Gout is painful, often misunderstood, and far more common than most people realise. It’s also frequently treated as though it were simply the result of overindulgence — which isn’t what the evidence shows. Our Accredited Practising Dietitians provide practical, evidence-based nutrition support to help reduce the risk of flares and manage the conditions that often accompany gout, working alongside your GP and the medication they prescribe.
- ✓ Six Melbourne clinics, home visits and telehealth across Australia
- ✓ Team of eight APDs who case-conference on complex presentations
- ✓ Practical dietary strategies and a personalised plan, not a generic list of banned foods
- ✓ Medicare (with a GP referral), NDIS, DVA, WorkCover and private health accepted
What Is Gout?
Gout is a form of arthritis that causes episodes of acute pain, inflammation and swelling in the joints. It most commonly affects the joint between the ball of the foot and the big toe, though it can also occur in the ankles, knees, wrists, elbows and fingers.
It happens when uric acid levels in the blood stay elevated over a prolonged period. Uric acid can then form tiny crystals that settle in and around the joints, and it’s these crystals that trigger the intense inflammation known as a gout flare or attack. Typical symptoms include sudden onset of pain, along with swelling, warmth and tenderness in the affected joint.
How Common Is Gout in Australia?
Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis in Australia. Arthritis Australia estimates it affects around one in 15 Australians. It is considerably more common in men — affecting roughly 7% of Australian men compared with under 1% of women — and becomes more likely with age. Women’s risk rises after menopause.
Despite how common it is, gout remains significantly undertreated in Australia. Many people manage flare after flare without ever reaching the uric acid levels that would stop crystals forming in the first place. If your gout keeps returning, that’s worth raising with your GP — it often means the underlying uric acid level, not just the individual flares, needs addressing.
What Causes Gout?
Gout develops when uric acid stays elevated in the blood over time. That can happen for several reasons:
- A genetic predisposition — many people with gout have a family history of it
- Impaired kidney function, which affects how efficiently uric acid is cleared from the body
- A high dietary intake of purines, the compounds broken down into uric acid
- Certain medications that affect kidney function and the elimination of waste products such as uric acid
Other factors that raise the risk of a flare include large fluctuations in weight, excessive alcohol intake, inadequate fluid intake and high blood pressure.
Gout Is Not Simply the Result of Overindulgence
Gout has long carried a reputation as a self-inflicted “disease of kings,” and that stigma still causes real distress. It doesn’t match the evidence. Around two-thirds of the purines in your body are produced naturally by your own cells — only about a third comes from food. Genetics and how efficiently your kidneys clear uric acid matter a great deal, and plenty of people develop gout while eating and drinking much like everyone around them. A diagnosis is not a judgement about your character or your habits.
How Gout Is Diagnosed
Diagnosis sits with your GP or rheumatologist, not your dietitian. The methods commonly used include:
- A blood test to assess the level of uric acid in the blood
- Diagnostic imaging — X-ray, ultrasound, CT or MRI — to examine soft tissue and bone
- Taking a sample of the fluid around the affected joint to look for uric acid crystals
Physical assessment of the joint, the length of the attack and the severity of pain are also considered, and other causes need to be ruled out — including infection, injury, or a different type of arthritis. If you bring your recent blood results to your appointment, we’ll take them into account when shaping your nutrition plan.
What Diet Can — and Can’t — Do
We’ll be straight with you, because a lot of what’s written about gout online isn’t. Diet alone cannot control gout for most people. Where uric acid is persistently high, medication prescribed by your doctor is the mainstay of treatment, because it lowers uric acid to a level where crystals stop forming and existing ones can gradually dissolve. No food, supplement or eating plan replaces that.
Please don’t stop taking your medication unless your doctor instructs you to — including if your gout improves. Nutrition support is designed to work alongside your prescribed treatment, never to replace it.
What dietary management genuinely does do is meaningful, and it’s why seeing a dietitian is worth your time:
- ✓ Helps reduce the risk of flares, and identify the specific triggers that affect you
- ✓ Supports safe, steady weight management — important, because rapid weight change can itself trigger a flare
- ✓ Addresses the conditions that commonly travel with gout, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney or liver concerns
- ✓ Replaces confusing, outdated food lists with clear guidance you can actually live with
Dietary Strategies That Help
These are the strategies we work through with clients, adapted to your situation, tastes and household.
- Keep weight steady. Maintaining a healthy weight helps, but avoiding rapid fluctuations matters just as much — sudden weight change can bring on a flare. If weight loss would be useful for you, doing it gradually and with support is the safer route
- Stay well hydrated. Adequate fluid helps your kidneys clear uric acid. For most adults, somewhere around 2 to 2.3 litres of water a day is a reasonable guide, though your needs may differ depending on your health, medications and activity
- Cut back on sugary drinks and added sugars. Sweetened drinks, fruit juice and soft drink are strongly linked with gout risk, as are sweetened foods such as muesli bars, baked goods and confectionery
- Include reduced-fat dairy daily. Two to three serves a day of yoghurt, cheese or milk is associated with better uric acid clearance — one of the few genuinely helpful additions rather than restrictions
- Consider modest coffee intake and cherries. Both fresh and tinned cherries, along with moderate coffee consumption, have some documented effects on helping prevent the onset of flares. The evidence isn’t strong enough to call either a treatment, but neither does any harm as part of a balanced diet
Understanding Purines
Purines are compounds found in all our cells and in many foods. When broken down, they form uric acid — so moderating the highest sources can help. Because your body makes most of its own purines, this is about sensible moderation rather than elimination.
Foods worth limiting
- Certain seafood, including anchovies, herring, mackerel, sardines, caviar, mussels, prawns, shrimp and scallops
- Offal meats — heart, kidney and liver, including pâté
- Gravies, stock cubes and concentrated meat extracts
- Yeast extract spreads
- Meat, poultry and fish in large quantities — around 130 to 160g a day is generally enough. Vegetable-based proteins such as beans, lentils, legumes, tofu and unsalted nuts make excellent substitutes
- Alcohol, particularly beer. Where alcohol is consumed, a maximum of one to two standard drinks a day is generally recommended, and it’s best avoided entirely during an acute flare
You Don’t Need to Avoid High-Purine Vegetables
Older gout food lists often tell people to avoid vegetables such as spinach, asparagus, mushrooms, cauliflower and peas. Research has since shown that plant purines are handled differently by the body and these vegetables do not increase the risk of gout. If you’ve been avoiding them unnecessarily, you can bring them back — they’re genuinely good for you, and cutting them out makes eating well harder than it needs to be.
Weight and Gout — Safely
Carrying excess weight is associated with higher uric acid levels, so where weight loss is appropriate it can genuinely help reduce flares over time. But there’s an important catch that a lot of general weight-loss advice misses.
Losing weight too quickly can trigger a gout flare. Fasting, crash dieting and very rapid weight loss all cause the body to release more uric acid into the blood, which is exactly the opposite of what you want. Large fluctuations in weight — up or down — are a recognised risk factor.
This is one of the clearest reasons to have professional support rather than going it alone. If weight is something you’d like to work on, our Weight Loss & Management service can be delivered at a pace that protects you from flares, coordinated with the rest of your gout care.
Gout Rarely Travels Alone
Gout sits within a wider metabolic picture, and people living with it often have other conditions that need attention at the same time. Your kidneys do the work of clearing uric acid, so kidney function and gout are closely connected. High blood pressure, raised cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease also commonly occur alongside gout.
Rather than treating gout in isolation, we look at the whole picture with you. That might mean coordinating your gout plan with support for chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, heart health and blood pressure, or fatty liver disease — so you get one coherent plan instead of competing advice from different directions.
Our Approach to Gout Nutrition Care
We start with a thorough assessment — your medical history, recent blood results, medications, flare history and patterns, usual eating and drinking, hydration and what a realistic week actually looks like for you. We’ll also look for any nutritional excesses or deficiencies worth addressing.
From there, we work with you to agree practical goals and milestones, and you’ll leave with a clear plan and a defined pathway — what to focus on first, what comes next, and how ongoing support is structured. Many clients also find it useful to track flares alongside food and drink for a while, which helps us identify your individual triggers rather than guessing from a generic list.
Throughout, we share information with your GP and any specialists involved, with your consent, so your nutrition plan and your medical treatment pull in the same direction.
Gout Support From Our Whole Team
Metabolic Care Across the Team
Gout overlaps with kidney health, blood pressure, diabetes and weight — ground every dietitian at NutriBlooms works across. Where a presentation is complex, our in-house case-conferencing means your dietitian can bring in the Principal Dietitian or a colleague for a same-week second opinion, rather than you waiting weeks for another referral.
Recognised for Quality Care
NutriBlooms received the Dietitians Australia and Griffith University Quality in Primary Care Award in 2025, recognising excellence in patient-centred, evidence-based dietetic care.
Funding, Fees & Referrals
Since 1 July 2025, a single GP Chronic Condition Management Plan (GPCCMP) replaced the old GP Management Plan and Team Care Arrangements. Your GP can now refer with an ordinary referral letter, and you may be eligible for up to 5 subsidised individual allied health visits per calendar year, shared across all your allied health providers. Read more on the Services Australia GPCCMP page.
We accept referrals from your GP and from specialists such as rheumatologists, and you’re also welcome to book directly without a referral.
NutriBlooms is not a bulk-billing clinic — Medicare pays a rebate under a valid GPCCMP, and a gap fee applies. We also accept NDIS, DVA, WorkCover and private health extras cover. See our Referrals and Claiming page for full details.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can diet cure gout, or do I still need medication?
For most people with persistently high uric acid, medication prescribed by your doctor is the mainstay of treatment — it lowers uric acid to a level where crystals stop forming. Diet alone generally can’t achieve that. What dietary management does do is help reduce the risk of flares, identify your individual triggers, and manage the conditions that often accompany gout. Please don’t stop taking your medication unless your doctor instructs you to, even if your gout improves.
Do I have to avoid spinach, asparagus and mushrooms?
No. Older gout food lists often restrict high-purine vegetables such as spinach, asparagus, mushrooms, cauliflower and peas, but research has since shown that plant purines are handled differently by the body and these vegetables don’t increase gout risk. If you’ve been avoiding them, you can bring them back — they’re good for you, and cutting them out makes eating well unnecessarily difficult.
Is gout caused by overindulgence?
No, and this myth causes a lot of unnecessary shame. Around two-thirds of the purines in your body are made by your own cells, with only about a third coming from food. Genetics, kidney function and certain medications play major roles, and many people develop gout while eating much like everyone around them. A diagnosis isn’t a judgement about your character or your habits.
Do cherries help with gout?
There is some documented evidence that fresh or tinned cherries, along with modest coffee intake, may help prevent the onset of flares. The evidence isn’t strong enough to consider either a treatment, and neither replaces medication — but both can sit comfortably within a balanced diet if you enjoy them.
Can I still drink alcohol if I have gout?
Alcohol raises the risk of a flare, and beer is particularly associated with gout. Where alcohol is consumed, a maximum of one to two standard drinks a day is generally recommended, and it’s best avoided entirely during an acute flare. Your GP will advise what’s appropriate for your situation, and we can help you make that workable socially.
Will losing weight help my gout?
Where excess weight is part of the picture, gradual weight loss can help reduce flares over time. But losing weight too quickly has the opposite effect — fasting, crash dieting and rapid weight loss release more uric acid into the blood and can trigger a flare. Large weight fluctuations in either direction are a recognised risk factor, which is exactly why supervised, steady support is the safer approach.
What should I eat during a gout flare?
During an acute flare, the priorities are staying well hydrated, avoiding alcohol entirely, and steering clear of the highest-purine foods such as offal and certain seafood. Follow your doctor’s advice on managing the flare itself. Longer-term dietary changes are best made once the flare has settled — and this isn’t the moment to start a restrictive diet, since that can prolong things.
Is there a gap fee, and what funding options are accepted?
NutriBlooms is not a bulk-billing clinic, so a gap fee applies alongside your Medicare rebate under a GP Chronic Condition Management Plan. We also accept NDIS, DVA, WorkCover and private health extras cover — see our Referrals and Claiming page for full details.
Fewer Flares, Clearer Answers
If you’re tired of conflicting advice and generic lists of banned foods, our Accredited Practising Dietitians can help you build a plan that fits your life — across six Melbourne clinics, home visits, and telehealth Australia-wide.