Has anybody out there got the Gout? Gout is where Puric Acid creates Purines in your blood, which create what feels like GROUND GLASS between your joints. It's in every food beside Broccoli and a radish they grow in Turkey. For thirty years I suffered with Gout, ten years before anyone could tell me what it was, and ten years before a doctor would prescribe Colchacine to relieve it. Colchacine is one, I believe, of two temporary remedies in existence. Not CURE, just temporary relief.

Although it works, Colchacine is a poison, hence the reluctance of my doctor to prescribe it. I watched a woman kill her husband with it on New Detectives one night, even as I was taking it for my swollen ankle. Go figure. I also have three sets of crutches friends gave me over the years to deal with Gout. I've tried balms, salves, soaks, but nothing helped, until a friend told me a cure that really works. The cure is:

5 TO 1 CONCENTRATED BLACK CHERRY JUICE.

From health-food stores. I drank a couple 16-ounce bottles of it the first week (undiluted), and now I take a teaspoon like cough syrup once a month (if that), and I haven't had to take an Allapurinol or Colchacine tablet in almost a year. Garlic, Broccoli and Jalapino peppers seem to cure everything else.

Update: I became complacent after two years with no attack, and started indulging in the foods I like, mainly seafood. I started eating sardines again, and anchovies on my salads; the restaurant down the street had an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet I couldn't resist, and almost immediately I had a major gout attack. That was Thanksgiving weekend, '06.

This episode led me to a change my diet completely. Does Black Cherry Juice work? Yes; I've talked with too many people who said it cured them. But for me, I had to change my diet. Food is either acid or alkaline, and acid foods are the ones that cause purines in the blood. It didn't happen overnight. 99% of the food you buy in a grocery store is acid; it is bad for you. There is nothing in a supermarket, outside the produce department, that I can eat except sea salt and raisins. Even sea salt has an additive to keep it from clumping, so I buy rock salt and one of those twister dispensers. Since the salt content in our blood is the same as in ocean water, (from whence we came), it figures that sea salt would fit right into any diet. I use a lot of Bragg's Liquid Aminos. A salt substitute that tastes like soy sauce, only better.

Soy beans. Put about a cup into a jar twice that size and fill with pure water. Next day pour off water; soy beans will have enlarged and softened somewhat. Soy beans never get entirely tender no matter how long you cook them. BUT, they contain five and a half times the protein of STEAK! Like ground flax seed, I put soy beans in everything I cook. Put the soy beans in a frying pan, add olive oil, cut up an onion, a handful of garlic cloves, cut up a length of tofu sausage, and/or add cubed tofu, or (my favorite) Tempeh. Stir in a few raisins, and legumes if you have them, cook at medium heat, covered, stirring regularly with spatula. Pour into bowl, add Bragg's, and you'll find that this diet can be pretty tasty. Instead of rice I use millet and flax.

FLAX, the miracle food. They found this stuff in the pyramid's. Get a coffee-grinder to grind seeds to a powder. They will pass through your body ineffectively if you don't. I put ground flax seed on EVERYTHING. Stir-frys, cottege cheese, yogurd, (organic only), and I like to dice up an apple into a bowl and pour on a 1/4 cup of ground flax seed. Same with a pear. Golden flax has a nutty taste.

Millet. What I do these days is pour a cup of Millet and a cup of Flax (ground) into a baking dish fill the dish almost to top with pure water, bake for half an hour. You can add an entire onion diced up, about twenty garlic cloves, even raisins. I don't think it's possible to eat too much garlic. The millet and flax expands with the water, bakes into a sort-of gooey cornbread. This will be your medium instead of rice (acid). You can freeze it in containers to add to your stir-fries each day.

Watermelon and canteloupe are very alkaline. For munchies while watching TV eat figs rather than cookies and junk food. On a scale of alkalinity from one to ten, Figs are THIRTY! I like Black Mission Figs; they're moist and chewey. But, like everythng good for you, they are expensive.

Things I've learned the hard way:
Steam or stir-fry raw vegetables; nothing from a can. Use olive oil exclusively. No SUGAR! Agave nectar is a good sweetener, and its fructose. Use only sea salt. No COFFEE! Drink green tea instead. About the only nuts you can eat are Brazil and Almonds. No meat of any kind, and no seafood, except Salmon (occasional). I steam my veggies, and when I stirfry them I use virgin olive oil with an equal amount of water added.

Health food stores have several kinds of sausage made from tofu, which taste much like the real thing.

ABSOLUTELY no beer or alcohol. Frozen or raw beans only. Nothing made from flour. No canned food. Drink Black Cherry Juice every day if you can afford it. My main problem was a bread I can eat, until I found Millet and Flax rolls at my health food store. You must nott eat anything made from wheat or that contains sugar or regular salt. Raw food is best, but I lightly steam or olive oil/water fry just everything because my teeth aren't what they used to be.

It's ironic that we who have gout are are forced to eat healthy in spite of ourselves. An Alkaline diet is very healthy. Other people have to rely on will-power to stay off junk food. If gout patients go back to the junk we suffer great pain.

With an alkaline diet I have been able to quit taking allapurinol, (All medicines (pills, drugs) are acid) though I keep a bottle of colchacine in the freezer just in case I feel a tinge of gout happening. This happens a couple times a year, but if you catch it early two or three pills will knock it out.

Copy the following and paste text into word processing pages so you can print them evenly. Hang them on your refrigerator and learn them.

ALKALINE FOODS - Good for you

Rule #1 - No Sugar and No regular Salt - EVER! And artificial sweeteners are even worse. Look for evaporated cane juice and use Agave nectar.

Figs 30.0
Soy Beans 12.0
Raisins 7.0 Eat all you want.
Apricots 9.5
Spinach 8.0
Almonds 3.6
Carrots 3.5
Dates 3.0
Tomatoes 1.7
Turnip/Beet tops 8.0
Peaches 1.5
Cabbage 1.8
Apples 1.0
Grapes 1.0
Bananas 1.0
Pineapple 2.0
Grapefruit 1.7
Watermelon 1.0
Celery 2.5
Cucumber 2.5
Brazil nuts 0.5
Cantaloupe 2.5
Coconuts 0.5
Lettuce 2.2
Potatoes 2.0

NEUTRAL ALKALINE FOODS:
Vegetable oils
Butter
Bananas
Chocolate (no sugar added)
Mineral water
Orange juice (raw)
Potatoes (with skins)
Watermelon (The best part of an alkaline diet)

VEGGIES
Turnip
Chives
Carrot
Green Beans
Beetroot
Garlic
Celery
Cucumber
Broccoli
Kale
Brussels Sprouts
Asparagus
Artichokes
Cabbage
Lettuce
Onion
Cauliflower
Radish
Lambs Lettuce
Peas
Red Cabbage
I eat a Jalapino pepper with everything. I remove 80% of the seeds.

FRUITS
Lemon
Lime
Avocado
Tomato
Grapefruit
Watermelon (is neutral)

DRINKS
'Green Drinks'
Fresh vegetable juice
Pure water (distilled, reverse osmosis, ionised)
Lemon water (pure water + fresh lemon or lime).
Herbal Tea - Green tea excellent
Vegetable broth
Non-sweetened Soy Milk
Almond Milk

SEEDS
Brazil Nuts - I keep a bucket of Brazil Nuts and a hammer next to the TV remote.
Almonds
Pumpkin
Sunflower
Sesame
Lentils
Any sprouted seed

FATS AND OILS
Olive

SOY SAUCE ALTERNATIVE
Bragg Liquid Aminos

ACID FOODS - Bad for you
Oysters 5.0
Rice 2.5
Veal 3.5
W. Wheat/Rye bread 2.5
Fish 3.5
Most nuts (except-almond/brazil nut) 2.0
Organ meats 3.0
Natural Cheese 1.5
Liver 3.0
Lentils 1.5
Chicken 3.0
Peanuts 1.0 (including peanut butter)
Eggs 3.0
Most Grains 3.0

MEATS
Beef, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds, and legumes such as black beans.
Pork
Lamb
Beef
Chicken
Turkey
Crustaceans
Other Seafood (apart from occasional oily fish such as salmon)

DAIRY
Milk
Eggs
Cheese
Cream
Ice Cream
Yogurt

OTHERS
Jellies and jams
Vinegar
White Pasta
White Bread
Wholemeal Bread
Biscuits
Soy Sauce
Tamari
Condiments (Tomato Sauce, Mayonnaise etc.)
Artificial Sweeteners
Honey (I use raw honey in moderation)

DRINKS
Fizzy Drinks
Coffee
Tea (except green)
Beers
Spirits
Fruit Juice (from concentrate)
Dairy Smoothies
Milk
Traditional Tea

CONVENIENCE FOODS
Sweets
Chocolate
Microwave Meals
Tinned Foods
Powdered Soups
Instant Meals
Fast Food

OILS
Saturated Fats
Hydrogenated Oils
Margarine (worse than Butter)
Corn Oil
Vegetable Oil
Sunflower Oil

Gout can ONLY be cured with DIET.

Update, 6/5/08

I have recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer, which has caused me to regiment my diet even more. For one thing I have had to go back on allipurinol. One of the best cancer fighting foods is Shitake mushrooms, which I love. I buy them DRY at a local chinese grocery store for less than 3 dollars a bag, and have a cupboard full. I break them up into the stir fry as it cooks. They add a texture of meat to any steamed or stir-fry meal. But mushrooms cause gout, hence the allipurinol.

Google: Cancer Fighting Foods and Spices

Cancer Fighting Stir-fries Link

This might seem a strange thing to put on an artist's web site, but I believe the information is that important.

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