Thursday, April 18, 2019

A to Z Challenge – P is for Purines


Thanks to my having a pretty nasty case of gout, I’ve been instructed to follow a low-purine diet to help minimize the amount of uric acid in my system. I did some research on this, and I learned the following:

Purine’ is a medical term. It means:
  • a) Any food that possesses flavor, or is otherwise stimulating to the taste buds; or
  • b) Any food that you particularly like; all of your favorite foods.
And by ingesting large amounts of purines, you can build up excess uric acid in your tissues, which crystallizes in your joints and causes gouty arthritis. 

I had been on a diet anyway, since my weight was starting to balloon out of control due to the ease of obtaining and prevalence of fast food near to my place of work. Even just cutting that out and switching to salads from the convenience store, with the non-fat dressings, thank you, were enough to help me shed some poundage, and I suspect the horrors beset upon me last week helped me lose even more. And it did, but I suspect the post-purge binge leveled me off again.  Sigh.

The only problem is, with no clear diet plan, and after reading no less than four different medical websites and getting four diametrically different answers, I’ve split the difference and culled what all of them agree on, cut drastically what they differ on in quantity, and ignored the rest.

Much like every other diet I’ve been on.

As a result, I probably take in less than a thousand calories a day, even with coming home and having a snack before bed (and to satisfy the requirements of the meds I have to take with food).

As long as it doesn’t taste good and is healthy, I’ll be fine.

Stupid purines.



1 comment:

  1. Less than 1000 calories a day. I reduced my weight from 80 max to 63 fasting. But it is now at 70. But still trying to reduce. Sometimes wonder what worked well at that time.
    A to Z participant Narayana Rao Quality Management

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