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Low Purine Diet: Foods List and What People With Gout Eat

By Fabien Martin · Published October 19, 2026 · Updated October 21, 2026 · 11 min read

Purines are natural compounds found in almost every food and in the body's own cells. The body breaks them down into uric acid, a waste product normally removed by the kidneys. When too much uric acid builds up in the blood, it can form crystals in a joint: that is gout. This article looks at the foods lower in purines. Its companion covers the foods highest in purines.

Which foods are lowest in purines?

Bread, rice, pasta, cheese, butter and canned beans are among the lowest-purine foods in the USDA database. The figures are total purines (the four purine bases added together) in mg per 100 g. A few meat and fish values are included as reference points from the same database.

Read it by comparison: white bread at 12.2 and cooked rice at 5.9 sit with the cheeses, a small fraction of raw chicken breast (289.0) or pork loin (237.2). Canned beans, at 21.19 to 23.4, are a little higher but still far below fresh meat. The cheeses are US products; canned beans were drained and rinsed. Some entries, such as bread and cooked rice, come from older studies the database compiles.^[1]

What counts as a "very low" or "low" purine food?

There is no official cut-off. The Kaneko study sorts its own measurements into five groups: very low (under 50 mg per 100 g), low (50–100), moderate (100–200), high (200–300) and very high (over 300).^[2] These groups were set on Kaneko's numbers, so the tables below use Kaneko values only. We use Kaneko for familiar foods the USDA database doesn't cover: eggs, milk, yogurt, fruit, most vegetables, tofu and nuts.

Kaneko's vegetables were mostly measured as bought, with no detail on raw or cooked; values marked [3] come from the same lab's 2015 update. The authors sum up eggs and dairy as containing almost no purines.^[2][3]

Why do the two sources give different numbers?

Labs break foods down and measure purines in different ways, with different instruments, on samples bought in different countries and decades. For the meats both measured, USDA values run about two to three and a half times Kaneko's; for cod the two are close. So the same ham can look "low" in one source and high in the other. What both agree on is where a food stands compared with others.

The shared conclusion: in both sources, ham, bacon and frankfurters sit in the same range as fresh meat such as pork loin, and many times above dairy or most vegetables (and, in the USDA database, bread). They are not low purine foods in the everyday sense, even where Kaneko's scale puts them in its "low" group.^[1][2]

Do all low purine foods count the same?

No: the source of the purines seems to matter as much as the number. The Kaneko team found that meat and fish purines are mostly hypoxanthine, while vegetables, grains, soy and dairy are mostly adenine and guanine, and they cite work suggesting hypoxanthine raises uric acid the most.^[2]

In 633 people with gout, eating the most animal purines over 2 days was linked to higher odds of an attack (OR 2.41, 1.72–3.36, top vs bottom fifth), while for plant purines no fifth showed a significant link (top fifth OR 1.39, 0.98–1.98).^[5] In a cohort of 47,150 US men, purine-rich vegetables such as spinach, cauliflower, peas and mushrooms were not linked to a higher risk of gout.^[4] So in the Kaneko study, broccoli (70.0) and pork loin (90.9) sit in the same low group, but they are not equivalent from that point of view.^[2]

Are beans and lentils low in purines?

Canned and cooked legumes measure far less per 100 g than dried ones, which are measured per dry weight, before soaking and cooking. In the USDA database, dried lentils measured 222 and dried small white beans 202, against 21.6 for canned chickpeas and 11.2 for cooked chickpeas.^[1] There is no value for cooked or canned lentils. More in our article on purines in vegetables and legumes.

Which everyday foods are still missing?

Neither source lists oats or porridge, quinoa, wholemeal bread, named European cheeses (camembert, comté, cheddar, parmesan…) or cooked lentils. Fruit is thin too: we have values for banana and strawberry, but not cherries, apples or oranges. We don't give a number for those.

Does dairy lower the risk of gout?

Dairy, especially low-fat dairy, was linked to a lower risk of gout in one large study, but this is an association, not proof. In 47,150 US men followed for 12 years (730 new cases of gout), those who ate the most dairy had a lower risk than those who ate the least (RR 0.56, 95% CI 0.42–0.74).^[4] The link was limited to low-fat dairy. Men who drank 2 or more glasses of skim milk a day had RR 0.54 (0.40–0.73) compared with less than one glass a month.^[4]

The study included only men, mostly health professionals, and looked at first gout attacks. The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) says low-fat dairy products should be encouraged.^[10] The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) made no recommendation on dairy, because the evidence was of low or very low certainty.^[9]

Do cherries help with gout?

Cherries were linked to fewer gout attacks in one observational study, with no trial to confirm it. In 633 people with gout, eating any cherries over a 2-day period was linked to 35% lower odds of an attack compared with none (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.50–0.85).^[6] One serving was half a cup, about 10–12 cherries.^[6]

The ACR made no recommendation on cherries or cherry extract, citing low or very low certainty.^[9] EULAR mentions that cherries are negatively associated with gout.^[10] Neither purine source lists cherries, so we can't give their purine content.

What do gout guidelines actually recommend about food?

Guidelines focus on what to limit (alcohol, sugary drinks, excess weight) rather than on a list of foods to eat:

• ACR 2020: conditionally recommends limiting alcohol (low certainty), limiting purine intake (low certainty), limiting high-fructose corn syrup (very low certainty) and weight loss for people who are overweight (very low certainty). It conditionally recommends against adding vitamin C supplements.^[9]
• EULAR 2016: advises avoiding alcohol (especially beer and spirits), sugar-sweetened drinks, heavy meals and excessive meat and seafood, encourages low-fat dairy and advises regular exercise. The text says this rests mainly on expert opinion.^[10]
• French Society of Rheumatology (SFR) 2020: advises avoiding alcohol and sugary sodas and encouraging physical activity and weight loss (grade B). It does not mention purines or dairy.^[11]

All three say diet changes have only a modest effect on uric acid, and the ACR and SFR both warn against blaming patients: genes play a large part in gout.^[9][11]

Is a low purine food always a good choice?

Not necessarily: purines are not the only thing linked to gout.

• Beer contains few purines per 100 mL compared with most foods: the USDA average for regular beer, pooled over many brands and labs, is 8.48 mg.^[1] Yet each daily serving of beer was linked to a higher risk of gout in 47,150 US men (RR 1.49, 1.32–1.70).^[7]
• Fruit juice measured 1.1 mg per 100 g.^[3] But in 78,906 US women, one serving of orange juice a day was linked to a higher risk of gout (RR 1.41, 1.03–1.93). Orange juice is rich in fructose, a sugar.^[8] See our article on fructose and sugary drinks.

What this means in practice

People who watch their purine intake often build meals around the lowest-purine foods: eggs, dairy, bread, rice or pasta, potatoes, vegetables and beans, with meat or fish as a smaller part. A few points:

For my part, I cut back a lot on meat and fish, and now eat more bread, eggs and goat cheese (I'm lactose intolerant). Goat cheese isn't in the tables we use, but every cheese that was measured came out close to bread, and eggs are among the lowest foods measured. That's my own choice, not a recommendation: what suits you is for you to decide with your doctor or dietitian.

• Think in portions. The figures are per 100 g. A food eaten in small amounts adds less than its per-100 g figure suggests, and a large portion adds more.
• Don't count on cooking. In every raw-and-cooked meat pair USDA measured, the cooked value per 100 g was higher, for example pork loin at 237.2 raw and 333.5 cooked, mainly because cooking removes water and fat.^[1]
• Check dried foods. Dried legumes are measured per dry weight, so their values look higher than what ends up on the plate.^[1]

Printable version: purine chart (PDF): common foods on one page.

Think about the glass too. And real meals are mixed dishes, not single ingredients, which is where tables get hard to use. An app like Smart Gout Care can estimate a dish from a photo. For a week of ideas, see the low purine meal plan. I'm not a doctor or a dietitian, so ask your doctor or dietitian what fits your situation and treatment.