What can vegetarian gout sufferers eat?

[vegylady]

I m vegetarian, female, 66 and just had my first gout flare.

Totally unprepared for this; very confused about food and nutrition.

Not on meds until I find out if I’m to be more afflicted. Stopped beer and most wine; no more thiazide for BP, also too many veg protein staples are high purine so struggling there with what to eat.

Drinking tart cherry juice daily. Trying to lose more weight, dont know if any of this will help.

All kinds of questions about inflammation and other illness relationships.Too much conflicting info around, no good source to advise. This site is good but very busy; hard to sort out info, synthesize key points, get questions answered. Am in a state of panic.

[Keith Taylor]

I’ll cover your last paragraph first.

You are right about conflicting information. I always intended GoutPal to be the most reliable source for gout facts. I must be vigilant as information can go out of date, when new treatments and new recommendations are developed.

I urge all visitors to report conflicts, but please supply the details. Post the exact details of the conflict, and we can investigate. I can make corrections to GoutPal if it is wrong. General improvements are harder. I used to think I could provide set guidelines for all gouty circumstances. I now realize that is impossible, as gout must be managed on a case-by-case basis.

That means taking general guidelines, and applying them to your unique situation. It’s best to start by updating your personal gout profile as often as you can. That means adding new facts as you get test results, or as you learn new science that is relevant to you. It also helps to make a note of important questions. In that way, when you login and ask a question, people who want to help can make their responses relevant to you.

Without your personal gout facts, we are left with general responses. Such responses can be true, but they might not be relevant to you.

My general responses to your other paragraphs are:
1) Very few people are prepared for gout. You can ease the confusion about food and nutrition by realizing that gout diet is a part of gout treatment. That means deciding between short-term pain control, long-term uric acid control, or both. I urge you to login, and edit your profile to state which options are important to you now. You can change your profile whenever your priorities change.

2)It’s good to delay medication until you are more certain what is right. I think it is wrong to wait until you become more afflicted by gout, as this just makes it harder to control.
Beer and wine affect gout sufferers differently. You need to measure the affects on you, rather than make random changes.
Vegetable purines do not readily convert to uric acid, and animal purines are not relevant to you. Except that purines from your own flesh can form uric acid, so weight control *might* be an issue. You need to review the 5 foods that are bad for gout in relation to your own current eating habits: http://www.goutpal.com/gout-diet/what-foods-cause-gout/

3)Cherry juice and weight loss help many gout sufferers, but will they help you? How are you tracking if these changes are helping? What regime do you have for recording gout attacks and uric acid levels?

You can choose now whether to take control, or let your gout get worse.

If you want to take control, you need to decide your personal mix of meds v lifestyle changes. You also need to decide the relative importance of pain control vs uric acid control. These are the key choices that all gout sufferers must make. Record your choices in your profile, then we can focus on specific changes that will improve your quality of life.

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