Is a Paleo Diet Good for Your Gout?
There are many websites on gout that claim that a Paleo diet or Paleolithic is a good and healthy diet that can help beat your gout, some even claim that a Paleo diet can even cure it! A Paleo diet consists of what cavemen ate 10,000 years ago as hunter-gatherers which was basically meat. The diet does include eating fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and so on but forbids dairy and whole grains, so you can the confusion and misinformation this can cause somebody but primarily in a Paleo diet you got to eat meat in almost every meal. Anthropologists suggest this claim about our ancestors as flawed. Carbohydrates as in plant food was much more accessible, available, consistent and stable compared to moving animals.
Some nutbars out there also claim that a Paleo diet is an excellent anti-inflammatory gout diet which will minimize the pain and recurrence of gout as well, it may lower uric acid levels since it’s alkaline making your body less acidic. Others claim that vegetables that are high in purines are the problem and not meat. It gets funnier and the propaganda continues, claiming that meat is getting a bad wrap because it’s usually accompanied with sugary beverages like a big Coke or Pepsi.
Now it is true and I have covered it in past posts how sugar and glucose are bad for gout sufferers and worsens your gout. Paleo diet proponents deflect any causality that too much meat can be the culprit and blame other foods as a probable cause for the development of gout although they never back up their claims with any scientific research! At least my claims are backed up by research as you can see from most of my posts and gout research with meat intake has been proven over and over to raise uric acid levels, increasing the risk of a gout attack. So let’s stop the deception and disinformation!
Furthermore, some of their leaders don’t have the best health track record either following this diet. Seth Roberts collapsed while hiking and was only 60 years old. It was later determined that coronary artery disease contributed to his death, so much for the good ‘ol Paleo diet making you healthier. Adelle Davis who is known as probably the most important nutritionist in the 1970s was also criticized for promoting this potentially lethal diet harming people’s health. She died at age 70 from multiple myeloma.
Setting the Record Straight
In addition, there are many,many, many studies that prove that a higher meat intake increases your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome which gout is a part of and certain cancers. Carbohydrate eaters or plant-based eaters experience the opposite like it may control cholesterol, support healthy blood sugar levels, support healthy uric acid levels, may lower health issues with their heart and may lower overall mortality. In short they live longer!
Besides plant-based/complex carbohydrate diets meet all of our nutrition needs. You don’t even need meat to tell you the truth, although I eat meat from time to time cause I like to have some. I have nothing against meat except that if you suffer from gout, you watch your daily intake. Even if you don’t suffer from gout, I strongly recommend that you don’t eat more than 4 ounces of meat a day. Skip a few days of meat, it won’t hurt you one bit! You’ll have more energy, don’t take my word for it, you give it a try and see for yourself.
Meat takes longer to break down compared to complex carbohydrates which burn clean. Don’t you get that feeling of bloatedness and tiredness after eating a lot of meat. That’s because your body worked overtime to break it all down for you and digest it. Two of the most important nutrients that you require for optimal health are fiber and phytochemicals which meat has absolutely none. Did you know that if everybody on earth would follow the Paleo diet, we would need the full resources of two Earths!
These Paleo diet proponents gotta stop believing in unicorns, they don’t exist, their facts are based on nothing and their research can’t be backed up. So drop the bacon and stop listening to these fools because your health depends on it.