Soy milk is a trigger for Gout
What is Soy Milk?
Soy Milk originated from China and is created by grinding beans that have been soaked over night. By adding water in the process of grinding these beans, a white liquid that has a similar viscosity to cow’s milk is created.
Soy milk is rich in proteins, dietary fibers, minerals and vitamins. It also has little saturated fat and no cholesterol. For those who are lactose intolerant soy milk has been touted as an alternative to cow’s milk.
Is Soy Milk bad for Gout?
Soy milk indeed should be avoided by Gout patients. Soy beans contains 120 mg of purines per 100g and is ranked moderately high on the purine charts.
It is recommended by US national institutes of health that high consumption of soy by gout patient should be avoided.
Soybeans contain a natural substance called purine. Large amounts of purines can make gout worse. Persons with gout should not eat a lot of soy products.
Personal Experiences with Soy Milk
Soy milk was a major trigger to my gout attacks and my biological brother’s who also inherited this disease. My attack was due to consuming too much soy milk over a short period of time which has caused my foot to flare up. If I recall I had finished a 4L carton of soy milk in one week.
My brother’s experience was slightly different but his flare ups occurred after drinking a cup of highly concentrated soy milk from a local vendor while in Japan.
Other Gout patient’s experiences may vary, but consuming soy milk in moderation should be key. Nowadays I avoid soy drinks as much as possible as it strips away my quota for other foods like meat that contains purine.
Not all Soy products are bad for Gout
Surprisingly not all soy products are bad for gout. In fact due to differences in the production processes, fermented soy products such as soy sauce and tofu are not bad for Gout. For more information on Tofu, please refer to my other post on Tofu and Gout.
References http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007204.htm
