A food journal for a gout diet

The body breaks purines down into uric acid. Meat and fish carry the most, and one lunch can pass the whole day’s reference on its own. These six carry the most in Cloche’s food data, next to the 400 mg the demo compares against for a day. Recipes and portions vary.

The purine amounts come from the USDA and NIH purine tables, and the studies behind them disagree: raw chicken breast runs from about 130 to 290 mg per 100 g. Cooked meat carries more per gram than raw, because the water cooks off, so a grilled breast lands higher still. These amounts are not measurements of your meal.

Two questions come up most: is chicken bad for gout, answered cut by cut, and is shrimp bad for gout, answered next to the other seafood.

By small amounts. In the research the American College of Rheumatology’s 2020 gout guideline reviewed, one beer raised uric acid by about 0.16 mg/dL. Food and drink matter more as what sets off a flare. In one study it cites, more than one or two drinks in the day before came with a 40% higher chance of one. It recommends limiting alcohol, purines and high-fructose corn syrup.

The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases names the same three: alcohol, sugar-sweetened drinks such as soda, and food rich in purines, usually from animals. For a meal, that means the drinks and how much of the plate is meat or fish.

The demo reads a day against 400 mg of purines, the ceiling Japan’s gout guidance gives, and against 14 g of alcohol, the amount in one US standard drink. They are sample amounts for reading a meal, not your target.

Labs often print uric acid as normal up to 6 or 7 mg/dL. Peter Attia says he likes to see it below 5. Your number, and the one that fits you, belong in a conversation with your clinician.

Start with a sentence: “salmon poke bowl and a beer.” Or take a photo. Cloche writes the entry from your words, with its purines, alcohol and fructose, and you correct anything in a sentence.

When a flare comes, ask what you ate and drank in the two days before it. Cloche answers from your journal, plate by plate, and tells you which plates carried the most purines this week.

Each entry carries 26 estimated nutrients next to calories and macros. We check the estimates against USDA reference foods. They remain estimates.

Your doctor may be watching more than one number. Cloche reads the same plate for fatty liver and blood sugar as well.

To check one meal right now, without the app, try the free purine calculator for gout.

Cloche estimates what was on the plate and in the glass. Whether your uric acid moved is a question for the blood test and your clinician, and the app never tells you what you have.

The same guideline advises against vitamin C pills for gout, so Cloche counts the vitamin C in food and suggests no supplements. It does not ask about your medication.