Children And Gout

If you suffer from gout you may have heard the comments about it being the disease of kings and how it is caused by to much beer and rich food. This would make you think that your children are at no risk at all from gout, as I am sure you don’t let your kids drink beer.

A build up of uric acid crystals around your joints causes gout and it normally starts in the big toe and can then travel around the body from here. These uric acid crystals don’t consider what your age is, they dont consider that you may be too young to feel the nasty burning pain that comes when gout attacks.

Over the past twenty years, kids have changed in the way they eat, drink and exercise. Computers and fast food have more of an influence which means they spend less time doing outdoor exercise and playing sports. Processed foods and drinks tend to form most of a kid’s diet which is not good for them. Kids do not care to drink much normal water which would be much better for them.

The intake of soda drinks, especially those which contain high levels of fructose can lead to the levels of uric acid in the body being increased. Consequently, gout cases have also increased over recent years. Whereas in previous years, gout has been referred to as a disease for kings. Soda drinks have become very popular, therefore cases of gout have also increased.

Anyone who suffers from gout can reduce the amount of attacks that they suffer relatively easily by changing their diet, the problem is that the older we get the more set we become in our eating habits and the harder it becomes to change our diet.

If you think about your children’s diet not only as far as it affects them now but also the habits that you are helping them form for the rest of their lives then you will realize that avoiding drinks or foods which are high in fructose is a good move.

Because of the effect our work has on our personal lives, it can sometimes be hard to spend enough time shopping and cooking with good quality foods. We tend to go for fast foods because they are more convenient and we just haven’t got the time to ensure that our children are fed properly.

Your shopping trip is the very core of gout prevention for your family, if you don’t buy foods that are high in fructose and you don’t allow foods that are high in uric acid creating chemicals into your fridge then your family won’t be able to eat them and you are taking a huge step towards preventing not just gout, but most likely diabetes and any number of other illnesses that are caused or worsened by our diet.