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Gout diet

The gout diet, without the guesswork

Most gout lists make eating feel like a minefield. It isn't. Of the 539 foods we grade, 264 are safe or better and only 104 are ones to truly limit. Here's the whole map.

Every food we grade, A to E Full list →
A Enjoy 222 foods B Safe 42 foods C Moderate 171 foods D Limit 81 foods E Avoid 23 foods
Look up a food Decode a whole dish Reviewed July 18, 2026

First, an honest reality check

Your body makes most of its own uric acid; food is the smaller share. A careful diet lowers it by about 1 mg/dL at most, and most people need to reach roughly 6 mg/dL to stop flares. Diet closes part of that gap; weight and, for many people, urate-lowering medication close the rest.

That doesn't make diet pointless. Eating well lowers your risk at the margin, helps with weight, and keeps you in control day to day. It just works best alongside the rest of the plan, not instead of it. Mid-attack right now? Start with what to do during a flare.

The four rules that actually matter

Most gout food lists rank by purines per 100 g and stop there. That's the wrong number. Here's what the evidence says to weigh instead, and it's exactly how we grade every food on this site.

1. The source matters more than the number

Purines from meat, seafood, and especially organ meats raise gout risk the most. The same amount of purine from vegetables, legumes, and mushrooms is linked far more weakly to flares. We weight every food by its source, so a plant and an organ meat with the same purine number don't get the same grade.

Source: Choi et al. 2004, NEJM (meat and seafood raise risk; plant purines did not)

A
Lentils
Plant · Enjoy
222 mg/100g
vs
D
Beef Liver
Organ meat · Limit
197 mg/100g

Dried lentils carry more purine per 100 g than beef liver, yet lentils grade A and liver grades D. The source is the difference.

2. Think per serving, not per 100 g

A food that looks alarming per 100 g can be modest in the amount you actually eat, and the reverse is true too. A useful working target is about 400 mg of purines a day. We score every food by its typical serving and show what share of that daily budget it uses.

Source: Japanese Guideline for Hyperuricemia and Gout (~400 mg/day purine target)

C Chicken Breast
174.9 mg/100g
One real 113 g serving 198 mg · 49% of a day
0 mg~400 mg daily limit

Keep the protein to a normal portion and even a "Moderate" food leaves most of the day's budget intact.

3. Cut the liquid triggers

Two drinks raise uric acid through routes that have nothing to do with purine counting. Alcohol (beer worst, then spirits) is an independent trigger, and sugar-sweetened drinks raise uric acid through fructose: men in the highest fructose group had roughly double the gout risk. Fruit juice belongs with the sugary drinks here, not with fruit: a daily glass of orange juice carried about 41% higher gout risk in women. Whole fruit is the safer form, though not because its sugar is different; matched dose for dose, it raises uric acid much the same. It is that you fill up on fruit long before you reach a glassful. A useful daily target is to keep added sugar under about 25 g (women) to 36 g (men). See alcohol and gout.

Source: Choi et al. 2004, Lancet (alcohol, beer worst)Choi & Curhan 2008, BMJ (fructose, ~2x risk)

E
Beer
8.5 mg/100g purine · Avoid

Alcohol raises uric acid on its own.

D
Cola / soda
0 mg/100g purine · Limit

Added fructose raises uric acid as it breaks down.

Almost no purines, and still graded down. The number on the label misses the real risk here.

4. The pattern beats any single food

The DASH eating pattern (vegetables, fruit, low-fat dairy, whole grains, less red meat and sugar) has been shown to lower uric acid in a randomized trial. Coffee and low-fat dairy are each linked to lower uric acid; hydration and a healthy weight do more than policing any one ingredient. See what actually helps.

Source: Juraschek et al. 2016, Arthritis Rheumatol (DASH randomized trial)Choi & Curhan 2007, Arthritis Rheum (coffee)

Linked to lower uric acid
A Coffee B Sweet Cherries A Yogurt

Start here

Four ways into the data, depending on what you need right now.

Foods to avoid with gout

The 104 highest-risk foods, ranked worst-first by how much purine a real serving delivers.

See what to limit →

What actually helps

The foods and habits research supports, plus an honest read on cherry juice, vinegar, and other popular remedies.

See what helps →

The full gout food list

Every food we rate, 539 in all, grouped A to E with purine and fructose data.

Open the food list →

Decode a dish or recipe

Type any meal ("butter chicken pizza") and get a portion-weighted grade with the math shown.

Try the dish decoder →

Build a day, watch the meter

You don't need a special meal plan. A normal day built from Enjoy and Safe-grade foods lands well under the recommended 400 mg of purines. Add a temptation below and watch how much room one heavy choice really takes.

Today's purines
388 / 400 mg
Right at the limit · 97%
0 mg~400 mg daily limit
Breakfast15 mg
  • Coffee0
  • Eggs0
  • Banana15
Lunch107 mg
  • Lentil salad56
  • Spinach44
  • Rice8
Dinner265 mg
  • Chicken breast198
  • Broccoli60
  • Rice8
Add a temptation and watch the meter:

A normal day, no special meal plan, lands well under the recommended 400 mg of purines.

Numbers are live from our database, against a ~400 mg/day purine target. Estimates, not medical advice. Want to build your own? Browse the foods or check any meal in the dish decoder.

Easy everyday staples

2% Milk

Milk, 2% fat

A
Purine 0.6 mg Fructose 0 g per 100 g
Enjoy Dairy & Eggs

All varieties Orange

Orange, raw, all varieties

A
Purine 19 mg Fructose 2.36 g per 100 g
Enjoy Fruit

Almonds

A
Purine 31.4 mg Fructose 2.09 g per 100 g
Enjoy Nuts & Seeds serving 28 g

American Cheese

A
Purine 7 mg Fructose 0 g per 100 g
Enjoy Dairy & Eggs

Asparagus

Asparagus, raw

A
Purine 32.9 mg Fructose 1.12 g per 100 g
Enjoy Vegetables

Avocado

Avocado, raw

A
Purine 18.4 mg Fructose 0.11 g per 100 g
Enjoy Fruit

Balsam Pear (goya)

Balsam pear (goya), raw

A
Purine 9.9 mg Fructose 1.9 g per 100 g
Enjoy Vegetables

Bamboo Shoots

Bamboo shoots, raw

A
Purine 47.2 mg Fructose 0.5 g per 100 g
Enjoy Vegetables

Go deeper

Short, sourced answers to the questions that come up most.

What to do during a flare

A calm, sourced guide to a gout attack: what helps in the moment, what to avoid, what not to do with your medication, and when to see a doctor.

What actually helps

The foods and habits research supports, plus an honest read on cherry juice, apple cider vinegar, baking soda, and other popular remedies.

Drinks and hydration

What to drink and what to skip, from coffee and water to sugary juice and sports drinks, plus how much hydration actually helps.

Medication and diet

The honest answer to why you can eat clean and still flare, and how diet and urate-lowering medication actually divide the work.

A sample day on the gout diet

A realistic full day built from our graded database that stays well within the daily purine budget, with a grocery list.

Alcohol and gout

Beer vs. wine vs. spirits, ranked by risk, and the honest answer on whether any amount is safe.

Plant vs. animal purines

Why high-purine vegetables like spinach and lentils are usually fine, while meat and seafood purines are the ones to watch.

Popular gout food questions

The foods people look up most, each with a sourced grade and the reasoning behind it.

Sources

  1. 1. Source: FitzGerald JD, et al. 2020 American College of Rheumatology Guideline for the Management of Gout. Arthritis Care Res. 2020;72(6):744–760.
  2. 2. Source: Choi HK, Atkinson K, Karlson EW, Willett W, Curhan G. Purine-rich foods, dairy and protein intake, and the risk of gout in men. N Engl J Med. 2004;350(11):1093–1103.
  3. 3. Source: Choi HK, Atkinson K, Karlson EW, Willett W, Curhan G. Alcohol intake and risk of incident gout in men: a prospective study. Lancet. 2004;363(9417):1277–1281.
  4. 4. Source: Choi HK, Curhan G. Soft drinks, fructose consumption, and the risk of gout in men: prospective cohort study. BMJ. 2008;336(7639):309–312.
  5. 5. Source: Zhang T, et al. Ultra-processed food consumption, genetic predisposition, and the risk of gout: the UK Biobank study. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2024;63(1):165–173.
  6. 6. Source: Rai SK, et al. The DASH diet, Western diet, and risk of gout in men: prospective cohort study. BMJ. 2017;357:j1794.
  7. 7. Method: Monteiro CA, et al. Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them (NOVA classification). Public Health Nutr. 2019;22(5):936–941.
  8. 8. Method: American Heart Association. Added Sugars (recommended daily limits: ~25 g/day for women, ~36 g/day for men). 2021.
  9. 9. Source: Choi HK, Curhan G. Coffee, tea, and caffeine consumption and serum uric acid level: NHANES III. Arthritis Rheum. 2007;57(5):816–821.
  10. 10. Source: Zhang Y, Neogi T, Chen C, et al. Cherry consumption and decreased risk of recurrent gout attacks. Arthritis Rheum. 2012;64(12):4004–4011.
  11. 11. Source: Zhang M, Zhang Y, Terkeltaub R, Chen C, Neogi T. Effect of Dietary and Supplemental Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids on Risk of Recurrent Gout Flares. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2019;71(9):1580–1586.
  12. 12. Source: Juraschek SP, Gelber AC, Choi HK, Appel LJ, Miller ER. Effects of the DASH Diet and Sodium Intake on Serum Uric Acid. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2016;68(12):3002–3009.
  13. 13. Method: Dietary purine target of ~400 mg/day per the Japanese Guideline for the Management of Hyperuricemia and Gout, as reviewed in: Daily Amount of Purine in Commonly Recommended Well-Balanced Diets. Nutrients. 2024.
  14. 14. Source: Major TJ, Topless RK, Dalbeth N, Merriman TR. Evaluation of the diet wide contribution to serum urate levels: meta-analysis of population based cohorts. BMJ. 2018;363:k3951.
  15. 15. Source: Lu Y, et al. Sugar-sweetened beverages and the risk of hyperuricemia and gout: a meta-analysis. Front Nutr. 2025;12:1669129.
  16. 16. Source: Shirai Y, et al. Coffee Consumption Reduces Gout Risk Independently of Serum Uric Acid Levels: Mendelian Randomization Analyses Across Ancestry Populations. ACR Open Rheumatol. 2022;4(6):534–539.
  17. 17. Source: Ayoub-Charette S, et al. Different Food Sources of Fructose-Containing Sugars and Fasting Blood Uric Acid Levels: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Controlled Feeding Trials. J Nutr. 2021;151(8):2409–2421. Sugar-sweetened beverages raised uric acid 0.42 mg/dL (substitution, GRADE high); whole fruit and dried fruit null, but on only 2–6 comparisons and not GRADE-rated. Note the dissent: in these feeding trials 100% fruit juice LOWERED fasting uric acid by 0.28 mg/dL (GRADE high), the opposite of the cohort finding below. We follow the cohorts on juice because incident gout, not fasting urate, is the outcome in question.
  18. 18. Source: White SJ, Carran EL, Reynolds AN, Haszard JJ, Venn BJ. The effects of apples and apple juice on acute plasma uric acid concentration: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2018;107(2):165–172. At a matched 26.7 g fructose dose, whole apple raised plasma urate the same as a pure fructose drink: the food matrix did not blunt the response.
  19. 19. Source: Ayoub-Charette S, et al. Important food sources of fructose-containing sugars and incident gout: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. BMJ Open. 2019;9(5):e024171. Fruit juice RR 1.77 for incident gout; whole fruit RR 0.85 but with 93% heterogeneity and very low certainty.
  20. 20. Source: Choi HK, Willett W, Curhan G. Fructose-rich beverages and risk of gout in women. JAMA. 2010;304(20):2270–2278. One glass of orange juice a day carried RR 1.41 for incident gout; two or more, RR 2.42.

Values are per 100g unless a note says otherwise, rounded to three significant figures; per-serving figures are calculated from the unrounded measurement, so recomputing from the rounded number can differ by a milligram or so. A single determination is normal in food composition tables, not a defect. Last reviewed July 18, 2026.

Not medical advice. This is general information, not a substitute for care from your doctor or dietitian. Do not start, stop, or change any medication based on this page.

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