During a gout attack, your diet should center on low-purine foods, plenty of water, and cherries or cherry products, while cutting out red meat, organ meats, shellfish, alcohol, and sugary drinks entirely. What you eat won’t replace medication for pain relief, but the right choices can help your body clear uric acid faster and avoid making the flare worse.
Foods That Help During a Flare
The goal during an active gout attack is simple: eat foods that are low in purines (the compounds your body breaks down into uric acid) and that support your kidneys in flushing uric acid out. These are your best options:
- Low-fat dairy: Milk, yogurt, and cottage cheese are not only low in purines but contain proteins that actively help your body excrete uric acid. Make these a staple during a flare.
- Eggs: A reliable, purine-free protein source when meat is off the table.
- Whole grains: Rice, oats, bread, and pasta are all safe and filling.
- Vegetables: Nearly all vegetables are fine, including ones like spinach and asparagus that were once thought to be risky. Plant-based purines don’t raise gout risk the way animal-based purines do.
- Fruits: Most fruits are good choices, with one major exception: avoid fruit juices and dried fruits high in fructose (more on that below). Whole fruits like berries, bananas, and citrus are fine in normal amounts.
- Nuts, seeds, and legumes: Peanut butter, almonds, lentils, and beans provide protein without the purine load of meat.
Why Cherries Deserve Special Attention
Cherries are the one food with real evidence behind them for gout specifically. In one study, eating 45 fresh Bing cherries lowered blood uric acid by 14%. Tart cherry concentrate performed even better: one ounce (roughly equivalent to 90 cherries) reduced uric acid by nearly three times as much. People who consumed cherry extract or one to four servings of fresh cherries daily for two days had 35% fewer gout flares over the following year, according to research highlighted by the Arthritis Foundation.
During a flare, practical options include fresh cherries (10 to 40 per serving), 8 ounces of diluted tart cherry juice concentrate, or one tablespoon of tart cherry extract twice a day. These won’t stop an attack that’s already in progress, but they can support lower uric acid levels while you recover.
What to Cut Out Immediately
Some foods will actively make your flare worse by flooding your body with purines or blocking uric acid excretion. During an attack, eliminate these completely:
Organ meats like liver, kidney, sweetbreads, and brains are the highest-purine foods you can eat. Game meats such as venison, veal, and goose are close behind. Red meat in general, including beef, lamb, pork, and bacon, should be avoided or reduced to very small portions. Even turkey, despite being a leaner meat, is high enough in purines to be a problem. Processed deli turkey is particularly bad.
Certain seafood is just as risky. Anchovies, sardines, shellfish (mussels, scallops), herring, codfish, tuna, trout, and haddock all have high purine levels. The American College of Rheumatology specifically recommends avoiding shellfish, gravies, and soups made from meat stock.
Why Sugar Matters as Much as Meat
Most people with gout know about meat and alcohol, but fructose is an equally important trigger that often flies under the radar. When your body processes fructose, it depletes energy stores in your cells in a way that generates uric acid as a byproduct. Fructose also promotes insulin resistance, which further reduces your kidneys’ ability to excrete uric acid. It’s a double hit.
The biggest dietary sources of fructose are sodas and other drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, orange juice, apple juice, and concentrated fruit juices. During a flare, avoid all sugary drinks and fruit juices entirely. Whole fruit is a different story because the fiber slows fructose absorption, but even then, keep portions reasonable and skip dried fruits like raisins, which pack concentrated fructose into small servings.
Alcohol During an Attack
The short answer: don’t drink any alcohol during a gout flare. More than one alcoholic drink in a 24-hour period is associated with a 36% increase in the risk of a gout attack. And despite the popular belief that wine is safer than beer, research shows the risk of triggering a recurrent attack does not vary by alcohol type. Beer, wine, and spirits all carry the same risk.
Beer gets extra attention because it contains purines from the brewing process, but the alcohol itself is the core problem. Alcohol competes with uric acid for excretion through the kidneys, meaning your body holds onto more uric acid when you drink. During an active flare, that’s the last thing you need.
Drink More Water Than You Think
Two-thirds of the uric acid in your body is excreted through the kidneys, so staying well-hydrated is one of the most effective things you can do during a flare. The Arthritis Foundation recommends at least 8 glasses of water per day normally, and doubling that to 16 glasses during an active attack. Clinical guidelines for gout and hyperuricemia suggest 2,000 to 3,000 milliliters daily (roughly 8 to 12 cups), spread evenly throughout the day rather than consumed all at once.
Plain water is best. Coffee and tea are fine in moderation. Coffee in particular has been associated with lower uric acid levels in some research. Avoid anything sweetened, as the fructose will undermine the benefit of the extra fluids.
A Note on Vitamin C
You may have heard that vitamin C helps with gout, and there is some truth to it for prevention. However, the evidence during an active attack is less encouraging. In one study, 500 mg of vitamin C daily for two months lowered uric acid in people with high levels who hadn’t yet developed gout, but it had no significant effect in people who already had gout. Vitamin C-rich foods like bell peppers, strawberries, and citrus are still good choices during a flare because they’re low in purines, but don’t rely on vitamin C supplements as a treatment for the attack itself.
Putting It Together
A practical day of eating during a gout flare might look like oatmeal with low-fat milk and cherries for breakfast, a salad with eggs, vegetables, and olive oil for lunch, and pasta with a vegetable-based sauce and a side of lentils for dinner. Snack on nuts, yogurt, or fresh fruit. Drink water constantly, aiming for a glass every hour or two. Skip the steak, the beer, and the soda until the flare resolves, and ideally keep those to a minimum long-term.
Dietary changes during a flare are about damage control. They won’t make the crystals in your joint dissolve overnight, but they prevent your body from producing even more uric acid while it’s already overwhelmed. Combined with appropriate medication, the right foods can help shorten the attack and reduce the chance of the next one.