Gout Pal Interactive

He agrees that diet can only reduce UA by about 1.0, so don't rely on diet too much.  He said the typical avoid red meat, shell fish, alcohol.  But also suggested Vitamin C and skim dairy.  GP has a nice article on the site about vitamin c and a study indicating in tests it reduced UA by about .5 over some time (if I understood the article properly).  I've had others say skim dairy can help too.  I think it might be because it balances alkalinity.  Skim milk, yogurt, sour cream.  Yogurt with live culture has the additional benefit of adding good probiotics to your system- especially helpful if you've been on an antibiotics which kills the good and bad and your stomach needs some of the good kind to process food.

Anyway, I have found that a fruit smoothie most mornings helps me feel a little better overall.  Both my kids worked at Jamba Juice for a while, so we have gotten pretty good at making them at home. Thought I'd share what we do.  Nothing really has to be measured and you can use various ingredients, but its a healthy start to the day.

I like to do a banana or two and an orange, about a cup of plain or vanilla yogurt (too much makes the texture gloopy), some kind of liquid- skim milk or orange juice– maybe 2-4 cups, sweeten with a couple tablespoons of  honey or xagave nectar (you can use sugar, but honey is better for you) frozen fruit– strawberries are the best, pineapple, bananas, peaches, anything is fine- if I use blueberries, cherries, or raspberries, I don't use much because the skin or seeds ruins the texture.  Put the frozen fruit in last or it will jam your blender.  Mix it up. If too thick add liquid- too thin- add frozen fruit. I make a full blender and freeze in a tupperware container what I don't drink. Then thaw it out later for a few minutes on low power in the microwave- put in a large cup and stir it up and the texture is just like fresh.  I also will often put in “macro greens” which you can find on lines (seems pricey, but lasts a very long time).  A little teaspoon full of this green powder gives you a couple servings of vegetables and I don't get enough of those usually.  I tend to put in less macro greens than they suggest – that way, it has no taste at all.  You have to have a fairly strong blender.  Takes about 5 minutes to make;  I usually drink as breakfast while I drive to work.

I have my doubts about Vitamin C but am willing to dabble with the 500 mg. until I get a solid reference one way or the other.

Here's another shred of evidence from an ancient study from the Journal of Biological Chemistry (1952)

http://www.jbc.org/content/201…..7.full.pdf

SUMMARY

A study has been made on the relationship between l-ascorbic acid and

purine catabolism

in

vivo. High levels of ascorbic acid administered to

guinea pigs inhibit their liver xanthine oxidase activities to a minor degree.

Blood levels and rates of excretion of uric acid and allantoin, however, are

independent of the ascorbic acid intake.