Parsley: Should It Be In Your Gout Diet?

Parsley has been cultivated for over 2000 years and is native to the Mediterranean region of Southern Europe. Parsley was first used as medicine before being consumed as a food. Parsley is a part of the carrot family and you’ll usually find two types, the curly parsley or Italian parsley also known as flat leaf. Parsley is mostly known as a food garnish for seasonings, salads or soups but this herb goes further than that by offering health benefits and benefits to gout sufferers.

Parsley is low purine, fat-free providing only 3 calories per 2 tablespoons of the herb and it’s very low in sodium which is great for people who suffer from heart conditions, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Furthermore, parsley is rich in many vitamins that your body needs like Vitamin C, B12, K, A and minerals like folic acid, iron, magnesium and potassium. This means parsley may do all kinds of good things to your body like helping  keeping your immune system strong, may help maintain strong bones, may help heal your nervous system, may help maintain good eyesight and proper blood clotting in your body, it even freshens your bad breath!

Parsley for your gout

So how does parsley relate to my gout condition you ask? Like celery, parsley may act as a natural diuretic which can help your body flush out excess uric acid from your bloodstream through your kidneys and urinary tract, thus supporting healthy kidney function. It may help to facilitate in the passing of the kidney stones, again from the diuretic effect that parsley produces which essentially means that it increases the excretion of fluid in the urinary tract, cleansing the body of those dreaded kidney stones.

Note also that parsley is a acid-alkaline food that is good for your body’s pH level, that’s good for your gout. Chlorophyll gives parsley, and other green plants, its green color and chlorophyll, together with parsley’s minerals (calcium, zinc, magnesium, and especially potassium), to promoting parsley as an alkaline-effect food.

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Apigenin: Potential for a gout cure?

A certain bioflavonoid flavone in parsley called apigenin may be responsible for all the action in supporting healthy uric acid in your body and it’s still being researched as a potential gout cure. In a study it has been found that apigenin inhibits xanthine oxidase or XO; which is the enzyme responsible for converting purines into uric acid, the same way the drug allopurinol works.

Another flavonoid called luteolin has also been found to be an inhibitor of xanthine oxidase, but a rather weak one. Other studies have found it to be a strong inflammatory. You may use parsley daily to in order to get relief from joint pain. Note parsley’s folic acid may also help control uric acid but in 100 grams of parsley it is not considered enough. If you don’t like the taste, you can consider parsley supplements that can easily be found on Amazon!

So don’t use parsley as food decoration, make sure to include it in your gout diet and make sure to talk to your doctor if you plan on using parsley to help manage uric acid levels since in some people it may cause side effects such as nausea, headaches, hives and even liver damage in some cases.

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