Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Help your Children avoid Gout

By Kathy Nelson

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.

One of the causes of gout is the increase of uric crystals around your joints. Mostly this will start to show itself in your big toe, from here it can travel around your body causing more damage as it goes. It doesn't matter that you could be very young and consider yourself not at risk from gout, you are not too young to feel the pain that gout attacks bring.

The last twenty years or so have brought about changes in children's habits. In general, children will not spend so much time outdoors playing sports or doing exercise. They also tend to eat more processed food and beverages. Many children are not happy to drink just water, instead they prefer sodas and flavoured drinks which tend to contain a lot of fructose.

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.

Have you thought about the long term effects of your child's current diet? If you haven't, then you need to because if you are letting them pick up bad habits in relation to their diet, you could be causing them long term damage. Therefore you should try to help them get into good eating habits so that they will see the benefits as they get older.

We are all trying to squeeze too much work or to many chores into too short a day so often the shopping trip for food for the whole family can become a very rushed affair, add to the time constraint a child who doesn't want to be there and one shopping trip can give you enough of a headache for a week.

Your weekly trip to the supermarket should be the basis of preventing gout problems in your family. You can cut out foods which are bad for you before they get anywhere near your fridge or kitchen. For a start you can avoid foods and drinks which contain high levels of uric acid causing chemicals. Also try to cut out drinks which are high in fructose. By doing this you can cut down on the chances of your children developing gout problems, as well as leading a more healthy lifestyle in general. - 15437

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