5 Holiday Foods That Cause Gout

While holidays bring festive decant feasts can bring on some extra pounds, they can also pack an excruciating painful punch to the joints of the foot from a condition called gout.

Gout is an inflammatory problem where sharp needle-like uric acid crystals form inside of a joint (most commonly the big toe joint).  The result is significant pain, redness, swelling and warmth to the affected joint. The symptoms could be so severe that they can limit the ability to walk on the foot and can land you in the emergency room, especially if you’ve never experienced gout before.  

In the long term, gout can have disastrous effects of joints and cause gouty arthritis.  In surgery, the uric acid crystals are actually visible. The crystals act as sandpaper within the joint and lump together forming a gouty tophus.  


How Do Holiday Foods Cause Gout? 

The cause of gout is due to purine accumulation within the body that ultimately breaks down into uric acid (the needle crystals that seep into the joint).   While purines are naturally occurring in the body (they make up our genetic DNA), ingesting foods high in purines can predispose a gout attack.  
Purines are present in BOTH meats and vegetables, with specific foods being worse than others.  It turns out some of the foods we love to indulge in during the holidays are full of purines, which then breakdown to gout forming uric acid.   It's one to thing to eat one of these offending foods, but holiday meals tend to be packed with several dishes of purine high food, which can overload the system and induce a gouty attack.  


While there’s a long list of purine-rich foods that can precipitate a gout attack, some of the top offenders are as follows:

Alcohol

Alcohol is a well known trigger for gout.  Beer has increased risk when compared to wine and spirits.   Alcohol can interfere with the body’s ability to eliminate the gout inducing uric acid as well as increase its production.  Those with active gout should avoid alcohol altogether.  Instead, drinking water instead can help flush uric acid from your system. 

Asparagus

Vegetables can also pack a purine punch, though don’t seem to be quite as ‘bad’ as meats.  Asparagus is a well known culprit.  Substituting asparagus for another vegetable may be a good choice.  However, the following vegetables are also considered higher purine vegetables and should be moderated if you are on a low purine diet: artichokes, brussel sprouts, spinach and cauliflower.  Salad vegetables tend be the lowest purine containing veggies (tomatoes, carrots).

Shellfish

While holiday meals tend to be animal-protein heavy many people include shellfish as appetizers.  Shellfish, in general, are purine-rich foods.  Scallops and mussels are considered high purine whereas shrimp and lobster are moderate purine foods.  Those with active gout should steer clear of shellfish altogether.  Be careful when substituting other seafood because sardines, scallops and anchovies also are purine high foods. 

Mushrooms

Mushrooms, which are not plant or vegetable, but a type of fungus also contains purines, and are also on the food to avoid with gout list.  However, while mushrooms are high in purines some controversy exists as to whether of not they possess of increased gout risk - see study by Choi.  

Meats & Turkey

All animal proteins (meats) are purine rich, though some are worse than others.  Organ meats (i.e., liver) are the highest.  Sorry thanksgiving turkey, but turkey is another high purine meat.  Beef is a lower risk.  Chicken is a safer meat choice and white meat is prefered as dark meat has a higher fat content (which can make the kidneys less efficient at excreting the uric acid).  People with gout who are on a low-purine diet and substitute animal based proteins for tofu.