with Diet
Personally I have a hard time with all of those math calculations to figure out what I should eat. The problem is aggravated by the fact that diet alone does not seem to solve my gout pain. This reduces my motivation to run a calculator with my meals.
The difficulty is that gout can be unpredictable even with the best dietary efforts. I am not alone in facing massive frustrations in this regard.
The long search for freedom from gout pain has brought many disappointments.
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