L.L.
"We eat a lot of chicken already." Fatty white meat, like chicken, can be really bad for gout, especially when eaten in excess. If your husband is suffering from acute attacks, you really need to eliminate most if not all meat from his diet for awhile. Probably also a good idea to skip out on the dairy for awhile, as most foods that contain cholesterol are high in purines as well.
A good substitute for meat would be tofu. Granted, maybe not the ideal replacement for MOST people, but it does help aid the kidneys in eliminating uric acid from the body. You can use it once or twice a week...we love it in chili and stir frys.
As far as vegetables go, MOST are okay...the things you want to avoid are asparagus, spinach, peas, etc. I think most of the veggies you want to avoid are dark green.
I do know what this is like, because I have kidney stones and have to be on a similar diet. Things I have to avoid include large quantities of meat (I quit eating sandwiches for lunch, because we usually have a meat for dinner, and for me, that was a big enough change), I cannot eat a lot of peanut butter, nuts, green peppers, or celery, and coffee is bad as well but I refuse to give it up! It's hard, because that list includes most of the foods I truly love.
I know it's hard to do meatless meals, but like I said, for your husband, tofu would be ideal. Experiment with it (we like the super firm). After he's improved a bit, you can introduce meat again, but in SMALL quantities. One 3-4 ounce serving a day is enough for anyone, and that's a thin piece of meat the size of your palm!
