Healthy Eating Tips and Balanced Diet for Good Health

There are more important diet guidelines to follow in your case instead of just focusing on tomatoes. Besides gout you have two other major health problems; high blood pressure and increased LDL levels. Your aim should be to maintain healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels along with decreasing your uric acid levels. Try the following dietary and lifestyle modifications to improve your health.

The first aim for you should be weight loss if you are above your ideal body weight. Being overweight or obese can not only increase the risk of high blood pressure, bad cholesterol and gout but also increase your risk for heart diseases, diabetes and stroke. Even a slight decrease in weight can improve your cholesterol profile, maintain a healthy blood pressure and decrease your uric acid levels in the body. However avoid going on any crash diets as they can worsen your situation. Plan to lose weight gradually with the help of both diet and exercise.

Tips for Health

• Avoid eating foods rich in purines which include meats, organ meats, mackerel, herring, poultry, pulses mainly lentils and green peas, spinach, and asparagus. Gravies of meats and poultry should also be avoided as they are also high in purines.
• Decrease your total cholesterol, saturated fat, trans fat and over all fat intake. Focus on good quality fats like monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats present in olive oil, and canola oil. Foods highs in cholesterol, saturated fats and trans fats include meats, organ meats, poultry with skin, egg yolks, butter, margarine, bakery foods like cakes, cookies, pastries and other snacks.
• Focus on a healthy diet including whole grains, cereals, fresh fruits and vegetables. Tomatoes can be eaten in limited amounts in the diet. Proteins can be derived from legumes, egg white, skimmed milk and milk products. You can include a serving of fatty fish high in omega-3 fatty acids once or twice in a week. Omega 3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties which will help to decrease gout pain and also help to maintain healthy blood cholesterol levels and blood pressure.
• Decrease your total salt intake and also avoid foods high in sodium. Read the food labels carefully for sodium content before consuming.
• Try to increase your physical activity or include a regular exercise regime. Exercise will not only help to improve your cholesterol profile and maintain a healthy blood pressure but will also help decrease your uric acid levels.