Dietary Changes for Gout

4 years ago I changed my diet and my sedentary ways. I started with a vegan diet called a whole food, plant based diet SOS free (no salt, no oil and no sugar). It changed my entire personality within a week. I went from depressive and sedentary to energetic and optimistic. It was intensely uncomfortable though since my body was in no state to make use of my new-found energy. I got myself a chiropractor and a physiotherapist to help me resurrect myself from the mess I'd made over the previous 30 years. It took weeks only to see improvement and 3 short months to feel amazing. I went from being able to walk 20 metres at a time, risking injury that would precipitate an acute gout episode, to being able to walk for many kilometres without incident. I went from carefully walking with flat feet so as not to flex the joints and bring on the inflammation of gout, to being able to stand on my toes and walk like a normal person again. I was on the diet for 12 months then I added meat and the benefits have remained.

Throughout this period I was taking vitamin C and lysine as well as vitamin D but I don't believe any of these were the cause of my goutlessness. If I was to guess, I'd say it was the diet which, although very restrictive, was easy to stay on and had far-reaching effects for my health; both physical and mental. Although to be fair I really don't know.

The diet was intended to help with atherosclerosis and high blood pressure; I wasn't even thinking of gout. I lost 60 kg and my blood pressure now hovers around 110/70. And I'm 60.

Also, this morning I found information about uric acid that I have never seen before. Search on YouTube for; "Uric acid: A KEY cause of weight gain, diabetes, heart disease & dementia (Dr. David Perlmutter)".

I hope there is something here to help you. Good luck.

I know this is long but I have tried to answer anticipated questions.

At the time of this writing, I am 74 years old and have not had gout in many years. I eat a very simple grain-free diet of nuts, seeds, vegetables and fish. Recently I had been eating lots of apples, berries, prunes and raisins because of a minor constipation issue.

As noted in my previous post, fruit juices and ibuprofen used to stopped my gout attacks in 1-2 days. So at the first signs of gout in my left big toe I did my usual two one-half gallon bottles of natural red 100% fruit juice and a few ibuprofen. But this time instead of flushing out the uric acid my whole foot blew up with tight burning skin and unbelievable pain. After 5 days I went to urgent care where they diagnosed infected gout – cellulitis - and prescribed 2 weeks of Bactrim. I began a low purine diet with plenty of fruit. After a few days the skin stopped burning but the redness, swelling and pain remained. My regular foot doctor was lazy and useless, she stood with her hands in her pockets saying nothing and prescribed nothing. So I started taking Olive Leaf 1000 mg x 4 times daily and within a day I could feel the swelling and pain reducing.

The low purine diet was no help but I noticed within minutes of eating apples or blueberries the pain and tightness increased dramatically. I did some research and found this from Harvard Medical: "Researchers report a correlation between foods high in fructose and gout symptoms, which can include chronic pain. These fruits include apples, peaches, pears, plums, grapes, prunes, and dates. Fructose can generate a spike in uric acid within minutes of being consumed."

I STOPPED EATING ALL FRUIT and within one day ,the pain reduced by half and in 3 days, all pain was gone. I could walk normally. The redness and swelling took about 10 more days. My left big toe and ball is still larger than the right because of probably permanent joint damage caused be fast growing small bone spurs from the 2 months of inflammation - Bone Spurs grow from calluses caused by inflammation. My new foot doctor is aggressive and stays on point doing ultra sound in the office where he found the spurs and ordered CT to find out exactly what is going on in there. He also took a cast of my foot for custom shoe liners to relive pressure.

Bottom Line –

1. My lab blood uric acid levels were always normal. So a low purine diet did not help. If your body produces elevated uric acid then the low-purine diet may be of some help.

2. Stopping all fruit and fructose got rid of my gout in less that 2 days.

3. For many years I have used the PLNT brand of Olive Leaf capsules from Vitamin Shoppe because it contains nothing but Olive Leaf. And I like Vitamin Shoppe Liquid Olive Leaf Extract.

4. Since regularly taking Olive Leaf I have noticed my hands and feet are smoother and not dry.

5. I now it ZERO FRUIT and feel terrific. I have a bottle of Vitamin C pure powder which I occasionally use but there are many potent sources of Vitamin C rather than fruit.

6. I eat ½ – 1 cup of chopped organic celery with meals twice a day and love the crunch. No More Constipation.

7. No matter the results of the CT I will not have any procedures and I don't really need the shoe liners because I am walking just fine. Point being, stopping fruit would have cured the gout attack without the doctors. The Olive Leaf was a great addition as an anti inflammatory and several other health benefits without side affects.

As is well documented, whether natural or pharmaceutical all medications and treatments work different for each of us. This works for me.

Best Wishes for World Peace.

My eating habits could not be healthier or so I thought. But my gout was worsening. Then I decided to increase the amount of fruit I was consuming, thinking that if some fruit is healthy, more fruit will be more healthy. Some days I was eating fruit only, others over 10 portions a day. And alas my gout instead of improving it became chronic. I was desperate I did not know what to do.

And then one day accidentally I read an article about fructose, which is contained in fruit in large quantities. It said that it increases uric acid, in a matter of minutes. Fructose is also present in table sugar, and in HFCS, which is used in soft drinks. I put two and two together and realised what I was doing wrong. I stopped eating fruit and all other sugars, for a period of 3 weeks, and by magic I saw a dramatic improvement. Pain was gone, swelling was gone, I was fine.

I re introduced fruit again in my diet but reducing them to 1 or 2 a day, and my gout completely disappeared. I do eat more meat now, and occasionally have an alcoholic drink, and thank God everything seems to be fine. Fructose was my enemy.

I have tried all the cures you can imagine. I tried ACV, lemons, drinking a lot of water, but to no avail. I tried water fasting, juice fasting, baking soda, again without success. I almost gave up meat, limiting it to only once a week , gave up alcohol completely, again no success. I was living on vegetables, lots and lots of fresh fruit, milk, cheese beans and so on. My eating habits could not be healthier , or so I thought. But my gout was worsening.

Then I decided to increase the amount of fruit I was consuming, thinking that if some fruit is healthy, more fruit will be more healthy. Some days I was eating fruit only , others over 10 portions a day. And alas my gout instead of improving it became chronic, it was there all the time. I was desperate I did not know what to do.

And then one day accidentally I read an article about fructose, which is contained in fruit in large quantities. It said that it increases uric acid, in a matter of minutes. Fructose is also present in table sugar, and in HFCS, which is used in soft drinks. I put two and two together and realised what I was doing wrong. I stopped eating fruit and all other sugars, for a period of 3 weeks, and by magic I saw a dramatic improvement. Pain was gone, swelling was gone, I was fine. I re introduced fruit again in my diet but reducing them to 1 or 2 a day, and my gout completely disappeared. I do eat more meat now, and occasionally have an alcoholic drink, and thank God everything seems to be fine. Fructose was my enemy.