Does meat really cause gout? (surprising study)

Gout is caused by the accumulation of urate crystals in our joints when there’s too much uric acid in our blood, a condition known as hyperuricemia.

The first thing you were probably told to do when diagnosed with gout was to cut down on meat, especially red meat because that’s very high in uric acid.

Here’s the dilemma: if meat was really the cause of gout, then vegetarians would never develop gout, right?

A new study in the Journal of the Chinese Medical Association put this common-sense question to a test and the results were surprising.

Conducted between 2005 and 2016, this study aimed to create prediction models for hyperuricemia among vegetarians.

The scientists recruited a big sample of 7,331 adult vegetarians, 593 with hyperuricemia and 6,738 with normal uric acid levels. This proves clearly that, while a vegetarian diet is generally beneficial, it doesn’t entirely eliminate the risk, with around 92% of vegetarians still being at risk of gout.

Digging deeper into the risk factors, the study uncovered the following as potential risk factors for hyperuricemia in vegetarians.

1. Male gender.
2. High levels of fats in the blood.
3. High body mass index score.
4. High albumin in the blood, which is a category of protein that regulates blood pressure and transports nutrients around our bodies.

On the flip side, a higher estimated glomerular filtration rate, which indicates better kidney function, was linked with a lower risk of hyperuricemia in vegetarians.

The implication of this finding is that, while adopting a vegetarian diet is a step in the right direction for managing gout and hyperuricemia, it’s not a foolproof strategy.

This should perhaps not be surprising, as vegetarian diets can be very unhealthy if sugary treats, refined carbohydrates, hydrogenated fats, and salty canned and packaged foods are included in them.

Another reason why a vegetarian diet isn’t foolproof is that only a small percent of gout cases is caused by consuming too much uric acid. The real underlying mechanism of gout is your body’s inability to remove uric acid from your body.

Addressing this issue, thousands of readers have healed their gout using the simple steps explained here…