Can gout patients eat tofu?

Most gout patients know that they cannot eat seafood or spicy and greasy foods, but they do not know that people with gout cannot eat tofu. First of all, foods like tofu are soft and sticky, and are made from soybeans without any other additives. However, due to the particularity of gout, these common foods cannot be eaten. Gout patients usually have many dietary taboos that they need to pay attention to.

First of all, gout is caused by abnormal purine metabolism in the body, which leads to high blood uric acid. Therefore, in principle, in nutritional treatment, whether it is acute or chronic gout, the diet should control foods rich in purines.

As long as food materials contain cells and genetic material, they will produce purines after metabolism, but the amount will vary. According to my country's food composition table, the purine content is divided into four levels. Those with lower purine content (25~75 mg/100 g) include tofu, button mushrooms, and mushrooms, while those with the highest purine content (≥150 mg/100 g) include conger eel, grass shrimp, chicken intestines, sprouted beans, soybean sprouts, and bean sprouts. From this it can be seen that the purine content of tofu is not high, and gout patients can eat foods with purine content below 75 mg/100 g.

The reason for the misunderstanding may be that beans and sprouted beans contain more purine, and people mistakenly believe that all foods related to "beans" are the "culprits."

Generally speaking, gout patients should not eat whole soybeans or soy milk. However, if they have been made into soy products, they are completely edible. Because purine is soluble in water, it will be lost with the water during the processing of soy products. If you are really worried, you can cut the tofu, bean curd sheets, and dried tofu into segments or small pieces, then put them into a pot of boiling water and boil them for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the soy products and discard the soup. This way, there are fewer purines.