Customer Reviews

Gout Hater's Cookbook : Recipes Lower in Purines

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I thoroughly enjoyed the information and the recipes. You don't have to suffer from gout to enjoy Cherry Freeze, Mexican Rice Cooler, Potato Chili, Almond Crisps - many recipes are simple wholesome fare that can become family favorites, repeated again and again. Tips for small changes that make a big difference, quick snacks and other tips come in handy. Indexed with a lengthy bibliography, sources of information and tables of foods. This is not for gourmet chefs, it is for ordinary folks who want to manage their disease by diet - simple, varied and delicious.

This book is a nice effort - very low-purine, low-fat recipes for ordinary people (without specialized tastes) who wish to minimize their recurrences of gout through diet. There are some odd features - an unnecessary avoidance of egg yolks and caffeine for instance.

But most importantly, there is new research on gout, published a few months ago in the New England Journal of Medicine and reported various places, such as Parade Magazine and Jane Brody's column - that suggests that the book is not really necessary. The research confirms that animal protein - especially seafood but also meat - is dangerous for gout sufferers. But it also suggests that vegetable foods such as beans, spinach, whole grains etc. DO NOT contribute to gout. This is very important information, as previous ideas, represented in this cookbook and other sources, have led gout sufferers to avoid very healthy foods unnecessarily.

What the new findings mean, in terms of cookbooks, is that gout sufferers would do well to explore the whole range of cookbooks for lacto-ovo vegetarians - a huge, wonderful literature. The highly restricted diet represented in this somewhat banal cookbook is no longer supported by science.

Thank you for writing this book! I have not been able to find much information anywhere and was so pleased to find all of these delicious ideas. I can't wait for the next book!

The charts for food that are high, relatively high and lower in purines is very comprehensive. The four tips that follow are interesting. The advise to consult a physician about diet is pro forma. After that, stop reading. The receipes redfine the terms bland and boring. The use of frozen vegetables is at best appalling.