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gout diet

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Tixe
Tixe

I was diagnosed with gout a month ago. The sites show conflicting info about what is allowed to eat and what is not. HELP! :

A - just eat a healthy whole foods diet, mostly vegetables - including potatoes/yams/whole grains

B - NO vegetables that GROW UNDERGROUND: potatoes/yams/carrots/onions/garlic 

These are vegetables I usually cook with, so I need to know: WHICH IS RIGHT?

C -NUTS/SEEDS - no, absolutely; this means I took all the seeds out of 2 cans of whole tomatoes in order to use the tomatoes as a base for soup

D - How much/if at all  can I trust the manufacturers of tomato "sauce"/ "paste"/ "ketchup'? DO they actually remove seeds before grinding up the pulp? ARE THERE GROUND SEEDS in canned tomato products?   

E - How many seeds are TOO MUCH? Can I have a couple tablespoons of my 2 homemade relishes - green tomato, and red bell

pepper/cabbage? Both have celery and mustard seeds. Is it safe to remove seeds themselves and still eat foods that were cooked with seed-bearing vegetables in them? 

F - Earlier sites said NO cauliflower. Is that still the case? I often mix 1/2 potatoes and 1/2 cauliflower in "mashed potatoes"  or in my potato-leek soups. (Leeks grow 1/2 underground. OK -or NOT? )  

G - whole grains - I read NO OATMEAL, NO whole CORN, ???

Is this still the case. Oatmeal, whole old fashioned, is one of my favorite winter breakfasts. And I like to add frozen whole corn or hominy to vegetable soups. How does this affect my usual whole wheat-high fiber breads?  

I am trying to learn how to put the gout diet on top of my type 2 diabetic diet (very well controlled)  but I need more guidance/experience from other gout patients. I stick with major medical sites and medical university sites - eg, Harvard U's site said that a whole foods/healthy/low meat diet is the goal - but that research was about 2005. What's the current recommendations?  

My local hospital has great classes for diabetics, none for gout patients. I need help to get this diet up and running - and I don't mean somebody else's printed out diet/menu plan! I will be glad of any current information you can give me.

Kathy Hull

0 likes, 7 replies

7 Replies

  • EileenH
    EileenH Tixe

    Posted

    Do you just have gout? Or do you also have polymyalgia rheumatica/giant cell arteritis? Because that is the forum you have ended up on and very few of us have gout.

    However, from what I know I think you are probably panicking unecessarily.

    The site Uptodate says (google it for much more gout info because I can't give you the link here)

    "Dietary changes — Changing your diet may reduce the frequency of gout attacks. Because obesity is a risk factor for gout, as well as for many other health conditions, losing weight is an important goal. However, starvation or fad diets are not recommended. (See "Patient information: Weight loss treatments (Beyond the Basics)".)

    Diet guidelines for patients with gout have changed over time, and it is not completely clear which combination of foods is best.

    You are encouraged to eat and drink:

    ●Low-fat dairy products

    ●Foods made with complex carbohydrates (whole grains, brown rice, oats, beans)

    ●Only a moderate amount of wine (up to two 5-ounce servings per day [about 300 mL per day] since this is not likely to increase the risk of a gout attack)

    ●Coffee (may decrease serum uric acid levels)

    ●Vitamin C (500 mg per day has a mild urate-lowering effect)

    Changes in diet are often recommended along with medications. Diet change alone is unlikely to lower blood urate levels by more than about 15 percent, even if the diet is severely restricted. On the other hand, when diet control is accompanied by weight loss (often with increased exercise) improvements in urate control can be more impressive."

    This patient'info site itself has a good outline https://patient.info/health/gout-diet-sheet

    which tells you the foods that have a lot of purines and are the ones to avoid. It says  "Evidence suggests that plant foods aren't associated with increased risk of gout, even if they have a higher purine content."  That is because the body processes purines from meat differently from purines from plant sources - and that is relatively recent info. The older sites you saw probably took "purines are purines" as their basis for their comments. The patient.info diet sheet says to avoid HFCS - and I do realise since you are in the US (I assume since you mention hominy!) that may pose a problem since it is used so much by US manufacturers. But plant seeds don't have any HFCS - and the diet sheet says lots of fruit and veggies (and doesn't mention taking out the seeds) and recommends oats (under starch carbs)!

    The people I know with gout find they had to learn what are their personal triggers but once they were on medication they had few problems. You'll be fine!

    • Tixe
      Tixe EileenH

      Posted

      Thank you for responding! Yes, it's just gout - and not bad so far. Your information is exactly the kind I need, and I am so grateful to hear from you.
    • EileenH
      EileenH Tixe

      Posted

      To get the links I googled "gout diet patient info" - I knew what I was looking for anyway. Try that to get more similar stuff - and the UK Gout Society "all about gout and diet" is also a very clear and simple outline of what to avoid - which is far more use than saying "deseed your tomatoes and don't eat cauliflower" which probably won't make a lot of difference!

       

  • margaret22251
    margaret22251 Tixe

    Posted

    My hubby has gout for the last 15 years he is on medication and can eat and drink what he likes.
  • constance.de
    constance.de Tixe

    Posted

    Tixe, you are taking this gout and diet business rather seriously.  I have gout.  It started years ago and was very painful for many months.  I ate vegetables, meat, wheat and dairy products during this time - never really thought of/was advised about a diet.  The only thing the doctor said was "don't drink port or red wine, and stay off red produce".  

    This was about 30 years ago.  I'm 76 now and just occasionally I have a flare, exceedingly painful but the pain disappears within a couple of days.  There were many years between that I didn't get any flares at all, and I still stick to the same 'diet' (things weren't taken so seriously in those days)!

    So don't worry too much - you'll live!

    Have a great, pain free Christmas and a happy 2016.

    Regards from Constance. 🎄

    • Silver49
      Silver49 constance.de

      Posted

      My hubby has had gout for about 6years which is well controlled with medication. He does not follow a special diet and to date has had no flares. He drinks red wine occasionally and because of another medical condition he eats some food which would be on the list to avoid. I guess it's as Constance has said not to worry too much.
  • Guest
    Guest Tixe

    Posted

    Oh my gosh, what a predicament.

    i don't have much problem in that area, thankfully, but I have lots of arthritic and other health probs.

    I found that pineapple, even a dip made with small crushed pineapple, which my neighbour forced me into trying, less that a tablespoon of, gave me foot gout during the night and next day,.....no more. !     Even though it has heaps of beneficial usage, it is not worth my trying again, twice was enough.  I hope this helps somewhat, Merry Christmas.🎄. 

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