Gout diet foods – Are these foods benign or malign for gout?

CABBAGE AND GOUT

It's hard to see why cabbage can't be anything other than among the group of excellent gout diet foods. Whether you try:

A low purine diet to reduce purines.A carbohydrate restricted diet which usually normalises most markers of the metabolic syndrome, and especially the one that’s most likely to cause gout, insulin. A low fat-low calorie diet. Or any other type, including an alkaline diet.

Every nutritionist approves of cabbage, even if your kids don’t. Such unanimity in nutrition is as refreshing as an ice cold towel on a hot day.

Nutrition data on this page is taken from the high quality USDA National Nutrient database, and the USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected foods Release 2.1., both of which you can download free from our free-gout-resources page.

These are the gout-positive vital nutrition statistics for cabbage (green, common).

100 grams of raw cabbage, uncooked. GI is the Glycemic Index. On the GI, low is good, medium is not bad, high is poor.

Purines: Low.Carbs: 5.8g.Fibre (fiber): 2.5g.Net carbs: 3.3g.GI: Low.Kcalories: 25.Vitamin C: 37mg.pH: Alkalising.(Alkalizing).

All this means cabbage is a good gout diet food. It isn’t in the premier division of those foods which have a reputation for helping with gout (cherries, strawberries etc). Savoy cabbage has a similar profile. But now read about red cabbage, which may be due for promotion to the premier division of gout diet foods.

RED CABBAGE AND GOUT - IT LOOKS LIKE IT'S GOOD FOR GOUT

Red cabbage is a better gout diet food than green because it has a higher level of vitamin C (57 mg/100 grams v 37 mg/100grams). Eat, or intake, just 500 mg of vitamin C daily and one study found that you’ll excrete more uric acid. And if you can get it naturally in those foods with flavonoids, which aid its absorption, even better. Plus you can supplement with another 500 mg from a vitamin C dietary supplement. The amount in 200 grams of red cabbage will take you 20% of the daily way.

Red cabbage for gout Now here’s something very interesting about red cabbage. One of its ingredients is the flavonoid (aka plant polyphenol or polyphenol) anthocyanidin named cyanidin. Cyanidin just happens to be the most abundant flavonoid anthocyanidin in sweet, raw cherries, which have 75mg per 100 grams. Red cabbage has virtually the same amount of cyanidin – 73 mg/100 grams, and this is much, much more than in sour cherries. And yet both kinds of cherries are thought to be as good as each other for gout. There is more cyanidin in sweet cherries than in sour ones.

Raw red cabbage also has much more vitamin C than sweet, raw cherries (7mg) and sour raw cherries (10mg).

Flavonoids such as these are speculated to be the reason why cherries have lowered uric acid levels in two studies by inhibiting its production, but precisely which ones do this has not been publicly identified.

Cherries do not reduce uric acid as much as gout medications such as allopurinol, febuxostat and probenecid.

100 grams of raw red cabbage, uncooked. GI is the Glycemic Index. On the GI, low is good, medium is not bad, high is poor.

Purines: Low.Carbs: 7.4g.Fibre (fiber): 2.1g.Net carbs: 5.3g. GI: Low. Kcalories: 31.Vitamin C: 57mg.pH: Alkalising.(Alkalizing).

The GI of red cabbage is our estimate. We estimate it to be low, about the same as green cabbage. This is because the Glycemic (Glycaemic) Index depends on three factors - the amount of carbohydrates, fats, and fibres (fibers) in a food. Both fibre (fiber) and fat slow the absorption of carbohydrate. Slower absorption of carbohydrate means a lower GI number, reckoned to be better.

In red cabbage the amount of sugars (which are carbohydrates) is very similar to those in green cabbage. Red cabbage has slightly more fat than green but of course neither have very much - vegetables are not fatty foods. And both have similar amounts of fibre (fiber).

TOMATOES TO GOUT TOES?

In the centuries before the 20th, tomatoes were considered poisonous in many countries. Actually it wasn’t the tomatoes, but the tomato plant’s leaves. These days there are gout sufferers who

To raise uric acid over the years, a food must be high or moderate in purines. Or high in the sugars (which are carbohydrate) that can lead to gout over time through the insulin resistance route. Or cause dehydration, a body state that can trigger a gout attack. Caffeine, and especially alcohol, do this but tomatoes are around 90% water.

Tomatoes are low purine, and don't have many net carbs, (total carb grams minus the grams of fibre/fiber). This is the carbs number that matters. And if you prefer a low calorie/low fat diet they aren’t high in calories. If you eat more alkaline foods to alkalise (alkalize) the body in the hope of expelling more uric acid, note the pH of tomatoes (below). So their nutrition profile makes them one of the good gout diet foods, whichever kind of diet you attempt.

100 grams of raw red tomatoes, uncooked. GI is the Glycemic Index. On the GI, low is good, medium is not bad, high is poor.

Purines: Low.Carbs: 3.9g.Fibre (fiber): 1.2g.Net carbs: 2.7g. GI: Low. Kcalories: 18.pH: Raw, uncooked tomatoes are alkalising (alkalizing). If cooked, they become mildly acidic in the body once metabolized.

Other ingredients good for gout: Potassium 237mg per 100 grams.

Furthermore, a very large study of men who got gout found that the purines in fruits and vegetables (even high purine ones) do not raise the risk of gout. It was purines in other foods that do. So unless there’s something else in tomatoes which hasn’t yet been identified, it’s hard to see why they cause gout attacks.

They are of course a food (in the nightshades family) to which many are allergic. And I suppose that because they turn acidic when cooked it's remotely possible that a more acidic body might mean less uric acid is expelled. (i.e. the opposite of the alkalinity to dilute more uric acid argument). But most gout sufferers, those who do not attempt an alkaline body solution, will be eating many acidic foods. So it's hard to see only tomatoes causing the higher acidity, which leads to less uric acid expelled. And of course cooking them releases their lycopene, which is good for many health conditions, although I don't think it has any effect on the gout problem.

But if any reader is convinced tomatoes caused their gout attack, because you ate cooked tomatoes a few times before your gout attack, please tell us your story using our contact us form.