Due to the poor environmental situation and constant stressful situations, each person should be more attentive to his health, especially when it comes to the presence of certain diseases. The use of products prohibited in diseases, not only worsens health, but is also fraught with the fact that there will be more serious consequences of the disease. What foods can and should not be with gout? This we will discuss in the article.
What is gout?
Before you know what foods you can not eat with gout, you should consider what kind of ailment it is. Most often, these diseases affect men and women after forty years, although it was previously believed that only men were affected by gout. This is one of the varieties of joint diseases, the cause of which is the abuse of foods high in purines. It is because of their use that salts in the joints are deposited. Painful sensations in the form of long seizures can affect the joints of both the upper and lower extremities. Symptoms are extremely unpleasant - swelling, joint deformation, inflammatory processes, acute pain.
To alleviate the symptoms of gout, it is imperative to follow a therapeutic diet, which consists in restricting and prohibiting certain types of foods. The frequency of gout attacks and the duration of remission depend on whether the patient eats properly or violates the diet.
Rules for eating with a disease
When prescribing medicines, the attending physician without fail prescribes the patient a therapeutic diet - table No. 6, one of the important points of which are the rules of eating. What are allowed and prohibited foods for gout? They are listed below:
- Fish dishes should be limited, they can be eaten no more than 3 times a week. You can’t eat fried fish, exclusively boiled or steamed.
- Soups on meat broths can not be eaten, only vegetable or dairy.
- Drinks such as tea, cocoa and coffee are excluded, while it is very important to drink plenty of water (at least 2 liters per day), as it flushes purines and subsequently removes them from the body. More fluid should be drunk before the end of the morning. The use of mineral water is encouraged, since the alkali contained in it effectively flushes uric acid. During an exacerbation of the disease, warm warm water should be drunk in the morning.
- The permissible amount of salt is not more than 5-6 g, but it is important to switch to the norm - 1-2 g.
- The diet should have enough foods rich in vitamin B and C. It is also advisable to buy pharmacy vitamins and use them according to the instructions.
- It is useful to spend fasting days. So, you can drink kefir, milk or eat vegetables within one day. Starvation is prohibited, as due to a lack of food, uric acid levels increase. One unloading day per week is enough.
- In order not to overeat, it is important to eat fractionally (5-6 times a day), since eating too much can worsen the symptoms of the disease.
The norms of food consumption during a diet during a gout disease are as follows. The daily calorie content of the diet should be in the range of 2700 - 2800 kcal. The ratio of proteins, carbohydrates and fats in the diet should be as follows:
- Proteins in the diet should be 80-90 g, with 50% of them of animal origin, 50% of vegetable.
- Fat - 80-90 g, of which vegetable should be at least 30%.
- Carbohydrates - 350-400, 80 g - pure sugars.
General list of foods prohibited for gout on legs
If products rich in purines are excluded from the diet, the number of attacks of pain in the joints immediately begins to decrease, and the work of both the urogenital and vascular systems normalizes. With the right diet, swelling subsides and inflammatory processes are eliminated.
What foods can not be eaten with gout? The list is as follows:
- Vegetables - cauliflower, radish, spinach and sorrel.
- Legumes - lentils, soybeans, beans, peas.
- Sauces - fatty meat based on meat broth, mayonnaise, soy sauce.
- Fruits, dried fruits, berries - figs, dates, raspberries, strawberries.
- Pickled and pickled cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables, dishes cooked with them.
- Meat dishes - canned food, meat of young animals, offal, sauces with meat, jelly.
- Fish dishes - canned food, caviar, salted herring, smoked fish, fried fish, its fatty varieties - herring, trout, salmon, salmon, sardines.
- Sausages - sausages, ham, sausages, other sausages delicacies.
- Animal fats - beef, pork fat, lard.
- Broths - mushroom, chicken, meat, fish.
- Cold appetizers - fish and meat smoked meats, spicy appetizers.
- Drinks - hot chocolate, strong coffee, cocoa and alcohol (all types).
- Spices - pepper, mustard and horseradish.
- Bakery products - cakes, pastries and rolls with fat cream, cream cakes, pastries with a high percentage of fat content.
- Peanut.
But this is not the entire list of products prohibited for gout. There are also those whose consumption should be significantly limited.
Products to Limit
The use of fish and meat with gout should be limited to 1-2 times a week. Doctors recommend eating fish along with developed gills and scales. The fact is that these fish offal, like human kidneys, remove toxins. If there is an attack of gout, meat or fish can only be eaten after 1-2 weeks.
What other foods can not be eaten with gout? Limit the use of:
- Vegetables - bell pepper, rhubarb, beets, asparagus, celery, tomatoes (up to 3 per day). Potatoes should also be limited, in small quantities it can be eaten only in boiled and baked form.
- Fruits - plum and strawberries.
- Mushrooms.
- Greens - dill, parsley, onions.
- Dairy products - fatty cottage cheese and some types of fatty cheeses (more than 50% fat content).
- Eggs - one per day.
- Butter.
Reasons why you can not broths, canned food, semi-finished products and offal
What foods are not allowed for gout? This also includes broths, canned food, semi-finished products and offal. Why? People who suffer from this disease often worry about the fact that diet number 6, shown with gout, excludes broths. This is understandable, as they cook delicious borscht and soups. In fact, it is imperative to follow the rules and eliminate broths, since a couple of spoons of a dish, especially with spices such as bay leaves and peppers, can cause an attack. This is due to an increase in uric acid levels. It is best to cook meat separately and consume it together with vegetable broths. It is important to remember that during cooking the meat should be drained several times, as this helps to reduce the number of purines by several times.
Semi-finished products from the store - products prohibited for gout and arthritis. They can contain a lot of harmful substances that are extremely undesirable in these diseases - vegetable fats, offal, pork or beef tallow. In addition, in order not to provoke an attack, you should refuse fast food, since this product has a lot of fat.
Offal (lungs, liver, heart, chicken stomachs, tongue) should also not appear in the diet, as they contain many purines. As a result, if you break the diet, the attack will begin immediately. Canned fish and meat are harmful because of the high salt content and because of an excess of purines: sardines - 120 mg per 100 g, sprats - 92 mg per 100 g.
Reasons why tea, coffee, cocoa and chocolate should not be
It is impossible to imagine your life without coffee and tea and their faithful companion - chocolate, but with gout the forbidden foods are just them. For what reason? You should start with the fact that drinks dehydrate the body, and if there is not enough water, there is a risk of an attack of gout. Coffee and tea retain uric acid instead of eliminating it, so they can cause an attack of gout. In addition, in the brewing of black tea, there are 2766 mg of purines per 100 g, in cocoa - 1897 mg, a little less in instant coffee - 1213 mg per 100 g. You can replace the above drinks with green tea, it is not only desirable, but also drink with gout, as it removes uric acid and neutralizes the action of purines, which enter the body. Chocolate is also undesirable, because it contains purine compounds, in addition, it is heavy enough for the digestive system. Creams based on it, desserts and the like are also prohibited. Although the purine content in chocolate is not critical, it’s better to refrain from it, replacing it with such useful sweets as marshmallows and marmalade.
Can I eat mushrooms?
Artificially grown mushrooms (champignons, oyster mushrooms) - products prohibited for gout and joints. They are very unhealthy because they are grown with chemicals. Forest mushrooms should be preferred. Kombucha is considered a cure for gout because it relieves pain during attacks and improves the condition of the body. Using tinctures from it, you can reduce joint pain, it is recommended to apply a napkin with tincture to a sore spot, and drink an hour before meals.
Why can not eat dates, grapes and raspberries?
Dates, grapes, raspberries are also included in the list of prohibited foods for gout. Raspberry seemed to be a healthy berry, so it should be included in the diet for the disease. However, it contains many purines (22 mg per 100 g), therefore it is better to exclude it. The same applies to grapes (8 mg per 100 g), while it does not matter what kind of grape it is, it is completely banned for the disease. Dates contain 22 mg of purines per 100 g, therefore, among all other dried fruits, they are most harmful with gout, therefore they are forbidden to eat.
Why should you give up alcohol?
Alcoholic drinks are not only impossible with gout, they can even be dangerous. Particularly harmful are beer, red wines and cognac. The fact is that alcohol dehydrates the body and removes all water from it, which increases the concentration of uric acid. All low-alcohol drinks contain high levels of purine compounds. Doctors strongly recommend abandoning beer also for the reason that even non-alcoholic is brewed with yeast, and they contain a lot of purines (761 mg per 100 g). The beer drink itself contains 1810 mg per 100 g, turning into a real poison for a person suffering from attacks of gout, since 400 mg per 100 g is considered to be a high content.
Beer removes water, but toxins (toxins and poisons) remain in the kidneys, as does uric acid. The kidneys have to cope with a large number of purines, and with the negative effects of alcohol, which increases renal tone. The patient’s metabolism slows down, due to which attacks of gout become more frequent. Alcohol is strictly prohibited in all its forms (even low-alcohol drinks and champagne) both during exacerbation of gout, and during remission, when the disease recedes a little.
What if there is a feast ahead?
There are times when you want to drink a little alcohol or some holiday is coming. Of course, drinking alcohol is extremely undesirable, but if there is no other way, you can minimize the negative impact of alcohol by following these rules:
- On the day of the feast, you need to drink up to 3.5 liters of water so that uric acid is more intensively excreted from the body.
- It is necessary to take medications that improve metabolism and eliminate toxins.
- Before drinking alcohol, you should drink some sorbent, for example, activated charcoal.
- You should not drink alcohol on an empty stomach, it is best to eat tight before a feast. If it does not work out, you should drink 1/2 tablespoon butter, it inhibits the absorption of alcohol.
- Avoid drinking vodka or moonshine, it is best to drink some grape wine.
- Combining different types of alcohol is highly undesirable; vodka and wine cannot be mixed.
- To minimize the effect of alcohol on the body, it should be washed down with pharmacy mineral water.
- Fatty meat and protein products cannot be combined with alcohol. Remember: the rate of strong drinks (cognac, vodka, whiskey) is 30-60 g per day, wine - up to 150 g.
- Drinks with a strength of more than 30-40 degrees should be avoided.
List of allowed foods for gout
We examined what foods can not be eaten with gout. The list is pretty impressive. But, despite the fact that the diet implies significant restrictions, the list of permitted products is still quite wide and varied. It is also worth considering that almost all products are dietary and wholesome, because having excess weight makes it easy to get rid of it. This is important, since extra pounds increase the load on the joints and can provoke an attack. However, it should be remembered that rapid weight loss (more than 2 kg per week) is fraught with negative consequences for the body.
The list of allowed products includes the following:
- Vegetables and greens - carrots, eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers, white cabbage, pumpkin, garlic, corn.
- Fruits - apricots, oranges, pears, apples, plums.
- Dried fruits are prunes.
- Sauces - milk, cheese, vegetable.
- Bakery products - rye bread, Borodino, wheat, white, with bran, whole grain flour, inedible pastries (biscuits, biscuits, etc.).
- Sweets - jam, marmalade, marshmallows, honey in small quantities, sweets (except chocolate), ice cream (except chocolate and with the addition of cocoa).
- Dairy and sour-milk products - milk, kefir (up to 2.5%), fermented baked milk (up to 2.5%), yogurt, yogurt.
- Cheeses and cottage cheese - low-fat cottage cheese, suluguni cheese, low-fat varieties of cheese (feta cheese, ricotta and mozzarella)
- Oils - vegetable, flaxseed oil and olive.
- Porridge - buckwheat, oatmeal, rice (it is better to buy steamed and brown rice). It is allowed to cook cereals in milk, but we should not forget that they contribute to weight gain.
- Any pasta.
- Vegetable or milk broths.
- Meat - chicken, turkey, rabbit. However, it should be remembered that meat can only be eaten 2-3 times a week and in an amount of not more than 170 g.
- Nuts, seeds. You can eat pine nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios and more. The exception is peanuts rich in purines.
- Fish - boiled fish, except prohibited, and seafood (shrimp, squid). Crustaceans, marine cephalopods are allowed.
- Juices, drinks and compotes - cucumber, tomato and apple juices, herbal decoctions, green tea with milk or lemon, ginger tea, broth of wild rose, chicory, fruit drinks from various berries, gooseberries and lingonberries.
- Spices - bay leaf, citric acid, vanillin, cinnamon.
It is permissible to eat vinaigrettes on the diet (legumes should not be added, pickled cucumbers in small quantities), sauerkraut (moderately), vegetable caviar and stew. The main thing is not to forget that nutrition should be balanced and proper. It is very important not to overeat, as this affects the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.
Foods That Can Help Gout
Everyone knows that it is better to avoid the consumption of foods that are forbidden with gout. And which ones can I eat? To alleviate the onset of gout and to maximize the duration of remission, it is imperative that foods that promote the excretion of uric acid from the body appear more often in the diet.
So, apples and apple juice are especially useful for gout. The beneficial substances that make up the fruit, especially malic acid, neutralize uric acid and prevent it from settling and crystallizing in the joints. The ascorbic acid contained in the fruit has a firming effect on the connective tissue of the joint, and also heals damage caused by acute uric acid crystals.
With gout, it is also important to eat potassium-rich bananas. The effect of the latter lies in the fact that with the help of it, crystals of uric acid are liquefied and excreted faster. Especially useful fruit along with yogurt.
Cherry is also considered a product that helps alleviate the condition of gout. The berry contains antioxidants that fight the free radicals considered to be the cause of many diseases. In addition, cherries contain bioflavonoids and anthocyanins, which reduce inflammation in gout. In order for pain and inflammation to pass faster during an exacerbation, at least 20 cherries should be eaten per day. If not fresh, you can drink cherry juice or canned compote from cherries.
Strawberries, strawberries and all kinds of nuts reduce the harm of uric acid to a minimum, since it does not have time to crystallize in the joints and cause an attack of gout. If you eat these types of berries as often as possible, you can even cure gout.