Julie Bove wrote:
>
> I have to cook for a person with gout. And his favorite foods are the worst
> ones for it. Asparagus, red meat and seafood. And I was unwittingly
> serving the wrong things. Chicken with mushroom sauce. The chicken may
> have been okay but apparently mushrooms are not. And I've been making a lot
> of dried beans because they're cheap. Oops!

What's wrong with asparagus? It's meat, eggs, and cheese
that you've got to watch out for.

> I know that most fruit and vegetables are good. Spinach is not. I know
> that whole grains are good and that tofu might be okay. Eggs might be okay.
> But some people react to them.

What's wrong with spinach? I think you're confusing gout
with kidney stones. Gout can cause kidney stones, but
it's a different type of stone than the ones caused by
eating spinach.

Eggs are definitely NOT okay. Tofu is bad, but not
as bad as meat and eggs. Anything that's high in protein
is a potential problem.

> I am just kind of stumped when it comes to protein. I've been serving
> chicken and turkey but I'm sure that will get old. I have seen mixed things
> about cheese. Does cheese bother you?

Yes, cheese is no good when it comes to gout. Hard,
fermented cheeses are worse than fatty fresh cheeses.
Chicken and turkey, like all meats, are bad.

> What can I fix? Luckily this person isn't a picky eater. Just prefers the
> foods that are the worst for gout. Exception being fruit. He is a big
> fruit eater. Guess I need to buy more.

All vegetables, fruit, and carbs are fine. The foods
which must be restricted are meat, eggs, and cheese.

Gout is caused by build-up of the waste products of
metabolizing organic nitrogen, which comes mostly from
protein. Normally, this is processed into urea which
then goes out in the urine. But if the level of urea
gets too high, it is converted into uric acid which gets
deposited as crystals in the joints, which is gout.

The best way to handle gout by far is PREVENTION. It's
so easy to get gout and so painful to suffer through.
Nearly all of my gout attacks were preceded by
overindulging in meat. I remember many times thinking
"I wonder if this will give me gout", and pretty much
every time the answer was YES. I'm reeeaaallly careful
to watch my meat consumption nowdays.

I've tried the alleged cherry juice remedy. Didn't do
a thing for me.