How Fast Food Affects your Gout
We all know it’s bad for us but hey when we are super busy or in a rush from time to time, or it’s 3am and no other restaurants are open in town, sometimes you may have no choice but to settle for some fast food cause you do need to feed your growling stomach. From McDonalds to Burger King and Subway, gout sufferers have plentiful of choices in today’s busy world. What makes fast food so appealing is it’s low in fiber, it’s high in calories in a small volume, it’s high in fat, it’s high in sugar and most obviously it’s high in taste making fast food very addictive.
First let’s talk about the facts. Fast food or junk food if you want to call it that, may cause type 2 diabetes for gout sufferers by exerting too much stress on your metabolism affecting your body’s ability to properly use insulin. Since fast and junk food lacks fibre, by eating it, it directly spikes your sugar levels almost immediately!
Fast food may also trigger digestive problems for gout sufferers like acid reflux, which I’ve personally suffered from but keep it in check with apple cider vinegar or irritable bowel syndrome. Fast food is usually deep fried and the oil gets deposited on the walls of your stomach lining increasing your acid production. Added spices will irritate your stomach lining even more worsening your symptoms.
Fast food or junk food also increases your risk of developing heart disease since they are loaded with saturated fats and trans fats that increase bad cholesterol (LDL) levels in your blood. This will contribute to plaque formation damaging the linings of your blood vessels causing chronic inflammation and blocking blood flow to your heart potentially causing a heart attack!
Did you know that fast food consumption over a long period of time may have a similar harmful effect on your liver as alcohol consumption does? Gout sufferers take note. A study showed how a group of people who ate junk food showed big changes with their liver enzymes within only four weeks! What’s worse is that these changes were similar to those observed in people with alcohol abuse!
Furthermore, another important organ that gout sufferers desperately need to be healthy is the kidneys and fast food can also affect them. A high amount of bad fats and sodium, that fast foods carry causes hypertension from the sodium-potassium imbalance. By eating lots of finely processed salted foods, your body will begin to crave them, making these foods very addictive kinda like sugar is. The addiction to salt and salty foods is caused by the increased salivation and secretion of enzymes. Plus, don’t forget that eating lots of fast food causes a big toll on your kidneys by filtering all those nasty toxins from your blood.
In addition, fast food also causes fatigue and weakness since fast food lacks most of the essential nutrients like vitamins and minerals which are required for your overall health. It fails to provide you with instant energy making you feel tired and weak after a little while. Fast food also affects brain function triggering memory impairment in a recent study done with rats and finally fast food consumption over long periods of time can also cause cancer like colorectal and prostate cancers.
Let’s not forget obesity being another consequence of eating fast food with most meals exceeding 1000 calories and over 65 grams of fat! That’s right! One burger, order of fries and glass of cola will exceed 1000 calories which is more than half the average person’s caloric needs. Most soft drinks contain more than 200 calories while water has zero! Plus you’ll skip out on all that high fructose corn syrup that is may be very devastating to your gout.
So what can you do?
Try and choose fast food restaurants that have healthier choices opting for ingredients that offer nutrients and avoid sweetened sugary beverages. Opt for water instead. Choose the salad, wrap, pizza or if you want meat, choose it to be grilled instead, which is lower in fat. Choose to put your own condiments on your own food rather than taking whatever the meal is served with saving you lots of calories, fat and sugar.
I’ll eat a fast food meal maybe once every blue moon, it is very rare cause studies show that health problems can begin by eating fast food more than two times a week. That’s right! Eating fast food only twice a week is cause for concern and can lead to any of the diseases mentioned above. Although sometimes you may have no other choice and have to settle for some fast food, do your best to avoid it.
18 replies to "Gout and Fast Food"
Yes sir help me out quite a bit! So I’ve only had two major gout attacks. Over the last probably seven years. Very swollen feet, at least I think it’s gout, haven’t been tested yet for uric acid levels to see what it is. But surely the symptoms seem like it and my feet stay numb most of the time.
So sounds like gout to me, I don’t know maybe you’d like to comment on that and send me back up reply on whether you think that would be it or not! I still will talk to my doctor I just went through a whole series of blood tests and nothing came up about anything like that. Lots and lots of blood tests nothing about that, but didn’t have access to alcohol like I do now. So anyhow thank you again, sincerely, Michael
Hi Michael!
I can’t diagnose you, it could be gout and it might not. Blood test will tell. If uric acid is not high to cause gout, then it’s definitely something else. Ask your doctor.
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Hi, I just want to find out – my uric acid levels are quite high but I started changing my whole diet and drink about 3 litres of water daily. Can I have pizza once in a while? I exercise 5 days a week and do cycling over weekends, I just want to know whether my life is over or not haha. I also read that Allopurinol is bad for the liver, I am only 28 so if I take it for the rest of my life will it be bad? Thanks for the awesome website!
Hi Ruan!
Yes you can have pizza but try and have whole grain bread instead of the white refined dough. Also skip the pepperoni! I only eat vegetarian, cheese & tomatoe, mushrooms pizza. I skip the meat!
As for the allopurinol, you can take NutriGout which has ingredients that are meant to cleanse the liver and kidneys to keep it strong and healthy. Check it out!
Thanks Spiro. I have tried everything and my levels just rise. No more meat or alcohol or sugar, but it rises. I have drastically started to lose weight, which I read might be a cause in spiking UA levels, but I dont know if it spikes it to above 7? Anyways thanks for the advice, I guess I will go on Allopurinol at the age of 28 I just hope it does not cause damage when I am older. Have you heard of the “new” Uloric drug? Is it safer? Glad to know Im not alone in this…thanks
Hi Ruan!
Uloric is prescribed when allopurinol is not as effective towards lowering uric acid. Learn more about it on this post–>https://goutandyou.com/gout-and-febuxostat/
Ryan time to change your diet and lifestyle and you’ll be fine and live a long life! But you have to start from somewhere and take that first step.
Good luck!
Hi.
Newbie here and new to gout. Just been diagnosed with it after having severe big toe pain. I know the root of the issue, new job, eating crap and too many high sugar drinks and a few beers now and again,,,
My question is.. I am going on holiday in 10 days and will want to have a couple of drinks still – what advice can you give me in terms of what to drink.. Thanks in advance!
Hi Jim!
Be scared. You don’t want to experience a gout attack in another country, where you will be bedridden while everybody is out having fun. If you take your allopurinol and your gout is under control, then feel free to have couple drinks with lots of water before and water. If not, then tread carefully, I would just have 1 a day and sip it very slowly. If you could avoid it completely even better! The best thing to do is ask your doctor for colchicine and take one each day only while on vacation for the 10 days while taking your regular allopurinol or Uloric prescription. Then chances are very slim, you can even have a bit more. Make sure to check out my travel and gout article too–>https://goutandyou.com/gout-and-travel/
Hi, I keep getting contradicting advice online regarding bread and pasta. Some say that you should eat refined (white) and others say whole-grain or whole wheat. At the same time, people say that you should stay away from refined and others say you should stay away from whole-wheat. At this time, it feels like I cannot eat anything. My levels are high 7, and I stopped drinking.
Hi Ruan!
We have been eating whole wheat for thousands of years as humans and we have been eating refined (white) pasta for about 100 years. That should answer your question.
Spyro ,
Do Chicken can be bad for gout too ???
Thanks Rolo
Hi Rolando!
Check out my post about Gout and Chicken–>https://goutandyou.com/gout-and-chicken/
Listen you can eat chicken but I prefer you eat lean chicken breast, avoid the fat. Eat no more than 10% of your daily calories as protein from meat, so about 200 calories, we are talking about 4 to 6 ounces.
[…] out – If you love eating out, then you should learn to do it right. The first thing is to avoid fast foods and processed fruit juices. Then when serving, fill up your plate with green veggies, and clear […]
Hi Spiro!
Can you help me by answering these questions? Thanks for all you do!
1. I do get Gout when having red meat and Alcohol weekly, so my question is, which one contains more of the uric Acid? Alcohol or the red meat?
2. Can you help me name some of the food stuff that contains uric Acid?
3. Which food is best to take to reduce uric Acid?
4. I take indocide tablets to kill the pain, and it helps me a lot but am concern of the side effects, can you explain abit on that?
5. Is Gout a serious disease in life?
6. How do I get rid of uric Acid in the body? Is it true that by drinking a lot of water can help?
7. Gout supposed to be on my toes but, sometimes it happens on my knees, elbow and now its on my wrist. Why ?
8.I want to stay at least a year without Alcohol and red meat to avoid Gout so, is this the right thing to do?
9. Do I need to lose some weight,? My weight is 120kgs. I don’t do exercise.?
10. Is making love another contributing factor for Gout?
Regards,
Philip Walo
Wow Philip! I got my work cut out for me! LOL
ok to answer your questions here we go:
1. both are bad for your gout, alcohol worse. Try and avoid them, if anything have a steak and beer like once a month.
2. Nothing contains uric acid, you mean purines. For more detailed study on purines read my post here–> https://goutandyou.com/purines/
3. Mostly herbs and spices like chanca piedra, dandelions, celery and celery seeds, turmeric, ginger, milk thistle, vitamin C, cherries…
4. I am not a doctor so can’t comment on prescription drugs, best to speak to your doctor if you experience any side effects.
5. Yeah it is. Usually it’s a bad sign of other bad diseases to come. Gout sufferers are at a higher risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis down the road if not careful with their health.
6. Yes the more water you drink the more uric acid your body expels via the urine. Again eating foods listed in answer #3 will help too.
7. That means it’s spreading to other joints as well, also means your uric acid is higher than average gout sufferer. You need to speak to your doctor who may increase your dosage.
8. Yes do it!
9. Best to lose the excess weight and remain your ideal weight, this will help lower uric acid in your blood helping your gout. Start exercising, even walking 30 minutes. a day will do wonders.
10. Nope sex has nothing to do with it.
Thanks for the questions and good luck!
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Again, thanks for the timely info. It’s almost to the point, no matter what we eat, it’s going to cause some type of problem. I feel at this point, we must eat try to eat as wisely as we can but don’t stress over it too much or you’lol drive yourself crazy.