Gatsby,

Apparently your friend has inherited a metabolism unable to process the
nucleo-proteins found in purine rich foods. Organ meats, red meat, dark
poultry meat, darker fleshed fish, asparagus and spinach are all high in
purines. These unused purines create a build-up of uric acid in the blood
stream. This can cause gout. This would be what is called an
"Agriculturalists" metabolism- someone slightly more adapted to Neolithic
foods.

Those of us with a "Hunter-Gatherer" type metabolism (probably most of us
on this list) use purines for fuel and need them for optimal health.

An extensive explanation of this (with references) can be found in Robert
McFerran's book.  The first few (6?) chapters of his soon-to-be published
book are available on-line at the web site on the "Ask Dr. Stoll " board @

http://bcn.net/~stoll/archives/arthritis.html

Louise


  At 09:15 PM 09/26/1999 +0100, you wrote:
>A friend of mine has recently tried the paleo way
>of living. I don't think that he sticks to it completly
>and I know that he does his best but he has devolped
>gout. His doc says that this is a build up of uric acid in
>his blood as a result of his diet.
>Does anyone know why this happens and how to reduce uric acid
>levels without resorting to pharmacuticals?
>
>Gatsby
>[log in to unmask]
>