If King Henry VIII Tudor had given the order to cooks to cook dishes without meat, he probably would not have suffered from gout attacks. Researchers at Fuzhen Catholic University in Taiwan have looked at how our dietary habits affect joint health and have found that those who choose a vegetarian diet have a lower risk of developing so-called "royal disease".
Fuzhen experts interviewed 13,935 people about their diet and compared them with the medical records of the survey participants. The study was conducted from 2005 to 2014, with 4903 participants monitored for uric acid levels.
With a high level of uric acid in the blood, salts are formed, which accumulate in soft tissues and joints, as a result of which they cause inflammation and painful symptoms of gout. In the course of the study, it was found that ovolactic vegetarians (their diet includes not only plant foods, but also milk and eggs) the lowest level of uric acid. They were followed by vegans and then meat eaters (also read: "Tibetan Medicine: Good Nutrition and Good Food Combinations").
“We found a significant difference in uric acid concentration between ovolacto-vegetarians and non-vegetarians in both men and women,” the authors emphasize. “A vegetarian diet has always been associated with a lower risk of gout compared to a non-vegetarian diet” (read also: “Six“healthy”foods that are dangerous for your figure (and you eat them every day)”).
As specified, meat and seafood are high in purines, which stimulate the production of uric acid. At the same time, most vegetables and fruits contain small amounts of saturated fats, which are rich in phytochemicals that can prevent the inflammatory reactions that trigger gout attacks.
Photo: Getty Images
Related materials
- 9 nutritional rules after 40 that will prolong youth
- Test-tube meat and food from waste: gastronomic trends of the future
- Why Diana loved to eat at the round table, and other eating habits of the Princess of Wales
- Elizabeth I secrets: how cool it is to perform in public