Could Unsweetened Drinks Save You Some Pain?
Maybe so. In a study, the more of a common soft-drink sweetener called fructose that men consumed, the greater their chances of gout.
Substance Surplus
Gout is characterized by sharp crystals that form in the foot or leg joints — the big toe most often — causing sudden and severe pain.
Fructose may be a factor in the disease, because it increases uric acid in the body — and too much uric acid can set off the gout-provoking process. Go really overboard on soft drinks and the risk of gout may skyrocket — as much as 85 percent higher in a recent study. But tea doesn’t appear to affect risk. And coffee may even reduce it!
Don’t Let Gout Get You
Here’s what else you can do to keep gout out of your future:
Lay off the surf ’n’ turf.
Keep your weight in check.
Cut back on the booze.
Land and Sea and bees knees.
Eating foods that are high in a protein called purine — such as a seafood and steak dinner washed down with a cold beer — can bring on gout, a particularly painful type of arthritis that primarily attacks leg and foot joints. If family history makes arthritis a potential hazard, turns out you can slash your risk of gout by eating more low-fat dairy foods (string cheese, yogurt, milk) and less surf and turf.
An overload of foods high in purine is a requirement for gout. Your body converts purine into uric acid, a waste product that’s normally eliminated through your kidneys. But when there’s too much uric acid in your system, it forms tiny, sharp crystals that take up residence in the lower leg and foot joints (the big toe is a favorite site), causing intense pain, redness, and swelling. People with certain inherited characteristics linked to rheumatoid arthritis are prone to uric acid buildup and gout.
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