For people with gout, diet plays an important role in controlling pain and preventing recurrence. In particular, bamboo shoots, although a popular food, are among the groups that need to be limited for many scientific reasons.
First of all, bamboo shoots, especially fresh bamboo shoots, contain high purine content. This is a substance that when metabolized in the body will create uric acid - the main factor causing gout attacks. Some types of bamboo shoots can contain up to 70100 mg of purines/100g, equivalent to red meat. When consumed in excess, uric acid levels in the blood easily exceed the safe threshold, causing acute arthritis and severe swelling and pain.
Second, fresh bamboo shoots also contain a quantity of cyanogenic glycoside, a compound that can be converted into cyanide a poison that is not carefully prepared. When gout patients have impaired liver and kidney function, the elimination of these toxins will be less effective, which can affect overall health.
Another reason is that bamboo shoots are often seasoned with salt, soaked for a long time or stir-fried with a lot of fat, increasing the amount of sodium and fat that is not good. These are all factors that aggravate inflammation and put pressure on the patient's excretion.
According to recommendations, gout patients should avoid foods rich in purines from both animals and plants, in which bamboo shoots are a typical example. Instead, you should increase low-purine green vegetables such as spinach, pumpkin, cucumber, drink plenty of water and maintain a reasonable weight.
Although bamboo shoots are a nutritious food for healthy people, for gout patients, consuming bamboo shoots, whether fresh bamboo shoots or pickled bamboo shoots, can increase the risk of acute gout attacks due to their high purine and natural toxine content. Therefore, this food should be minimized in the diet of gout patients.
