Over the past 20 years, the incidence of gout - a debilitating arthritis caused by eating rich food - has doubled in the USA. Not surprisingly, this is an increase that parallels the growing epidemic of obesity.
Although gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis in men, affecting as many as 5 million men in the United States, this painful arthritic condition is essentially unknown in parts of the world where people consume a diet based on starches.
The most important cause is an increase in the intake of rich foods, which are high in uric acid precursors, known as purines. The muscles of animal meat, poultry, fish and seafood are the most abundant sources of purines.
Most people have large storages of uric acid in their tissues which may take months of healthy eating and associated weight loss to dissolve away: http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2006nl/june/gout.htm.
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