Gout

Bleat away, but DO NOT STAMP!

I don’t even know what I was looking for: I think it was a recipe for Peanut Butter Pile, which I make all of the time but I need to get proper proportions in order to pass them along for the Pile series. And I’m searching for a recipe that doesn’t call for grated ginger and chicken broth and what-all: I want to tell you about the one where you comb PB and a few other choices pantry staples through spaghetti and everyone gasps at the delicious and worldly dinner you have served them. Which is delicious again the next day when it is cold! Even your child will marvel at your brilliance for combining 2 of the only things he consents to eat — peanut butter and noodles — into one perfect meal.

Anyhow, what my Internet search brought me to first was a listing of foods which cause gout. Gout is a disease that is very painful that rich men used to get from eating rich food. My friend Barry and I made up a limerick about it once, when we were about thirteen years further from gout than we are now. What was the limerick? I only remember the first 2 lines:

When pee backs up in your feet / It’s tempting to stamp and to bleat

(In retrospect, I suspect that it’s actually NOT tempting to stamp: it’s probably only tempting to bleat.)

I shouldn’t have been so cavalier in the poetic explorations of my youth, because what I learned through my accidentally gout-related search of the Internet is that many foods that I love, from cake to dark green vegetables, can build the excessive uric acid that can lead to gout.

So, Peanut Butter Pile recipe to come. Gout recipe below. xox!

Excerpted from http://www.goutcure.com: All of the foods below can be responsible for excessive uric acid production. Even though some do not contain purines, they can still cause the system to naturally produce uric acid. They are as follows: alcohol, anchovies, asparagus, cauliflower, mushrooms, consomme, herring, meat gravies, broth, bouillon, mussels, sardines, red meats, organ meats, processed meats (hot dogs, lunch meats, etc.), fried foods, roasted nuts, any food cooked in oil (heated oil destroys vitamin E), rich foods (cakes, sugar products, white flour products), dark greens vegetables, dried fruits, fish, caffeine, beans, lentils, eggs, oatmeal, peas, poultry, yeast products, acetaminophen, and low doses of aspirin.

Thanks to Vagawi on flickr for the pic. Man oh man, I hope you are feeling better, Vagawi!