Gout is a painful and debilitating form of arthritis that affects approximately 3X more men than women. 4 to 5% of European men in NZ suffer from gout. Amongst Māori and Pacific Island men this figure rises to 10-15% due to a greater genetic risk in these people.
The researchers surveyed 2051 New Zealanders with clinically verified gout. Of these people 71% reported having one or more food triggers. Tomatoes were listed as a trigger in 20% of these cases. Genetics PhD student Tanya Flynn, says that tomatoes were found to be the 4th most commonly mentioned trigger, after seafood, alcohol and red meat.
“We thought it important to find a biological reason for this to add weight to what gout patients are already saying,” Miss Flynn says. After determining tomatoes are a commonly cited trigger food, the authors pooled and analysed data from 12,720 male and female members of three long-running US health studies. This data showed that tomato consumption is linked to higher levels of uric acid in the blood, which is the major underlying cause of gout.
While their research is not geared to prove that tomatoes trigger gout attacks, it does suggest that this food can alter uric acid levels to a degree comparable to other commonly accepted gout trigger foods. “We found that the positive association between eating tomato and uric acid levels was on a par with that of consuming seafood, red meat, alcohol or sugar-sweetened drinks,” she says. Miss Flynn emphasised that the most important thing that people with gout can do to prevent attacks is take a drug-such as Allopurinol -that is very effective at reducing uric acid levels. “Avoiding tomatoes may be helpful for people who have experienced a gout attack after eating them, but with proper treatment this doesn’t have to be a long-term avoidance,” she says. http://www.otago.ac.nz/news/news/otago120630.html
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