If you suffer from gout one of the most important things to do is to change to a natural gout diet plan. But what does this mean, and why is it so important? Here you’ll discover why, as a gout sufferer, you really do need to have a healthy gout diet plan, and, a list of gout foods to avoid as part of that diet…
So then, why do you need a natural gout diet plan? Well, your gout is caused by uric acid crystals in your joints. And these crystals form when you have high levels of uric acid in your blood. So remember that ‘high uric acid leads to gout crystals leads to gout.’
But where does uric acid come from in the first place? It is naturally produced in your body as a result of the breakdown of compounds called purines. These form part of your metabolizing system in your body, so are important to your survival. Now, normally, your kidneys take the excess uric acid produced, process it, and excrete it out of your body.
However, there are occasions when they cannot do this efficiently enough. This can be when your kidneys aren’t functioning to their full ability, or, your body is making too much uric acid for your kidneys to cope with. The outcome is too much uric acid in your blood.
And here’s where your natural gout diet plan comes into play: Purines, as well as existing in our body’s chemistry, also exist in our food at varying levels. So you can now see that the more food you eat containing high purine levels, the more chance of high uric acid, and thus gout.
So, in order to help maintain lower uric acid levels, it makes sense for a gout sufferer to change to a low purine diet. This means avoiding those foods that are high in purines. As a general guide, foods with high concentrations of purines are also high in protein.
Here is a short list of gout foods to avoid as part of your natural gout diet plan:-
Anchovies, sardines.
Fatty red meat, game.
Heart, kidneys, liver, brains, sweetbreads.
Broth, consomme, gravy, bouillon.
Herring, mackerel.
Goose, turkey.
Shrimps, scallops.
Baker’s yeast, brewer’s yeast, yeast extracts.
Dried legumes.
Cauliflower, asparagus, mushrooms, spinach.
For reasons of space, the above gout foods to avoid can only be a snap-shot of all of those that you need to cut-out of your natural gout diet plan. And, of course, they don’t contain the relatively low purine foods that you can eat.
But such a natural gout diet plan is important in preventing recurring gout. And this is because frequently recurring gout can leave you with permanent joint damage as well as painful kidney problems like kidney stones…