Ground Beef & Gout

Ground Beef & Gout Introduction

This started from an old discussion with a Romanian gout sufferer. And ends with your decision about how much ground beef to include in your gout-friendly eating plan. Followed by resources to support your personal plan for food-based gout improvement.

Purpose of Ground Beef & Gout

I wrote this article to help GoutPal Foodies resolve their food concerns about gout. So it does not consider uric acid, which is covered in GoutPal Dieter Plans. You can use this information to discuss ground beef with your dietitian or other health professionals. Because the purpose of GoutPal is to help you build better relationships with your professional advisers.

My original article about ground beef & gout was based on a discussion with a Romanian gout sufferer^[1]. But in that country and elsewhere, ground beef is referred to as "minced beef". Anyway, since that article, there have been many changes to national gout guidelines. Also, many changes to my approach to helping gout sufferers.

So now, I call gout sufferers who mostly consider food-based solutions "GoutPal Foodies". And I advise Foodies to stop obsessing about single food items. Because you need to start with a healthy eating plan. By which I mean a plan that first provides nutrients balanced across the main food groups. But it is not my job to interpret national healthy eating guidelines. So you should consult your dietitian or doctor to determine your personal healthy eating patterns. Only then, can you adapt your healthy eating plan for better gout control. By which time, you should start considering uric acid and switch to a "GoutPal Dieters" plan.

Is your ground beef intake within maximum guidelines? You can only answer this by analyzing your total weekly red meat intake. If too high, reduce red meat consumption (see forum quotes below). Otherwise, look at other food groups in your healthy eating plan.

Ground Beef Alternatives for Gout

Gout sufferers who are concerned about their ground beef intake often look for alternatives. However, the choice of beef substitute is totally dependent on personal food preferences.

Our original discussion considered chicken as an alternative for beef. And a separate ground beef discussion considered turkey as an alternative^[2]: I personally modified my diet to eat less red meat (~1/3 as often and that is mostly by substituting ground turkey for ground beef).

Later, I joined another ground beef & gout discussion with: ^[3]: slow gradual changes are often very successful. For example, I started adding increased amounts of vegetables to casseroles, ground meat dishes, etc. I also gradually introduced tasty vegetarian meals.

But I believe that alternatives can only be considered by professional analysis of your total weekly food intake. So you need to discuss the best way to improve your total food intake with your dietitian.

Related Ground Beef & Gout Concerns

Other Beef Cuts and Gout

The original discussion attracted many GoutPal Foodies looking for information about beef tendon. But we never discussed it. Because search engines got fooled by an unrelated link to tendon information. So this shows how easy it is to lose focus by trying to compare different cuts of meat. Whereas, the sensible approach is to keep your total meat intake within national healthy eating guidelines. If that doesn't help, consider moving to a GoutPal Dieters plan. But only if you are prepared to monitor uric acid changes in response to your diet changes.

Beef Purines and Gout

There is a belief that grinding beef might change the purine content of food. Yet there is no evidence to support this. However, I did find relevant research into meat preparation^[4]: rinsing foods in water effectively reduces total purine content and subsequent cooking after rinsing results in an even greater reduction of total purine content.

Ground Beef & Your Gout

You should now see there is no need to discuss ground beef with your dietitian or other health professional. Because total meat consumption is more important than specific cuts of meat. Especially red meat consumption. Indeed, you must refine your concerns about ground beef and gout. Because you need to be concerned with establishing healthy eating patterns. Then your concern changes to, "I know my meat consumption is generally healthy. But can I change the ground beef element for something more gout-friendly?"

If your ground beef consumption exceeds national guidelines, you should reduce it. But if you are already limiting meat intake to national guidelines, then you should start discussing other food groups with your dietitian.

Please note that I am considering summarizing national guidelines for healthy eating patterns. Because that will allow you to prepare better gout questions about your food intake. So please tell me what would help you most (see Feedback below).

Leave Ground Beef & Gout to browse the Gout and Uric Acid Blog. Or return to your GoutPal Foodies Plan.

Ground Beef & Gout Feedback

Please share your thoughts about this page at Ground Beef & Gout Issue. To discuss other gout concerns, use the feedback link for the most relevant page. But if you just want to chat with other gout sufferers about ground beef, use GoutPal's Gout Discussions.

Ground Beef & Gout References

Keith Taylor. "Is Minced Meat Food To Avoid With Gout?" Mar 15 2007. Ground Beef & Gout Archive.
GoutPal Forum User @tavery. "Reply to How long to persevere with Allopurinol." Jan 18 2010. Turkey alternative to beef GoutPal Forums Archive.
Keith Taylor. "Ground Beef and Gout Discussion." Nov 28 2016. Ground Beef and Gout Discussion GoutPal Forums Archive.
Ellington, Anna. "Reduction of purine content in commonly consumed meat products through rinsing and cooking." PhD diss., uga, 2007.