Gout and tomatoes?

https://www.the-rheumatologist.org/article/patients-may-be-right-tomatoes-may-trigger-gout-flares/ I've no experience but have a friend who suffers gout with watermelon. High fructose, I guess.

My former husband was/is troubled with gout. Yes, low purine diet is a must. No asparagus, no red meat, no organ meats and no alcohol. But I never heard of tomatoes . Check with your physician. Tart cherry juice is great for you too. He suffered so much with crystals in the joint of his big toe. Allopurinol and an IM injection twice a year only helped severe attacks. Good luck to you.

I tried tart cherry juice, it didn't do anything for me, and if this sucrose/fructose thing it that important then I think there are better directions to go in.
I went seven rounds with Google AI about sugars, triglycerides, uric acid, and all - and actually there's quite a lot known! I'm not sure how long it's been known, a lot of detailed metabolic information can be relatively new, last 10-20-40+ years new anyway, LOL. And some of these super-sweet fruits (including tomatoes which are after all a fruit) are new, too.
Remember, your body produces as much uric acid as it gets from purines, and apparently fructose, especially in even slightly larger amounts, can turn on some unfortunate processes that do so.
Do you know humans are the only animal that gets gout? The theory is we had the gene to clear uric acid because every other mammal does, but somehow we lost it 10,000 or 20,000 years ago. Some day maybe they'll fix that somehow.
So when they say "tomatoes sometimes trigger gout", that's not just observational, there's some pretty solid science behind it. Why it affects some people more than others is another question!

There IS gout commentary here. But not ongoing because people don't pursue it. I found out I had gout 25 years AFTER two flares sending me to the hospital and a couple smaller ones. I adopted a low purine diet. But no longer did that work. Someone here posted about Zazzeee tart cherry capsules 10,000:1 on Amazon.
https://a.co/d/070pbDMu
I bought and my 30 years of problems about evaporated. I was tested and my uric acid was high. So I asked for the Allopurinol. It made a HUGE difference. So I am a believer. There are two kinds of gout (I wrote about here recently.) Tomatoes are not a trigger. Why? Because although they are acidic your body MOVES to an alkaline environment to stabilize your body. The other kind of gout which is caused by calcium deposits does not react to food. https://www.arthritis.org/diseases/more-about/gout-or-pseudogout
drink lots of fluids. I eat enormous amounts of tomatoes. Does not move my uric acid level.

I finally after many gout episodes asked to see a nutritionist because I was getting conflicting information from the internet. It was great I take 2 allopurinol, a tart cherry capsule and since following the diet I received from the nutritionist I have not had a flare. I was surprised the number of vegetables and fish on the list of no no’s not surprised about all the meats, beans, and shellfish not to have

@dmk
I could switch to allopurinol and my insurance would pay for it, lol, but celery seed has a very similar (or identical?) compound:
3-nbutylphthalide, or 3nB
inhibits the enzyme xanthine oxidase
xanthine oxidase inhibitor (xaoi)
... and basically no side-effects listed, nor have I had any in many years. It's not terribly expensive but it's not free!
I have not had to go on a very strict diet to mostly go without symptoms, but I suppose I'm living on the edge by doing so.
It's likely because of that, that relatively minor things like tomatoes can drag me over the edge.

@loriesco
Yes, I also experience pseudo-gout, and I was going to ask if anyone has heard any insight whether one might somehow trigger the other, or over time if both tend to occur together. One might irritate the joint and the other move in, for example.

I gather, after some recent research, that the fructose channel to uric acid happens in very short order, minutes or at most hours, and it may then vanish almost as quickly, leaving you with a few crystals or at least bruised joint membranes. It might therefore not show up on a blood panel if you are not suffering the consequences at that very moment.

@carbcounter I seriously doubt what you wrote is true. If you have gout your uric acid is high. It needs medicine to make it normal. Gout is a disease. It does not go away. During a flare it is worse. If not treated, it will cause permanent damage. If you have had a gout flare get youfr uric acid baseline done when its over. Psuedo gout and gout can happen to the same person but there is no crossover in the disease. Read the other link I posted.
There is a lot of great info here:
https://cls.health/blog/how-long-does-gout-last-without-treatment
More great info:
The Gout and Uric Acid ConnectionMisleading levels during a flare: Blood tests taken during an acute gout attack can sometimes show "normal" uric acid levels. This is because the inflammation can cause the body to temporarily excrete more uric acid, or the crystals themselves may have temporarily moved out of the bloodstream and settled into the joint.Normalizing requires treatment: Simply waiting out a flare does not resolve the root hyperuricemia (high uric acid in the blood). Without dietary changes, weight management, or uric acid-lowering medications (like allopurinol), uric acid levels will likely remain too high.The target range: To prevent future flares and allow existing crystals in your joints to dissolve, doctors generally aim to lower and maintain your blood uric acid levels to strictly below \(6.0 \text{ mg/dL}\).The Importance of Long-Term ManagementEven when you are entirely pain-free, uric acid crystals can continue to accumulate and cause permanent joint and bone damage if left unmanaged. To properly track your levels, blood tests should be conducted during "interval" periods (when you are completely flare-free) to get an accurate baseline of your uric acid control.
Here is another great article: https://creakyjoints.org/living-with-arthritis/treatment-and-care/medications/gout-stages-progression/

@carbcounter I eat 2-3 tomatoes daily. Never known it to cause gout in me. I used to get it almost once per month. Finally started allopurinol and was very regimented in taking it, and it’s probably been 25 years since I had an episode. Eat and drink whatever I like. Good luck

That's fine but I didn't make this up, I first read about it a couple of years ago and cutting them out did seem to help. As I said, small amounts have been fine for me for a long time, but I guess I overdid it this time.
It may not affect everybody, or it may be synergistic with other stuff you are either eating or avoiding.
Reading about this fructose channel provides a mechanism.
Oh wait, I got this from Google AI and copying out does not preserve the links it provided, but here's some text:

Yes, your suspicion aligns perfectly with modern agricultural trends. Many newer varieties of fruits and vegetables are deliberately bred to be significantly sweeter and have a higher sugar concentration than their heirloom ancestors. Cherry tomatoes are a prime example: they have been heavily engineered for a high sugar-to-acid ratio, meaning they pack a much higher fructose punch per bite than a standard large slicing tomato.
Aprifel +2
Given your high triglycerides—even on a low-carb diet—these "stealth" fructose sources could easily be the missing piece of your gout puzzle.
Why Cherry Tomatoes Pack a Sugar Punch
While standard large tomatoes are relatively low in carbohydrates, cherry and grape tomatoes function metabolically more like a fruit than a vegetable.
• Concentrated Sugars: To achieve their signature "candy-like" sweetness, cherry tomatoes are bred to maximize soluble solids, primarily fructose and glucose.
• The Volumetric Trap: Because they are small and highly palatable, it is incredibly easy to consume a large volume of them in one sitting (e.g., in a salad or roasted). A cup of sweet cherry tomatoes can deliver around 4 grams of pure sugar, about half of which is free fructose. For someone with a sensitive ATP-depletion pathway, snacking on them like berries can trigger a metabolic ripple effect.