You did know that doctors generally have almost no nutrition training in medical school right? And that the USDA vision begins with economic opportunity through innovation (e.g. more processed foods from agricultural inputs). This economic focused department published the Food Guide Pyramid and MyPlate as if they have the focus of Health and Human Services (questionable alignment on health too). There is big money is in highly processed food or pharmaceuticals. This is why there are mainly only studies focused on drugs and processed foods.
You should also know that most guidance on what is or is not a healthy food comes from food frequency questionnaires. Garbage in, garbage out. Participants report a couple times a year (at best) how often they ate a wide variety of foods or took part in a given activity over an entire year or longer. Can you recall what you ate last week? Nutritional Epidemiological studies belong in the trash.
So with all that, here are my top 5 ways to spot regurgitated dogma developed decades ago based on the belief that gout can’t be cured.
- Gout is progressive and can only be managed (not cured or put into remission) and you better get used to lifelong medication.
- Rest, Ice, Elevation
- Just lose weight**
- Low Purine Diet
- Aim For 6 (Serum Uric Acid)
If you see any of these on a website or hear your doctor say them I’d suggest you move on. You own your health. The medical system generally doesn’t have the time or training, most research is focused on the big money (drugs/new food like products), and our government policy is riddled with so many competing interests it really may never be able to find actual solutions to chronic disease.
** Just lose weight, as a statement, is totally useless. Like, no kidding, but how? If everyone knew how to lose weight and keep it off the population as whole would not be growing more overweight by the year. See my approach to curing gout.