Gout attacks, and purines in meat; the proof

Foods to Avoid if You Want to Avoid Gout Attacks
Gout Flare-ups Nearly 5 Times as Likely in People With Diets High in Some Meats, Seafood

May 30, 2012 -- If you have gout, you may want to pass on the liver and keep the anchovies off the pizza.

People who had the highest amounts of compounds called purines in their diets increased their risk of having a gout flare-up by almost five times compared to those eating the least purine-rich foods, a new study shows.

Foods with the highest purine content include liver, organ, and game meats, sardines, mussels, anchovies, herring, and beer.

Foods with moderate levels of purine include red meats, chicken, fish, asparagus, mushrooms, peas, beans, lentils, cauliflower, and spinach.

Although a purine-rich diet has long been considered a risk factor for recurrent gout attacks, this is the first large study to explore this connection and quantify it.

[...]

For the study, which appears in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, scientists tracked 633 people with gout and monitored their health online for one year. More than three-quarters of the volunteers were men, and their average age was 54.

During the study period, each person was asked to submit information about any gout attacks they had. These details included any potential triggers and dietary information for the two days leading up to the attack, their symptoms, and what drugs they were taking to manage the condition.

As a comparison, participants also provided this same information over a two-day period every three months when they did not have a gout flare-up.

Purine-rich foods can trigger a gout flare-up relatively quickly -- often within two days of eating higher amounts of them, researchers found.

The odds of a gout flare-up were greater when purine came from animal food sources than from plant sources.

"Avoiding or reducing purine-rich foods intake, especially of animal origin, may help reduce the risk of recurrent gout attacks," the study concludes.

I suspected as much. Vegetables high in purines don't trigger attacks in me, the way that certain meats, in certain quantities, will do.