Diet for Diabetes With Gout

If you have diabetes and also suffer from gout, you're not alone. Diabetes often impairs the kidneys and weakens their ability to properly filter the blood, which in turn can lead to gout. But managing both conditions is relatively simple and requires you to alter your diet and add to your list of foods to avoid.

Diabetes Management Comes First

Though gout is a painful condition, it comes and goes and doesn't create secondary complications, so make diabetes your priority. As always, the goal is to maintain your blood sugar levels and avoid foods that will cause them to fluctuate. That means avoiding sugar-laden desserts and most dairy products unless they are low-fat. Also avoid fatty foods and foods loaded with carbohydrates, like potatoes and pasta, because those carbohydrates are quickly converted into sugar (the same goes for fruits like dates, bananas and mangoes that contain a similar type of carbohydrate). The key to a good diet for diabetes is balanced meals with lots of protein and moderate amounts of carbohydrates.

Foods to Avoid for Gout

Gout is caused by the build-up of uric acid in the joints, which causes inflammation and intense pain. The goal for a gout-prevention diet is to avoid foods that create uric acid when broken down during digestion, such as foods with purines, which metabolize into uric acid. Organ meats, such as liver, and seafood like herring, anchovies, oysters and mussels are loaded with purines and should be avoided. You should also limit your intake of red meat and poultry, which produce uric acid during digestion, and vegetables like spinach, beans and asparagus that are high in purines. And limit your intake of alcohol---especially beer---because it contains uric acid.

What you Should Eat

The list of foods you should incorporate into your diet to control diabetes and gout are almost identical. Eat fish and lean meat for protein and plenty of fruits, vegetables and grains for healthy sugars, fats and carbohydrates. And eat moderate-sized meals to avoid an overload of carbohydrates and snack regularly to keep your blood sugar at its proper level.