A recent study published in JAMA explores the potential benefits of a plant-based diet on gout risk. Study: Differences in plant-based diets affect gout risk. Image Credit: Ju Jae-Young / Shutterstock.
com Gout is an inflammatory condition affecting the joints that occurs in about 4% of Americans. This condition is often painful and can be disabling, in addition to increasing the risk of cardiometabolic disease, mortality, and poor mental health. Certain food products, including alcohol, red meat, fish, and sugary drinks, have been shown to increase the risk of gout.
Conversely, skim dairy products, coffee, certain vegetables, and ascorbic acid can reduce the risk of gout. Healthy diet patterns, such as the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) and Mediterranean diet, have also been shown to reduce the risk of gout. However, less is known about the effects of plant-based diets on the incidence of gout.
The current study used data from Americans enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, which was conducted between 1986 and 2012, and the Nurses’ Health Study, which was conducted from 1984 to 2010. All study participants were gout-free at the beginning of the study. The study aimed to measure mean exposure to an overall plant-based diet index (PDI), healthy PDI (hPDI), and unhealthy PDI (uPDI).
These indices were calculated based on 18 food groups determined using a food frequency questionnaire. The study included nearly 123,000 participants, with a mean ag.
