Using Huel for 1 year and just diagnosed with Gout

Hi James, purine levels is something that seems to come up on general health tests, so I definitely think it would be worth finding out. I recently went for a full medical examination and at age 23 in perfect health the only thing my doctor flagged was a higher than normal purine level. I was warned to try to reduce it, I suppose as a preventative measure. On the other hand my doctor was fascinated to meet someone who’s main source of nutrition arrived powdered in the post :joy: The next time I saw him he had researched Huel and thought it looked great!

Do also remember that high vitamin C intake has been shown to protect against gout. Huel is very high in vitamin C

So if one is worried about being affected by gout, one should not consume Huel as the major source of food intake?

If purine alone was an issue, then this could potentially be an issue; however, the protection of vitamin C which affects purine metabolism reduces the risk considerably.

Huel definitely can seriously trigger gout. Be warned. I have been taking 3 scoops per day for 5 days and have just experienced my 1st gout attack for several years. Better you take responsibility for your customers well being and warn them - instead of all this obfuscation. Honesty will serve you better.

Hi Gus,

Did you also change anything else in your diet.

I have taken Huel for the past 2 years no more than 4 scoops a day. I had a
Gout attack 11 months ago and then stopped drinking and cut down on high
Purines food.

Plus I increased these factors an have not had an attack since. I had a BMI
of 22 and exercised 5 days a week so it was a shock in my forties.

1 Gave up Alcohol totally
2 No Red Meat
3 Apple Cider Vinegar in water twice a day
4 Cherries blended in Huel everyday 1 meal
5 Vitamin C 500mg tablet each day
6 Banana and Apple

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But look on the other side of the facts, I have taken Huel for 7 months and not had an attack. You can’t make a sweeping statement until you have the facts regarding all users surely?
Seems likely that your other meals could be the cause of the attack as they are greater in volume than one meal a day from Huel.

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Literally been consuming 8 scoops a day for the last two years, no sign of gout whatsoever. I think you need to share more about your diet and lifestyle to draw conclusion.

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gout | Health Topics | NutritionFacts.org
https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/uric-acid/

The cause of gout is uric acid, and purine doesn’t seem to be the cause of high uric acid. We have some mechanism(s) to regulate uric acid but they sometimes don’t work.

It’s reasonable to blame your diet because traditionally it was affecting only the social classes that were eating meat. But Huel has no meat and so it’s hard to say where is the problem exactly!

P.S: white meat and fishes are not better for health than red meat.

2nd P.S:

It’s interesting to note this:

In one study, drinking milk caused uric acid levels to drop 10% within hours. But, drinking soy milk increased uric acid 10%. For gout sufferers, the uric acid-lowering properties of dairy may be desirable.

So dairy seems to be lowering uric acid, and it’s possible your condition was asymptomatic before because you were eating dairy. Dairy is not healthy food AT ALL in general. This would exonerate Huel.

But Huel is not really a safe choice if you eat 100% Huel. It’s safe only in small portions.

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I was with you until you claimed dairy is not a healthy food AT ALL. I mean it’s better than a lot of stuff out there and I’m in tip top shape…

There are many health questions on dairy, and I don’t claim to have the answers, but I’m anti-dairy on ethical grounds, because it has been promoted to mothers and children (including my mother and me when I was children) as an health food. I think dairy promotion is the ultimate and the most evil “deceptive marketing”.

Let me quickly list the potential problems: cheese consumption seem to be #1 cause of obesity, it may be #1 cause of excessive growth of fetus (Caesarean birth, birth defects, etc etc), it’s probably the #1 cause of precocious puberty, then we have breast cancer and prostate cancer, then we’ve male infertility and female premenstrual syndrome, then we’ve a lot of immune system health problems like arthritis. How many people are affected by these problems? Maybe 99% of western population? All the people I know are affected.

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If you exercise a lot, you’re a special case. You need more fat and more protein and more calories in general. Concentrated source like cheese can be useful to you. For the rest of us, it’s dangerous.

P.S: And you weight your food and count your calories. Most people don’t like to do that. Most people simply like to eat what tastes good and they like to eat until they’re full. Cheese unfortunately tastes very good.

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Cheese consumption #1 cause of obesity?! Get out of here right now, that’s freakin’ absurd. Doesn’t even deserve a response…

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Greek Yogurt and Skimmed Milk is seen as a good source of Protein for Gout
Sufferers… plus skimmed milk has been proven to have a big impact in
reducing Uric Acid Levels.

https://goutandyou.com/how-dairy-products-like-milk-cheese-and-yogurt-can-help-with-your-gout/

If you look at how dietary habits have changed over last 100+ years in “western” countries, you will see that it’s dairy (and to a lesser extent eggs and vegetable oil) that have taken over. It’s almost impossible to over-eat whole plant foods, and it’s also rather unpleasant to over-eat meat and fish. You can easily verify this. You can pick a random industrial food at your supermarket and read the list of ingredients. They’re the same ingredients that were used for cakes: some flour of some type and then eggs and dairy and vegetable oils.

P.S: And most people don’t like the taste of milk either. You have to turn it into cheese to make it palatable for most people. Flour, cheese and vegetable oils are traditional processed foods. Cakes and cookies are traditional processed food made from these. Flour has been eaten for millennia and it’s hard to blame it.

-> https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2006nl/june/gout.htm

This is McDougall opinion, he has an interesting spin on this topic. He says weight loss may cause the problem. Have you lost weight recently?

For immediate pain relief he recommends a drug because he doesn’t like dairy.

Preventing Gout Attacks with Diet

This is Greger’s take. He is also not very optimist on dairy.

P.S: One comment taken from nutritionfacts:

Hey Patrick, thanks for writing. I don’t know if Dr. G WILL do such a video, but my experience – after seeing people with gout throughout my thirty years of working in hospitals, ambulatory care medical clinics and private practice – is that NONE of the gout sufferers were vegans or strict (ovo/lacto) vegetarians. They ALL ate meat. The key may be the presence of flavonoids, which inhibit the enzyme (xanthine oxidase) that causes the formation of uric acid. (see this video if you haven’t already: Preventing Gout Attacks with Diet)

Maybe the problem is that Huel has no flavonoids?

I think the answer is certain things work for certain people. Everyone has
triggers. Mine seems to be Beer and Muscle Building Shakes.

One Doctor I saw said he had to stop drinking Bitter, the other Doctor said
his was Larger and they drank other stuff in moderation with less attacks.

I don’t even know what you’re speaking about… Larger is a glass size?

Size of wine glasses to blame for Britons drinking habits, finds study | The Independent | The Independent

Overall, let me tell you a secret, the only health proof drink is water! :slight_smile:

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