What dietary taboos should you pay attention to when it comes to gout?

The core principle is very clear. First, avoid foods that are known to induce acute attacks and quickly increase blood uric acid. The rest do not need to be overly strict. On the contrary, gout attacks occur more frequently in people who are vegan and hungry for a long time.

I met a 40-year-old patient two years ago. When he was first diagnosed with gout, he banned all meaty foods and ate white porridge with vegetables. He lost 18 pounds in three months. As a result, the gout attack went from once every six months to the pain every month. After a follow-up examination, I found out that long-term insufficient calories.

The first thing to avoid 100% is sweet drinks that add a lot of fructose syrup. Whether it is iced cola, bottled iced black tea or milk tea with syrup, they are all hard-hit areas. Last month, a young man in his early 20s, whose gout had just subsided for a month, drank two large bottles of iced black tea while having sex with friends. That night, he was in so much pain that he could not walk, and his family carried him to the emergency room. There are also old hot soups and hot pot base soups that have been simmered for two or three hours. All the purines are dissolved in the soup. Don’t listen to people who say that you don’t need to eat meat for hot pot. Drinking half a bowl of soup has higher purine than eating a plate of mutton. There are also animal offal and shelled seafood such as shrimps and oysters. Their purine content is extremely high. Eating it once can cause uric acid to spike for several days. Don’t touch them during the attack.

Many people are confused about whether soy products can be eaten. This is where there are still disagreements in the academic community. The old view is that soybeans are high in purines and should be completely banned. However, clinical studies in recent years have found that processed soy products such as fresh tofu and soy milk have lost most of their purines during the production process, and plant purines Purine metabolism pathways are different from those in animals. Normally, eating one or two pieces of tofu and drinking a cup of soy milk will not increase uric acid at all. Only concentrated dried bean curds and super-concentrated sugar-free soy milk powder have relatively high purine content. Eat less. If you don’t feel uncomfortable after eating soy products, there is no need to specialize in dietary restrictions.

There is also the issue of alcohol. A few years ago, it was said that you can drink less red wine to soften blood vessels. Now most clinical guidelines make it clear that all alcohol should be avoided as much as possible. Alcohol itself will inhibit the excretion of uric acid. Beer itself also contains a large amount of purines, which is the highest risk. Of course, there are also small-scale studies that say that drinking less than 50 ml of red wine a day has little effect on uric acid. This depends on personal choice. It is safer to be safer and more worry-free to quit altogether.

Don’t overdo it. There is really no need for many people to blacken all meats and seafood. For example, freshwater fish such as blanched chicken, grass carp, and crucian carp can eat more than one or two each time between attacks. It is completely fine. Even deep-sea fish such as salmon with medium purine, if you eat a small piece occasionally, the omega 3 in it can also help reduce the inflammatory reaction, which is much better than eating bland and nutritious food every day.

Many patients around me have very strict dietary restrictions and still cannot lower their uric acid. After asking, I found out that drinking honey water every day is said to be a laxative. 70% of honey is fructose. Drinking too much can raise uric acid faster than eating two bites of meat. This invisible sugar is the easiest pitfall. Paying more attention is better than anything else.