Diet Changes Can Help Reduce Your Gout Pain

By Kathy Nelson

Many people who suffer from the condition known as gout have found that by making changes to their dietary habits has helped to reduce the sudden pain that they feel. Therefore if you are a person who suffers from this condition it is important that you have the correct kind of gout diet in place.

The general consensus is that if your diet is high in purines and protein then you are more likely to suffer with gout. Gout is caused by a build up of uric acid and when purines break down they form uric acid. When your body has more uric acid than it can deal with little crystals made up of uric acid will form in your joints and cause pain and inflammation.

If you suffer from gout then your diet is far more important to your health than most people realize, eating foods that are high in purines will result in increased levels of Gout attacks. Some of the foods that you should avoid include liver, kidneys, brains and game meat.

Your gout pain is finally so bad that you are willing to change your diet, the first think you should do is look at the diary of your eating and drinking habits for the last month. If you don't have a diary of eating habits then you should keep one for the next week at least.

Potatoes, corn and peas are just three of the vegetables that you should be avoiding all together or at least reducing your intake of them. It can be hard to change your diet all at once, so make a plan to reduce your intake of potatoes by 50% within 2 weeks and work on from there.

All liquids are not created equal in terms of the effect they will have on your gout. Beer is the worst item for someone with gout to consume, while any alcohol is not ideal. Most of us don't drink enough water , this affects all of us but especially someone with gout. Gout sufferers should try to drink 8 glasses of water a day.

Drinking 8 glasses of water a day will cause your system to flush out more of the purines which if left in your system will break down and become uric acid. While it can be tempting not to drink lots of water (who wants to be going to the bathroom every half hour) the benefits of consuming lots of water are a reduction in gout attacks and the severity of the attacks you do have.

You can reduce your gout attacks and the severity of them over time just by making changes to your diet and increasing your water intake. These dietary changes will not only help reduce your gout pain they will also help you feel better in yourself. Constant pain of gout is something that will affect your way of living and you can improve this dramatically just by a few simple changes in eating habits. - 30540

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