Indulging too much in certain foods and beverages that contain high amounts of a substance called purine can cause your body to produce excess uric acid during the digestive process. If that happens, you could get gout -- a type of arthritis that can cause excruciating pain. Avoiding foods and beverages that are high in purine can help you prevent gout or reduce the severity of a gout attack, the Mayo Clinic says.
Meats
All animal proteins contain purine, and many meats contain high levels of purine, the Mayo Clinic says. So if you're hoping to avoid gout, limit your meat intake to between 4 and 6 oz. of meat per day, according to the Mayo Clinic. The Arthritis Foundation says that meats with a particularly high purine content include turkey, bacon, liver, veal and venison. The Mayo Clinic advises avoiding or limiting beef and pork because of their high purine content, as well.
Seafood
Many types of seafood contain purine, according to the Arthritis Foundation, which recommends avoiding or limiting herring, scallops, trout, haddock, codfish, mussels, sardines and anchovies. The Mayo Clinic says that tuna, lobster, shrimp and mackerel also contain high levels of purine, and recommends limiting seafood intake to between 4 and 6 oz. of seafood per day, just like meats.
Alcohol
All types of alcoholic beverages are high in purine, according to the Arthritis Foundation. Beer and grain alcohol contain especially high amounts of purine, the Gout and Uric Acid Education Society says. Drinking beer has been linked with gout attacks, says the Mayo Clinic, which urges those who are suffering from a gout attack to avoid drinking any alcohol while their gout is flaring up. If you're not going through a gout attack, the Mayo Clinic says, you can drink one or two 5 oz. servings of wine per day without significantly increasing your gout risk. But since alcohol interferes with your body's ability to eliminate uric acid, you should drink between eight and 16 8-oz. glasses of water each every day to help flush out excess uric acid, according to the Mayo Clinic.
