If you have gout can you drink nonalcoholic beer? If you are reading this article it means you already know about the link between this condition and alcohol and its negative impacts.
Gout is a fairly common condition that cuts across ethnicity. It is inflammatory arthritis that mostly affects older males.
In this article, you would find out how any Alcoholic beverage whether high or low, or even zero alcoholic drinks can affect gout.
Is Non-Alcoholic Beer Bad For Gout
This is inflammatory arthritis which occurs as a result of the accumulation of uric acid in the body. When this acid comes to a high level, it causes swelling and sometimes pain in the joints.
Uric acid is formed as the food you take is broken down. This is a body waste product but when the body doesn’t have sufficient water or protein this waste starts accumulating in the body.
When the urate builds up around the joints it causes gout symptoms. The severity of gout varies depending on the individual.
But most patients complain of sudden tenderness, warmth, redness, and swelling around the joints.
Symptoms
The symptoms includes swollen hot red skin on the joint, it could be the wrist, hands, toes, or elbows. In some cases when there is a presence of infection it may be accompanied by excruciating pain, fever, and loss of appetite.
These symptoms typically last for a few days and may appear to subside but return after a few days. The onset of these symptoms is usually triggered.
Causes
When urates build up in a joint it causes gout symptoms in the joint. High levels of urate crystals in the joint cause gout.
These crystals in the blood are formed during the process of the body naturally breaking down purine.
Purine is turned into uric acid during metabolism, which goes out from the body through urine. This can as well accumulate as a result of less excretion or too much production.
This accumulation can crystallize and become crystals that build up in joints and tissues, thereby resulting in inflammatory and pain. The uric acid in the blood can accumulate and become uric crystals when the production is in excess or when the excretion is not fast enough.
The body naturally has these substances, but some food and drinks also have them, some food that contains purine are; meat, added sugar, fish, and yeast. However, apart from these food items a persons body weight, medical conditions, age, sex, and diet are also determining factors for this condition.
Does Alcohol Consumption Cause Gout?
It can increase the levels of uric in your body so the short answer is yes; drinking alcohol causes gout.
There may be other lifestyle factors that may be responsible for this condition. Alcoholic beverages, most especially beer, can escalate the situation because of their high yeast and alcohol content.
The bottom line is you risk suffering from gout when you consume alcohol.
Will Low Alcohol Consumption Cause Gout?
Generally, consuming alcohol can cause a high increase in uric acid in the body which will result in gout. Drinking low Alcohol may help manage the condition but not solve it.
This is because nonalcoholic drinks like beer for example still use yeast in the brewing process which contains purine. Although there are ways of taking out alcohol from alcoholic beverages it still poses a risk to those suffering from gout because of the yeast.
Removing alcohol from drinks may make the drink lose taste. Hence to maintain taste and flavor some manufacturers add other ingredients like sugar, and added sugar can even worsen the situation.
Which Beverage Can I Drink?
It would be best to take alcohol from your diet since it has been established that alcohol triggers it or makes already existing conditions worse. This certainly isn’t good news for beer lovers.
Taking nonalcoholic and zero alcohol drink be it wine, spirit or beer can help the situation but not entirely solve it. This is because of the purine which can cause hyperuricemia, which is also high in both nonalcoholic beverages and Alcohol beverages.
But the good news is there are beverage companies that have produced purine-free non-alcoholic beverages.
Apart from purine in drinks causing gout, alcohol isn’t exonerated. Alcohol in the body hinders the amount of uric acid that the body can pass out thereby increasing the chance of these accumulating in the body.
The malt used in the beer causes purine. Nonalcohol beers are also made with malt, the same ingredients, and using the same process as alcoholic beer.
It is only after the beer is made that alcohol is removed.
So yes, nonalcoholic drinks can trigger and worsen it. Some Studies have shown that some nonalcoholic beers contain more purine than alcoholic beers.
A 100ml of beer has 8mg of purine. Several studies have shown that non-alcoholic drinks are not a better option for those with this condition.
Are There Purine Free Beers?
It is not all sad news for beer lovers who suffer from gout. Some beers are low in purine, there are also purine-free beers.
The manufacturers of low-purine and purine-free beers have seriously cut down the purine in the beverages. They use some removal processes like adsorption and enzymatic degradation.
In Summary: What Is The Best Drink For Gout
For those with this condition, it is best to consume drinks that are both low in alcohol and purine. Unfortunately, these drinks are not quite popular in the UK and the US. They are mostly found in countries like Japan.
An example of such are;
- Asahi Dry Zero Free drink by Asahi.
- Kirin Zeroichi from the Kirin Brewery.
These drinks are advertised as having zero Purine, no artificial sweeteners, no Alcohol, and no Calories. But it came at a cost, as the taste was removed along with these major ingredients.
However, those suffering from gout who might not want to give up beer would benefit from these purine-free nonalcohol beers.
