What is Gout?
To defeat any problem, you first need to know what the cause is first. Gout is something that we can suffer from without really knowing about it, and the problems that you suffer with Gout can go more or less unnoticed unless you are prepared to take the time to look around, learn about it, and take it to the next stage.
With our assistance and the information precluded in here, you will be able to take on Gout and actually deal with the problem once and for all!
So, what is Gout?
It’s a form of arthritis, whereby the crystals of sodium urate start to form both inside and around our joints.
Gout causes a large flare-up of pain and can make the joint swell up and look extremely red.
The symptoms can develop very quickly: within just 24 hours: and can last for up to ten day.
Once you suffer from Gout once, you can be sure it will return in the future
What causes Gout to occur, then?
Gout is caused by uric acid in the blood building up a little bit too much; it’s a product we don’t need yet our body makes it on a daily basis.
The kidneys get rid of this for us, but when you produce an excess or your body gets rid (excretes) too little, you can have problems.
This causes the build-up to start, which can occur over a period of years without your knowledge.
The worst case scenario with gout is that the crystals in your joints start to clump and pack together, creating what is essentially a permanent level of joint damage that cannot be undone and cannot be stopped, causing immense stiffness throughout the day and making your overall day so much more challenging than it would have been previously.
- The older you are, the more likely it is.
- It’s also four times more likely to strike in men.
- Being overweight can play a part in gout.
- Gout is a hereditary problem: it can run in the family.
- Diabetics are more likely to suffer.
- Drinking too much alcohol can also cause this to rise up.
Whilst Gout will subside in time, it will return in the future. Your best bet to stopping this process from returning is to look at how you eat; changing your diet is a proven method of prevention.
Curing Gout through Food
The problem is that eating food to manage Gout is very challenging, as you need to know exactly what you should be eating: and what you should be drinking. The good thing is that Gout-free diets are quite open and therefore you aren’t subscribing to a life of bland, grey meals and boring dinners. You are subscribing to removing some dangerous and damaging foods from the menu, giving your body the right blend of things like:
- Fruits that have a darker skin like oranges, apples, cherries, peaches and blueberries can be the perfect place to get started.
- Likewise, vegetables like onion, squashes, spinach and broccoli can help you get moving alongside using things like dark, leafy greens.
- Soy products can be a good addition in small doses, too, thanks to their antioxidant qualities.
- Mushrooms like oysters are high in anti-inflammatory capabilities, which is what we need.
- Protein such as organic chicken and/or grass-fed beef products are a good way of getting inflammation.
- Raw-milk dairy products should be used if you have to.
- Try and eat as many acai berries and blueberries as you can, by the way; they are two of the most powerful anti-inflammatories on the planet, bar none!
- Go for spices like turmeric, too. Hey can be very powerful for helping you get to grips with what you need quickly and also adding extra life and flavor to meals.
- However, go for omega-3 enriched eggs if you want to have an egg.
- Red, black and kidney beans are a good addition to have in there but make sure you don’t overload as you can go overboard with protein by doing this.
- Healthy fats as well as oils can be a useful source of the right ingredients to battle back against inflammation and also to provide your body with antioxidant content. Consider olive oil a bit of a staple in this thanks to it polyphenol count .
- Salmon and fatty fish are a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, too!
- If you need a bit of chocolate, make sure its dark chocolate; it’s so much better for you: try and get raw cacao chocolate if you can.
When it comes to drinks, you should try and concentrate on things such as:
- Green teas if you need a drink of this caliber: the richer the better!
- Coffee is also acceptable if you want a cup, just make it black.
- Need a drink? A glass of red wine will need to be the best it gets for you, but for wine fans this can be a real punch-the-air moment!
- Pure fruit juice ideally diluted with water.
- Water, obviously!
- Semi-skimmed milk if you need to use it.
- Avoid soda and the like, however!
As you can see, this is not going to restrict you by too much. There is a fair amount on here that you might be eating anyway, but it’s basically removing all the things that you eat that you don’t see included within this list! The range of foods that can cause Gout and Gout attacks are quite large, so make sure that when you look at diets and foods that they fall roughly into this category.
What Foods to Avoid
To start off with, you need to know what makes Gout so dangerous and what can make it such a serious challenge for someone who is suffering. If you aren’t sure what can cause Gout, though, it can be hard to know what to take off the table so that you can eat properly and sensible. To do this, you need to look at the following foods as perfect examples of what to avoid:
- Scallops are a common source of Gout attacks, due to the fact it’s loaded with purine. If you have too much purine in your diet it can cause the acid buildup to be simply too much for your body to deal with effectively.
- Herrings are another choice tory and avoid. In fact, try and avoid anchovies and tuna should be avoided as they can cause a variety of Gout symptoms to start flaring up.
- Red meats can be a bit of a problem: white meat tends to be a better choice for you. Red meat is OK if you are just dealing with something simple and you only eat it once in a blue moon.
- If you tend to eat a lot of pork or beef, you might need to cut back a little bit as they are just as bad as the above meats.
- A beer is probably not the best idea for those with Gout, sorry drinkers! This will make it hard for you to find something new to drink but, as suggested above, wine is a good leveler as it has nothing like the problems for your uric acid levels.
- Soda should always be avoided from now on: it simply does you more harm than it would ever do you good. Downing these drinks will help you gain weight really fast for a start; but they also make your body produce an excess of uric acid that causes significant problems.
- Asparagus might seem a good idea but it’s not something that you would want to eat too much as they are high in purine. The odd bit is not a problem again, but if you want to eat them regularly you will be in for a bit of a shock along the way, most likely!
- Veggie-rich diets will help clear purines from the body but eating too may high-purine ones will just counteract any good work that you have done.
- Avoid eating Liver if you can; it’s not very good for you in this sense as they just cause serious problems for Gout sufferers. In fact, all organ meats should be more or less avoided due to the excess strain that they can put on your system without even trying.
In short, there is plenty to try and avoid. As a rule, anything high in purine should be avoided as they tend to be the biggest inhibitors for those who are dealing with an issue lie this. Take the time that’s needed to do some further research on foods that you like specifically, as it can really benefit you to know what you can and cannot take along the way.
This is just a start of the list, though, so keep on looking until you find something that you are not sure about; avoiding the bad stuff is as important as eating the right stuff when you embark on this journey.
The Benefits of changing your diet to deal with Gout
There are multiple benefits to taking on this kind of lifestyle choice/diet, with the main one obviously being that you will greatly reduce the probability of a Gout attack occurring.
By sticking to what is listed above as a general rule: and you can do a bit more research yourself into individual foods you might be interested in trying, but aren’t sure if they are compatible: you can start to see a whole range of benefits with your body and with your system in general. This will include things such as:
- You’ll open up your palette: with the inclusion of new spices and the like (especially turmeric) you can start to really try out new meals and new combinations about way from gout-causing trash like takeout food.
- Greater flexibility: the best thing about using this solution is that the level of flexibility you will end up with is much improved over the old level that you would have had in the past. This is very important, as you will be able to be more active and more mobile without the pain and the stress of Gout holding you back.
- Give your body more nutrition: by using this diet you invariably start to make a big change to the strength of your bodies overall function. Instead of being stuck eating the same rubbish time and time again, you will now be introducing new nutrients and additional solutions into your body.
- Reduce inflammation: much like other popular diet out there that deal with inflammation, this works as an anti-inflammatory diet as you are taking in so many antioxidants and nutrients you didn’t in the past. This lets your body relax and cool down a bit, and also gives you a chance to fight off inflammation that isn’t caused by Gout as a nice little byproduct.
- Remove chronic pain: no longer will you need to put up with your body being in a world of pain and agony as you try and work through the day, thanks to the range of changes that are brought to the table with the help of this diet. You’ll remove the struggle and the stress that so many suffer from.
- The first thing that you will notice when you start eating this diet, though, is that your taste in food will change. As you start trying things that were seen as “weird” or overly nu-age in the age, you will start to appreciate the variety of food and the style of meals that you can eat as opposed to repetition in the food that you eat from time to time.