Diet taboos for high uric acid

Absolutely avoid ultra-high purine foods with a purine content exceeding 150mg/100g, strictly control the total daily intake of medium-purine foods, and try to avoid high-fructose and alcoholic drinks that inhibit uric acid excretion.

Don’t believe it. I recently accompanied my son, who has been suffering from gout for 3 years, to the nutrition department for a follow-up consultation. He used to live according to the taboo list found on the Internet. He didn’t even dare to touch tofu and only had vegetable and white porridge. As a result, the uric acid level was stable at 590 μmol/L. He lost 8 pounds in three months and could not even walk up to the third floor without gasping for breath. The doctor laughed after looking through his dietary records and said that he regarded the old ideas from ten years ago as imperial edicts, and many taboos had been updated long ago.

Things like animal offal, shelled seafood, soup cooked for three or four hours, and hot pot soup that has been cooked over and over again are really not allowed to be touched. They are a real red line of taboos. Last month, I became greedy and ate two skewers of roasted kidneys. That night, my big toe was so swollen that I couldn't put on my slippers. It hurt so much that I went to the emergency room overnight to get painkillers. There is really no need to try this lesson.

But not all high-purine foods should be beaten to death with a stick. The most typical one is soy products. In the past, the old saying was that soybeans were high in purines, so soy milk, tofu, and bean curds should be avoided. However, the 2020 edition of the "China Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Hyperuricemia and Gout" has long made it clear that most of the purines are dissolved in water during the processing of soy products. It is lost, and the metabolic absorption rate of plant purine is much lower than that of animal purine. Not only does it not significantly increase uric acid, but it has a certain effect on promoting excretion. As long as you don’t show off a whole plate of brine tofu at once, drinking a cup of hot soy milk every day is completely fine. Now I have been drinking a cup of soy milk every morning since I was little, and my uric acid has not disappeared.

There are also many people who say that seafood cannot be eaten when they hear that uric acid is high, which is purely a generalization. The purine content of sea cucumbers and jellyfish skins is lower than that of most green leafy vegetables. If you want to eat seafood to relieve boredom, you can choose these two. On the contrary, small sea fish such as sardines and hairtails have higher purine content than pork liver, so they are the categories to be avoided.

Many people don’t know that fructose is actually worse than purine. Many people think that everything will be fine if they don't eat meat. They drink milk tea and freshly squeezed juice every day, but as a result, their uric acid levels rise. Don’t think that freshly squeezed juice is healthy. A cup of 300ml freshly squeezed orange juice has a higher fructose content than a cup of Coke. Fructose not only promotes the synthesis of uric acid, but also inhibits the excretion of uric acid by the renal tubules. It is equivalent to replenishing your supply while blocking the outlet. It can raise uric acid faster than eating two ounces of pork belly. Two years ago, I met a young girl who had just graduated. She lost weight and did not eat meat. She drank freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices as meal replacements every day. During her physical examination, her uric acid level soared to 560. She was stunned when she received the report.

As for alcohol, it is also a category that has been relatively controversial in recent years. Many people have said that drinking less red wine can soften blood vessels and is good for the body. However, the latest clinical research concluded that whether it is white wine, beer or red wine, as long as it contains alcohol, it will inhibit the excretion of uric acid. Beer itself also contains a large amount of purine, which is the hardest hit area. Don't hang out with your friends and drink cold beers in the summer. If you do that, the probability of a gout attack will triple. It's really not something you can do.

Don’t be overly restrictive because you listen to what the Internet says about not being able to eat anything. Many people are afraid of high uric acid levels and don’t even dare to eat more eggs and milk. This is completely a blind worry. The purine content of eggs and milk is almost negligible and can be used to supplement protein. If you only eat boiled vegetables for a long time, malnutrition will reduce your metabolic ability and make it more difficult to reduce uric acid.

To put it bluntly, there really aren’t that many rules and regulations to adhere to in a diet with high uric acid. The core is to control the amount rather than complete fasting. After all, life has to go on. Occasionally, you will be greedy and eat what you want. As long as you don’t step on the red line or overdose, drink more warm water and urinate more often, the indicators will be stable and better than anything else.