Foods Containing Purines

Ultimate Food Purine Content list Food mg/100g Yeast, Brewers 1810 Yeast, Bakers 680 Beef liver 460 Anchovies 411 Sardines 399 Herring 378 Sardines 345 Anchovies 321 Fish, Trout 297 Fish, Tuna in oil 290 Pork liver 289 Liver 286.4 Fish, Tuna 257 Salmon 250 Mackerel 246 Chicken liver 243 Chicken liver 243 liver, boiled 237 liver, broiled 236.1 Liver, chicken 236.1 Shrimp 234 Kidney 230.8 Blackeye peas 230 Chicken heart 223 Lentils 222 Beef kidney 213 Great northern bean 213 Liver, raw 202.2 Small white bean 202 Beef liver 197 Split peas 195 Mackerel 194 Lamb (muscle meat) 182 Fish, Halibut 178 Chicken breast (with skin) 175 Beef heart 171 Lamb heart 171 Pinto bean 171 Fish, Salmon 170 Pork (muscle meat) 166 Beef brain 162 Red bean 162 Turkey (with skin) 150 Large lima bean 149 Lamb liver 147 Shrimp (brown) 147 Baby lima bean 144 Tuna 142 Clams 136 Scallop 136 Squid 135 Ground beef (muscle meat) 133 Drumstick, chicken 132.3 Ham (cooked) 131 Poultry 130.7 Breast, chicken 130.7 Gizzard, chicken 130.5 lamb, roasted, chop 127.5 Lentil, seed 127 Thigh, chicken 126.5 Steak, broiled 121 Beef, chuck 120 Pork, roasted, chop 119 Haddock, broiled 118.7 Lobster 118 Fish, white, fresh 115.9 Mussel 112 Peas, chick (garbanzo) 110 Beef, sirloin 110 Fish, cod 109 Steak, boiled 107.8 Oysters 107 Steak, raw 105.9 Skin, chicken 104.6 Haddock, raw 101.7 Haddock, boiled 94.7 Oats, whole grain 94 Oyster 90 Frankfurter 89 Salmon 88 Pea, green 84 Brocolli 81 Peanuts 79 Cranberry bean 75 Clams 62 Crawfish 60 Mushroom 58 Banana 57 Garbanza bean 56 Corn 52 Mushroom, fresh 46.9 Asparagus 23 Potato 16 Bread, crusted 15.7 Bread, white 12.2 Wheat flour 11.5 Cottage cheese 8 Plain yogurt 7 Rice, cooked 5.9

I've compiled the best list of purine containing foods that I could find to give a reference for others suffering with gout. Below you will find a list of common foods and the levels of their purines. If you are looking to restrict your intake of purines, this will be invaluable. I would suggest taking all animal sources over 125 or so and cut them out straight away. Others will counsel going much lower and you may indeed need to do that, but at the same time, it is very difficult to cut out all meat from your diet and you may find that you don't even need to. But all meat is not equal when it comes to purines. For example, sardines have have 399mg per 100g, but a steak (sirloin) sits at 110. In fact, fish seems to top the list of meats with the exception of organ meat. It might be worthwhile to cut that out for a time. 1 month should be sufficient to let your body catch up with your intake and let you know if you have lowered your purine intake enough.Note: there are several instances of the term "liver" and different levels of purines given by these sources. Perhaps this is due to testing only a single source? I don't have an answer on that. However, I can state that with as high as liver shows on the list it is a food that should be cut out anyways.Sources:Clifford, Andrew J. and Story, David L. 1976. Levels of Purines in Foods and Their Metabolic Effects in Rats. J. Nutr. 106: 435-442.Brule, D. Sarwar, G., and Savoie, L. 1988. Purine content of Selected Canadian Food Products. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 1(2): 130-138.Brule, D., Sarwar, G. and Savoie, L. 1989. Effects of methods of cooking on free and total purine bases in meat and fish. Can. Insti. Food Sci. Technol. J. Vol. 22(3): 248 - 251.Choi, H. K., Atkinson, K., Karlson, E. W., Willett, W., and Curhan, G.. 2004. Purine-Rich Foods, Dairy and Protein Intake, and the Risk of Gout in Men. The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 350(11):1093-1103.Clifford, A. J. and Stroy, D. L. 1976. Levels of purines in foods and their metabolic effects in rats. Journal of Nutrition 106: 435-442.Gibson, T., Rodgers, A. V., Simmonds, H. A. and Toseland, P. 1984. Beer drinking and its effect on uric acid. British Journal of Rheumatology, 23: 203 - 209.Young, L. L. 1980. Evaluation of four purine compounds in poultry products. Journal of Food Science 45: 1064-67.