KC Meat Up

Gout and the Carnivore Diet: Real Stories of Fewer Flares

By Jeffrey M. Barber

Personal stories, not medical advice. If you take medication (especially for blood sugar, blood pressure or mood), change your diet with your doctor in the loop.

What it feels like

You were told to stop eating red meat. You cut the steak, kept the bread and the beer, and the flares kept coming: a toe or a knee so hot and swollen you can't stand a bedsheet on it. The people below were told the same thing.

Real people, real stories (N=1)

He Goes On Meat-Only Diet, What Happens To His Gout Is Amazing | Dr. Shawn Baker & Greg · Greg (with Dr. Shawn Baker) · Watch on YouTube

  • Greg tells Dr. Shawn Baker that his frequent gout flare-ups bothered him most before carnivore, with one starting soon after another healed. YouTube
  • Asked when his last gout attack was, Greg says maybe a couple of years or longer, while now eating a lot of red meat. YouTube

Coach Mike S Mike S heals gout on a carnivore diet · Coach Mike S · Watch on YouTube

  • Mike S says that on keto, while still eating lots of spinach and almonds, he kept getting gout flare-ups. YouTube
  • Asked whether carnivore has basically healed his gout, Mike S says yes, and that he plans to check his uric acid with labs. YouTube

Carnivore Cleared His Tinnitus and Gout · Guest on Wick Goes Carnivore · Watch on YouTube

  • On Wick Goes Carnivore, the guest says the gout he had before starting carnivore has disappeared. YouTube

🔴 Treating Gout Naturally: The MOST Effective Dietary Solution · Dr. Anthony Chaffee · Watch on YouTube

  • Dr. Anthony Chaffee says gout has been treated since the 1800s with a red meat and water diet. YouTube
  • Dr. Anthony Chaffee says some people get a couple of gout attacks after going carnivore before it settles down. YouTube

Does Eating A Lot Of Meat Cause Gout? · Dr. Paul Saladino · Watch on YouTube

  • Dr. Paul Saladino argues that eating a lot of meat won't raise uric acid because the body excretes more, and says his own was 4 mg/dL on 3+ pounds of meat a day. YouTube
  • Dr. Paul Saladino links insulin resistance to lower uric acid excretion and suggests limiting carbohydrates and seed oils. YouTube

Meat and gout? · Dr. Shawn Baker · Watch on YouTube

  • Dr. Shawn Baker says low-purine, high-carbohydrate gout diets have little trial support, and cites a small pilot study where uric acid and gout attacks fell. YouTube
Read the full notes

Greg, on Dr. Shawn Baker's podcast. He Goes On Meat-Only Diet, What Happens To His Gout Is Amazing, at 8:17 "I was having so many gout flare-ups that after I would kind of heal and one would" start again, he says. At 20:12, asked about his last attack: "maybe a couple years… it's been quite a while," while Dr. Baker notes he's now eating "a bunch of red meat."

Coach Mike S, on Dr. Shawn Baker's podcast. Watch at 6:43 On keto, still eating spinach and almond flour, "I would still get those gout flare ups." At 13:49, asked if carnivore has basically healed his gout: "yes," and he says he'll check his uric acid with labs.

A guest on Wick Goes Carnivore. Carnivore Cleared His Tinnitus and Gout, at 4:56 "I had gout also before I started carnivore and that's disappeared."

Our thesis

Our thesis: We think gout is mostly a metabolic problem, driven by insulin resistance, sugar (especially fructose) and alcohol, not by meat itself, and that a meat-based diet low in sugar and alcohol may calm it for some people. This is understudied for carnivore: we know of no controlled trial of a carnivore diet for gout, and a large 2004 study (Choi, in Sources) linked higher meat intake with more gout. This is a bet, not settled science.

The bet

  • A directional shift. The stories above come from real people, on camera and in their own words. They are anecdotes, but they point the same way, and we think that's worth taking seriously.
  • Lower risk with your doctor in the loop. Eating meat, eggs, salt and water for a set trial period is a reversible experiment. Early weeks of a big diet change can temporarily raise uric acid and trigger flares, so stay on allopurinol and colchicine as prescribed and make a flare plan with your doctor. The trial happens with your doctor in the loop, not around them; see the Safety check above for the details.
  • Why the research is thin. Randomized trials are built for drugs and are expensive. No one can patent a steak, so the industry has little incentive to fund primal-diet research. A missing trial isn't proof that it works, and it isn't proof that it doesn't.
  • The primal lens. The human body was shaped long before refined sugar, seed oils and ultra-processed food existed. We see the modern diet as the uncontrolled experiment, and a meat-based trial as a step back toward the conditions our biology evolved in.

Overview: the condition, holistically

Gout is a painful arthritis caused by uric acid crystals forming in a joint, often the big toe. Commonly discussed contributors include high uric acid, genetics, kidney function, excess weight, insulin resistance, alcohol, sugary drinks and some medications such as diuretics. Standard care treats flares with anti-inflammatories or colchicine, and lowers uric acid long term with drugs such as allopurinol or febuxostat.

How carnivore is claimed to help

What advocates say, attributed to them:

  • Meat for gout isn't new. At 0:39 Dr. Anthony Chaffee says gout has been treated "since the 1800s by putting people on a pure red meat and water diet." At 0:53 he adds that some people "can get a couple gout attacks after going carnivore" before it settles.
  • The body adjusts. At 4:27 Dr. Paul Saladino argues that "eating a bunch of meat is not gonna raise your uric acid" because the body excretes more, and says his own was 4 mg/dL on three-plus pounds of meat a day.
  • Insulin is the lever. At 8:18 Dr. Saladino links insulin resistance to lower uric acid excretion and suggests limiting carbohydrates and seed oils.
  • The low-purine diet lacks evidence. At 0:17 Dr. Shawn Baker says low-purine, high-carbohydrate gout diets have little trial support, and cites a small pilot study in which "everybody had a reduction in their uric acid."

Doctors and advocates

  • Dr. Anthony Chaffee

    Host of the Anthony Chaffee MD channel; says red meat and water diets were used for gout in the 1800s.

  • Dr. Paul Saladino

    MD; argues meat won't raise uric acid and points to insulin resistance, fructose and alcohol.

  • Dr. Shawn Baker

    Carnivore advocate and podcast host; reviews a gout diet pilot study and hosts gout stories.

Read the full notes

Dr. Anthony Chaffee, physician. Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@anthonychaffeemd

Dr. Paul Saladino, physician. Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Paulsaladinomd

Dr. Shawn Baker, orthopedic surgeon. Channels: https://www.youtube.com/@ShawnBakerMD and https://www.youtube.com/@DrShawnBakerPodcast

  • Meat and gout?. A short look at gout diet research. He also hosts Greg's and Mike S's stories above.

Questions to ask your doctor

Ask: "Should I stay on my gout medication while I try this, and what should I do if I flare?" "Can we check my uric acid and kidney function before and after a 90-day trial?" Not sure your concerns are being heard? See when to question the advice.

Try it

  • Go through the Safety check above with your doctor before you start.
  • Keep taking your gout medication unless your doctor changes it, and have a flare plan ready.
  • Eat fatty meat, eggs, salt and water. Cut sugar, sugary drinks, beer and other alcohol.
  • Plan meals with the KC Meatup calculator, and find KC butchers and clinicians in the directory.
  • Track flares, and recheck uric acid with your doctor after about 90 days.
Plan your meat with the calculator

Not medical advice

Personal stories, not medical advice. If you take medication (especially for blood sugar, blood pressure or mood), change your diet with your doctor in the loop.

Sources

Research

  • Dessein PH et al. (2000). Beneficial effects of weight loss associated with moderate calorie/carbohydrate restriction, and increased proportional intake of protein and unsaturated fat on serum urate and lipoprotein levels in gout: a pilot study. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1136/ard.59.7.539. A 16-week pilot in 13 men with gout, using a calorie-restricted diet with less carbohydrate and more protein. No control group, and not carnivore.
  • Choi HK et al. (2004). Purine-Rich Foods, Dairy and Protein Intake, and the Risk of Gout in Men. New England Journal of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa035700. A large observational study that linked higher meat and seafood intake with higher gout risk. It also found that more dairy was linked to lower gout risk. We include it because it cuts against the claims above.
  • Drenick EJ et al. (1971). The effect of allopurinol on the hyperuricemia of fasting. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpt197112168. In fasting obese patients, uric acid rose during early fasting, and allopurinol curbed it. This is why the early weeks of a big diet change need a flare plan. (We couldn't open a source for the specific ketone mechanism, so we describe the effect only.)
  • FitzGerald JD et al. (2020). 2020 American College of Rheumatology Guideline for the Management of Gout. Arthritis Care & Research. https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.24180. The standard-of-care guideline on urate-lowering therapy and treating flares.

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