Do Nuts Contain a Lot of Uric Acid, and Are They Safe for a Low-Purine Diet?

If your doctor has advised you to follow a purine-restricted diet, Cleveland Clinic suggests that certain foods, such as liver and tuna, will be off the menu. Nuts, on the other hand, are low-purine foods that you can continue to enjoy, as they provide less than 50 milligrams (mg) of purine per 100 grams (g), according to research.

Hyperuricemia can result from eating too many purine-rich foods if you have certain medical conditions, according to the Arthritis Foundation. Your body produces uric acid when it breaks down substances in food called purines. Normally, the body can process and remove uric acid. However, uric acid sometimes builds up, or the kidneys are unable to remove enough of it, leading to excess levels in the blood.

Nuts and Purines

All tree nuts and peanuts are low in purines. Low-purine foods are those that contain less than 50 mg of purines per 100-g serving.

According to a 2024 review, some examples of purine content in nuts and tree nuts include:

• Almonds: 31 mg/100 g
• Peanuts: 49.1 mg/100 g
• Walnuts: 19.6 mg/100 g

Harvard Medical School suggests that a healthy serving of nuts is a small handful, or 30 g (around 1 ounce). Per 30-g serving, these nuts provide:

• Almonds: 9.3 mg/100 g
• Peanuts: 14.73 mg/100 g
• Walnuts: 5.88 mg/100 g

This puts nuts well below the safe intake of purines if you have conditions that require you to restrict purine-rich foods. Even eating two servings of nuts in one sitting would not be enough to qualify them as a moderate-purine snack.

Nuts Can Decrease Your Risk of High Uric Acid Levels

Eating a diet rich in nuts will not raise your uric acid levels because nuts are not high in uric acid. In fact, a 2023 study using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that eating nuts had possible links to a lower risk of high uric acid levels.

Another study explained that the fiber in nuts can help absorb purines and encourage the body to empty the digestive system quickly, helping to get rid of uric acid.

Walnuts and pine nuts also contain specific compounds that may help reduce the amount of uric acid the body produces. However, more research is necessary to determine precisely how this happens.

Health Effects of High Uric Acid Levels

When your body can’t process and eliminate enough uric acid, it can lead to health problems. According to Cleveland Clinic, high uric acid levels can lead to gout, a form of inflammatory arthritis that develops when uric acid forms small, sharp crystals in the joints, causing pain, stiffness, and swelling.

Uric acid also has strong links to metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors that increase your chances of developing diabetes. A 2025 study explained that every milligram per deciliter increase of uric acid in the blood increased a person’s risk of type 2 diabetes by 17 percent.

Avoid Gout by Watching Your Diet

Nuts are rich in calories, so eating too many could lead to weight gain. Being overweight or having obesity is a risk factor for both gout and diabetes, according to research.

If you have gout and a healthcare professional advises that you avoid certain foods, they may recommend that you cut out or reduce the following:

• Sweets and sugary drinks
• High fructose corn syrup
• Alcohol
• Organ meats, including liver, brains, kidneys, and tripe sweetbreads
• Game meats, such as veal, goose, and venison
• Some seafood, including herring, scallops, cod, tuna, haddock, and mussels
• Red meat, such as lamb, pork, beef, and bacon
• Turkey, especially processed deli turkey
• Gravy and meat sauces
• Yeast and its extract

Speak with your gout care team about the best dietary approach for managing your gout.