Are Low Purine Gout Diets Good?
Unfortunately the diet customarily recommended for gout is completely restricting purines, the substances in cell nuclei from which uric acid is formed; hence it is made up of foods which contain few cells. Because liver, yeast, wheat germ, and whole-grain breads and cereals are forbidden in these diets, they are extremely deficient in B vitamins and almost devoid of vitamin E and pantothenic acid. Medical investigators now agree that the tiny amount of uric acid in foods is insignificant; and that the uric acid which causes gout is formed in the body from the breakdown of tissue proteins and has never been proven to come from foods. On a low purine diet, not only does the stress and the pain of gout quickly exhaust the adrenals, but also inflammation caused by the uric-acid crystals invariably indicates that not enough cortisone is being produced. Giving cortisone has proved to be of great value. So, a diet that helps the adrenals produce cortisone by eating large amounts of liver, ye
