Thursday, June 18, 2009

Your diet is causing you pain

By Kathy Nelson

Many people who suffer from the condition known as gout have found that by making changes to their dietary habits has helped to reduce the sudden pain that they feel. Therefore if you are a person who suffers from this condition it is important that you have the correct kind of gout diet in place.

When you have to much uric acid in your body it will crystallize around your joints and cause them to become inflamed and painful, this condition is known as gout. If your diet is high in purines and protein then there is a good chance that you will have an attack of gout at some point.

If you suffer from gout then your diet is far more important to your health than most people realize, eating foods that are high in purines will result in increased levels of Gout attacks. Some of the foods that you should avoid include liver, kidneys, brains and game meat.

Your gout pain is finally so bad that you are willing to change your diet, the first think you should do is look at the diary of your eating and drinking habits for the last month. If you don't have a diary of eating habits then you should keep one for the next week at least.

Eat your vegetables , they are good for you. How many times have we all heard that as children, well Gout is one of the few diseases where some vegetables could actually be causing you pain. You should start cutting down on your intake of corn, peas and potatoes as soon as possible.

All liquids are not created equal in terms of the effect they will have on your gout. Beer is the worst item for someone with gout to consume, while any alcohol is not ideal. Most of us don't drink enough water , this affects all of us but especially someone with gout. Gout sufferers should try to drink 8 glasses of water a day.

Along with knowing which foods you should be including in your gout diet it is important to also know the kinds of foods that you should be avoiding. The main foods that one should be avoiding because they contain high levels of both protein and purine are beef, pork, chicken, turkey, tuna, salmon, cream, eggs and beans. If you can eliminate these from your diet along with many different types of vegetable oils, offal (kidneys and liver) you will find that the chances of your condition becoming worse are greatly reduced.

You can reduce your gout attacks and the severity of them over time just by making changes to your diet and increasing your water intake. These dietary changes will not only help reduce your gout pain they will also help you feel better in yourself. Constant pain of gout is something that will affect your way of living and you can improve this dramatically just by a few simple changes in eating habits.

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