Foods that cause gout
List of foods that cause gout: avoid consuming large quantities of the following purine rich foods, especially meat products. Also be aware that when you don’t eat any foods that cause gout, you can still trigger gout attacks by for example following a crash diet that’s high on protein.
Gout diets will be balanced and make sure you avoid foods rich in purines and go easy on foods containing a moderate concentration of purines. To be more successful in treating gout, you should not only maintain a healthy diet, but also exercise regularly, keep your body weight at bay, make sure you drink enough, do reduce your beer intake and drink wine if you need to drink alcohol, take your gout medication and at least check your blood-level twice a year.
Historical food that cause gout was "rich mens food" like partridges and beer.
What is gout and what causes it?
Gout is a form of arthritis. The cause of gout occurs when sodium urate crystals accumulate in the joints. These crystals build up after a prolonged high level of uric acid in the blood. Uric acid results from the breakdown of purines. Purines get into the blood:
- as a normal consequence of dying body cells
- after being absorbed out of purines from your daily diet.
Normally the uric acid will be dissolved in the blood and pass into the urine through your kidneys. What causes gout are the excess uric acid crystals that build up in the joints and cause inflammation.
Any gout cause is further related to gender, age, genetics, weight, medications, health, diet and alcohol consumption.
What foods cause gout
Any gout treatment diet will tell you to avoid the following high purine foods that cause gout:
- anchovies
- beer
- brains
- clams
- fish eggs
- goose
- grain alcohol
- gravy
- heart
- herring
- kidney
- liver
- lobster
- mackerel
- meat based bouillon, broth, consomme
- meat extract
- minced meat
- mussel
- oyster
- partridge
- sardines
- scallop
- shrimp
- sweetbread
Go easy on the following moderate purine foods that cause gout:
- asparagus
- dried beans, dried peas
- fish (and avoid the fish in the above list)
- lentils
- meat (and avoid the fish in the above list)
- mushroom
- spinach
Summarized: a gout diet avoids foods that cause gout
Causes for gout are mainly to be found in food and are further influenced by your health, genetics and lifestyle.
A gout diet based on low purine foods consists generally out of low-fat dairy products, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, nuts and grains. Make sure not to go on any crash diet, as loosing weight fast will increase the amount of uric acid in your body and trigger gout attacks. Keep track of your uric acid levels in your blood at least twice a year.
Purine rich vegetables and moderate wine drinking is not as harmful to gout sufferers as once believed. It pays off to keep a gout diet diary so you can learn from experience which foods cause gout for you.
