Wahl’s diet: purines and uric acid

San Diego

Well-Known Member
I’ve been doing the Wahl’s Paleo Plus (ketogenic) diet for a couple of months now. I fell into, and maintained, ketosis rather easily with a diet consisting of apx 60% fats, and 20% each of carbs and proteins.

I can’t say that I feel any better, but was willing to stick it out for 6 months to make sure and perhaps improve my underlying general health.

Now, my latest blood work shows elevated uric acid. As I look into the Wahl’s diet more, it’s really high in purines which can lead to elevated uric acid.

Purines include adenine, guanine, hypoxanthine, and xanthine. They help make up DNA and RNA, and energy molecules, such as ATP, GTP and coenzyme A. When broken down by the liver, they produce uric acid. Hence, a diet high in purines can lead to elevated uric acid.

In my case, I believe my uric acid was raised by nutritional yeast, organ meats, and spinach - all in large amounts. I’m just glad I caught it early.

So, I did what any reasonable person would do: I went to the freezer, took out my daughter’s leftover Ben n Jerry’s, and dug in. So much for ketosis! Tomorrow I’ll lick my wounds, deal with the inevitable breaking ketosis hangover, and decide where to go from here!

Anyone else?
 

bobby

Well-Known Member
@San Diego thanks for sharing. it's so important to know both good and bad effects of a diet. theory is one thing, reality can be an entirely different story. are you going to ditch the diet altogether, or tweak it to make it lower in purines?

good thing ben n jerry's were waiting for you in the freezer :D
 

San Diego

Well-Known Member
@San Diego thanks for sharing. it's so important to know both good and bad effects of a diet. theory is one thing, reality can be an entirely different story. are you going to ditch the diet altogether, or tweak it to make it lower in purines?

good thing ben n jerry's were waiting for you in the freezer :D
I’m discouraged, but I’m going to tweak it. The one food I was having in abundance daily was the nutritional yeast, which I believe is the culprit.

So I’ll cut that out, and greatly reduce the other veggie sources. Then we’ll retest. I’ll play around and find the max dark greens I can have.

As for Ben and his friend Jerry, it was a nice break but not worth the headache I have today! Oddly enough, I’m still in ketosis.
 

bobby

Well-Known Member
@San Diego in my experience I stay in ketosis even if I eat something that isn't 'ok' once in a while. not sure how it works, maybe it has to do with how long your body has been in ketosis, i.e. the longer you've been in ketosis, the easier it is to stay in it?

spinach is also very high in oxalates... I don't tolerate it as well as other leafy greens, probably for that reason. too bad, cause it's tasty.

I totally get you're discouraged... plz keep us posted on your tweaks! :)
 

San Diego

Well-Known Member
spinach is also very high in oxalates... I don't tolerate it as well as other leafy greens, probably for that reason. too bad, cause it's tasty.
May I ask what you mean by “don’t tolerate it”? I’m hoping I can learn what symptoms are tied to high purine foods.
 

San Diego

Well-Known Member
I found this information today, regarding high fat diets and uric acid/ketones. These two guys seem to have the best handle on all this:

Steve Phinney and Richard Johnson: Ketones, Uric Acid, High Fat and Health

There’s a transcript of the talks on the link above, and also an option to listen.

Of interest is the fact that these authors report a rise in uric acid as the body adapts to ketosis, followed by a slow return to normal levels over 12 weeks.
 

bobby

Well-Known Member
May I ask what you mean by “don’t tolerate it”? I’m hoping I can learn what symptoms are tied to high purine foods.
it just doesn't feel good when and after I eat it... sorry, I know that's not much of an explanation, but over the years I have been getting more and more in tune with listening to what my body wants/needs. I used to go by theories, but they never really ended up working for me.

So now when something doesn't feel 'right', I just skip it. Or the other way round, when something tastes amazing, I know it's what I need (like salt: there's days when I can just dip my finger in a pot of salt and eat it. and it tastes delicious. that probably means my body needed some extra salt.)

I had the same bad feeling with organ meats and beef bone broth. it didn't taste good, and afterwards it didn't feel good either. so I just skipped it. I'm sure it has loads of good stuff, but if it doesn't make me feel good I just don't think my body can take it in.

thanks for the link, it looks like an interesting read!
 

San Diego

Well-Known Member
it just doesn't feel good when and after I eat it... sorry, I know that's not much of an explanation, but over the years I have been getting more and more in tune with listening to what my body wants/needs. I used to go by theories, but they never really ended up working for me.

So now when something doesn't feel 'right', I just skip it. Or the other way round, when something tastes amazing, I know it's what I need (like salt: there's days when I can just dip my finger in a pot of salt and eat it. and it tastes delicious. that probably means my body needed some extra salt.)

I had the same bad feeling with organ meats and beef bone broth. it didn't taste good, and afterwards it didn't feel good either. so I just skipped it. I'm sure it has loads of good stuff, but if it doesn't make me feel good I just don't think my body can take it in.

thanks for the link, it looks like an interesting read!
Thanks for replying. It’s those small reactions that add up. Being on the Wahl’s diet while eliminating my documented IgG allergens, has enabled me to nail down other allergens. I’ve got quite a list, but it’s worth it.

Paying a big price for my foray into Ben n Jerry land - HA, GI, etc. Was it worth it? Probably not.

Bone broth undoes me, too, in the, uh.... er...... digestive arena. So I skip that, too. :D
 

Sulamaye

New Member
I’ve been doing the Wahl’s Paleo Plus (ketogenic) diet for a couple of months now. I fell into, and maintained, ketosis rather easily with a diet consisting of apx 60% fats, and 20% each of carbs and proteins.

I can’t say that I feel any better, but was willing to stick it out for 6 months to make sure and perhaps improve my underlying general health.

Now, my latest blood work shows elevated uric acid. As I look into the Wahl’s diet more, it’s really high in purines which can lead to elevated uric acid.

Purines include adenine, guanine, hypoxanthine, and xanthine. They help make up DNA and RNA, and energy molecules, such as ATP, GTP and coenzyme A. When broken down by the liver, they produce uric acid. Hence, a diet high in purines can lead to elevated uric acid.

In my case, I believe my uric acid was raised by nutritional yeast, organ meats, and spinach - all in large amounts. I’m just glad I caught it early.

So, I did what any reasonable person would do: I went to the freezer, took out my daughter’s leftover Ben n Jerry’s, and dug in. So much for ketosis! Tomorrow I’ll lick my wounds, deal with the inevitable breaking ketosis hangover, and decide where to go from here!

Anyone else?

You don't have to do the wahls paleo plus, I've been doing wahls paleo for six months, my liver alt was the only thing that showed as out of range when I first hit the wall, going from 54 to 109 over the following 4 years. On the diet my alt has dropped to 44 my hc1b dropped from 41 to 34, my triglycerides dropped and many of my symptoms have diminished. I feel it is helping at a biochemical level and supporting my body to do what it needs, I'm not saying it's a recovery, I'm still bed and housebound, but my quality of life when up is much better and I believe supporting ones body to heal takes a lot longer than 6 months. So I don't want people to dismiss it out of hand just because ketosis didn't suit one individual. It's a very nutrient dense approach and takes out many inflammatory foods and that's got to help give the body more of what it needs for healing.
 

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