Tofu is a very popular delicacy on the table of Chinese people. No matter a professional chef or an ordinary housewife, tofu can be used to make all kinds of delicious food. Tofu is not only delicious, but also very nutritious. It is rich in high-quality soybean protein, soybean isoflavones and soybean phospholipids. The calcium content of old tofu is also relatively high. Both the United States and the European Union, including our dietary guidelines in China, recommend eating soy products frequently.
However, there is a group of people who stay away from tofu, that is, people with high uric acid and even gout. They are afraid to eat tofu because they are worried that tofu contains too much purine, and eating tofu will increase uric acid and even induce gout. This statement is widely circulated and has almost become a conventional health care consciousness. But is this really the case? Dr. Fu will take you to know about tofu today and see if tofu can cause gout.
The direct cause of gout is uric acid is too high in the body, which forms urate crystals and deposits around the joints, causing severe pain. Repeated attacks for a long time will damage joint function. In addition, high uric acid can also cause chronic renal insufficiency and kidney calculi, increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, and easily get type 2 diabetes. Therefore, people with high uric acid and gout are very afraid of eating foods with high purine content, such as thick broth, some seafood and animal offal.
People with high uric acid and gout dare not eat tofu because they are worried that there are more purines in tofu. Why do you think there are many purines in tofu? Because the soybean used to make tofu has high purine content. The purine content of soybean is really high, 100 g of soybean contains 166 mg of purine. But that doesn't mean that tofu has a high purine content.
Purine is very soluble in water. The first step of making tofu from soybeans is to grind soybean milk, which requires a lot of water. After soybean is ground into soybean milk, a large amount of purine is dissolved in water and diluted, and some of it is lost when tofu is ordered. The result is that the purine content of tofu is very low. The content of purine in South tofu with more water content is only about13mg/100g, which is far lower than many foods in our daily life. The purine content of old tofu is not more than 50mg/100g. Therefore, tofu is a low purine food, and people with high uric acid need not worry about the purine content of tofu.
The purine content of tofu is not high, and it is also beneficial to reduce uric acid. Studies have found that spinach, beans and oats with high purine content in vegetables generally do not cause gout. Red meat and seafood are very easy to induce gout. This shows that the effect of plant purine on uric acid is far less than that of animal purine. Why is this happening?
The reason is not clear, but it must be related to metabolism. In fact, most of uric acid in the human body does not come from food, but is produced by its own metabolism. The main cause of uric acid increase is not high purine diet, but metabolic disorder in the body. Soybean products and vegetables are healthy foods that are beneficial to improving metabolism in the body. By improving metabolism, it is beneficial to reduce uric acid.
Conclusion: The content of purine in tofu is low, and it can improve metabolism and reduce uric acid. People with high uric acid and gout can eat tofu in moderation.