Video: About Bananas & Gout

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Gout is a type of arthritis that is caused by increased levels of uric acid, but bananas can help decrease the symptoms of gout due to its high levels of potassium and vitamin C. Eat bananas to help deal with the pain caused by gout with advice from a registered and licensed dietitian in this free video on nutrition and diets.

Video Transcript

My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a Registered Dietitian with The Austin Regional Clinic and I'm going to talk to you about bananas and gout. Gout is a type of arthritis that is caused by increased levels of uric acid. Foods that have a lot of uric acid are generally thought of as high purinated foods and for the most part these are foods that have a lot of protein in them. Now there are certain foods that have been reported to cause a decrease in flare ups or decrease of painful symptoms of gout and one of these includes bananas. The reason why bananas are thought to help decrease the symptoms of gout are for two reasons, that they have a lot of potassium and that they have a lot of Vitamin C. The reason why the potassium in bananas may be beneficial is that potassium actually helps regulate acid based balance in the body with gout again because it involves high levels of uric acid, it can increase the acidity of your body so eating high potassium foods can decrease that acidity and make your body more alkaline so for that perspective bananas can help with the symptoms of gout. Vitamin C also has been reported to have anti-inflammatory properties so with the flare up of gout it does cause an increase in inflammation so therefore eating bananas may help with decreasing that painful inflammation. So bananas can definitely be a good addition to your diet if you are having a flare up of gout because again it has a lot of potassium and it has a lot of Vitamin C so it may decrease acidity and it may decrease inflammation in your body.

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About Bananas & Gout

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