Purine Food Chart: Real mg per 100 g Values, From Very High to Low
What a Purine Food Chart Actually Shows
Your body turns purines into uric acid. Every food you eat contains some purines, because purines sit inside the cells of plants and animals alike. When uric acid builds up faster than your kidneys can clear it, crystals can form in your joints and trigger gout. A purine food chart simply ranks foods by how many milligrams of purines they pack into 100 grams, so you can spot the heavy hitters at a glance and build meals around the lighter ones.
Most charts online recycle the same rough ranges, and many of them disagree with each other. This chart does something different: every number below comes from a measured entry in our food database, which draws on the USDA and ODS-NIH Database for the Purine Content of Foods. Where a number looks surprising, we say why. Where our database has no measured value, we say that too, instead of guessing.
One important note before you read the chart: foods contain purines, not uric acid. Your body makes uric acid after it breaks purines down. That distinction matters, because portion size, cooking method, and the rest of your diet all shape what a number on a chart means for your blood test.
The Purine Food Chart
We sort foods into four bands. Very high means over 300 mg per 100 g. High covers 150 to 300 mg. Moderate covers 50 to 150 mg. Low means under 50 mg per 100 g. All values are milligrams of purines per 100 grams, exactly as measured.
Very High Purines: Over 300 mg per 100 g
| Food | Purines (mg / 100 g) | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Anchovy, dried | 1,109 | The highest value in this chart — drying concentrates purines |
| Sardine, baby, dried | 746 | Another dried fish; a small amount goes a long way |
| Sardine, canned | 399 | A single small tin can carry a large purine load |
| Herring, canned | 378 | Canned herring sits close to sardines |
Dried fish tops the chart by a wide margin, and that makes sense: drying removes water, so the purines in each bite concentrate. Fresh or canned versions of the same fish measure much lower, yet they still land in the very high band. If you love these fish, treat them as an occasional flavouring rather than a main course.
High Purines: 150 to 300 mg per 100 g
| Food | Purines (mg / 100 g) | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Pork loin, boneless, skinless, raw | 237.2 | Lean pork still measures high |
| Shrimp, raw, frozen | 234 | Shellfish belongs in the high band |
| Beef liver, raw | 197 | Organ meat outranks ordinary muscle meat |
| Rainbow trout, raw | 181 | Freshwater fish can run high too |
| Chicken breast, roasted | 178.5 | A familiar weeknight protein, firmly in the high band |
Notice that chicken breast lands here. Many older charts place chicken in the moderate band, but the measured roasted value of 178.5 mg per 100 g puts it in the high band on this scale. That does not mean you must give chicken up. It means portion size matters: a modest serving of chicken beside low-purine sides keeps the meal balanced, while a double portion plus gravy stacks the numbers quickly.
Moderate Purines: 50 to 150 mg per 100 g
| Food | Purines (mg / 100 g) | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Tuna, canned | 142 | Canned tuna measures well below raw tuna |
| Lamb chops and roast, raw | 127.5 | Red meat in the moderate band — portions still count |
| Cod, Atlantic, wild, raw | 110.3 | A white fish on the lower side of moderate |
| Broccoli, raw | 70 | A vegetable that measures moderate, yet studies link it to no extra gout risk |
| Spinach, mature, raw | 51.3 | Just over the low threshold — and plant purines behave differently |
The moderate band holds the foods people ask about most. Canned tuna at 142 mg per 100 g surprises many readers, because raw tuna measures over 200 mg. Processing changes the number, which is exactly why a chart built on measured values beats one built on guesses. For a deeper look at the same pattern across meats and fish, see our companion foods high in uric acid chart.
Low Purines: Under 50 mg per 100 g
| Food | Purines (mg / 100 g) | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Mushrooms, raw | 46.9 | The highest low-band food here — still under 50 mg |
| Asparagus, raw | 32.9 | Plant purines with no proven link to flares |
| Tofu (Kinu) | 20 | A protein that keeps meals satisfying without stacking purines |
| Bread, white | 12.2 | Everyday staple, low purines |
| Chickpeas, cooked | 11.2 | Cooking and draining keep chickpeas low |
| Yogurt, plain | 7 | Low-fat dairy anchors many gout-friendly meals |
| Rice, white, cooked | 5.9 | A base for countless low-purine plates |
| Bananas, raw | 3 | Fruit sits at the very bottom of the chart |
| Milk, 2% fat | 0.6 | Almost no purines at all |
| Egg, chicken, raw | 0 | Eggs carry no measured purines |
The low band is where most of your plate should live. Eggs, dairy, grains, fruit, and most vegetables contribute almost nothing to your daily purine total, which frees room for a moderate portion of meat or fish when you want one. Our green-zone list builds full meal ideas around exactly these foods.
Why the Same Food Shows Different Numbers
Readers often spot two different purine values for one food and assume one of them is wrong. Usually both are right, and the difference comes from how the food was prepared or measured. Cooking drives off water, so cooked meat often measures higher per 100 grams than the same meat raw: ground beef measures 133.3 mg per 100 g raw and 233.3 mg per 100 g cooked. Canning changes fish the other way: raw salmon measures around 250 mg per 100 g, while canned salmon measures just 88 mg per 100 g.
Origin matters as well. Beef liver measures 197 mg per 100 g in the USA data and 219.8 mg per 100 g in the Japanese data. Chicken breast measures 174.9 mg per 100 g in one USA entry and 130.7 mg per 100 g in another. These gaps reflect different samples, cuts, and lab methods, not errors. When you compare foods, compare values measured the same way, and treat small differences as noise.
Dried foods deserve a special warning. Drying removes most of the water, so 100 grams of dried anchovy packs the purines of a far larger amount of fresh fish. That is why dried anchovy tops this chart at 1,109 mg per 100 g while fresh anchovy measures 303.9 mg. If a recipe calls for dried fish, weigh it dried and keep the portion small.
How to Use This Chart Day to Day
Start with the 400 mg per day target that Japanese guidelines recommend for people with gout and hyperuricemia. Researchers who measured the purine content of balanced diets found that well-planned Mediterranean and DASH-style diets land roughly between 308 and 494 mg per day, close to that target. You do not need to count every milligram, but the target gives you a sense of scale: one 100-gram serving of canned sardines alone nearly hits the whole day’s budget, while a plate of tofu, rice, and vegetables barely dents it.
Use three practical rules. First, anchor each meal in the low band: grains, vegetables, fruit, eggs, or dairy. Second, add one moderate or high-band protein in a sensible portion instead of making it the whole meal. Third, save very-high foods for rare occasions, and skip them entirely during a flare. Our diet plan page turns these rules into a full day of meals, and our food list lets you search thousands of measured foods beyond the ones in this chart.
Watch the drinks too. Beer measures low in purines per 100 millilitres — regular beer comes in at 8.48 mg per 100 ml — yet alcohol raises uric acid through a second route, by slowing how fast your kidneys clear it. Mayo Clinic advises avoiding alcohol during attacks and limiting it, especially beer, between attacks. Sugary drinks raise uric acid in a similar way, through fructose, even though they contain few purines themselves. A chart of solid foods never tells the whole story, so pair it with honest drink choices.
Plant Purines Are Not the Same Story
Spinach, asparagus, mushrooms, and beans all carry measurable purines, and strict charts sometimes paint them as risky. The evidence points the other way. Mayo Clinic notes that studies show high-purine vegetables do not raise the risk of gout or repeat attacks. The Arthritis Foundation likewise places most vegetables outside its high-purine list and reserves that list for alcohol, certain fish and shellfish, and organ meats.
That distinction frees up your cooking. You can eat spinach, mushrooms, and chickpeas generously without the worry that a steak or a tin of sardines would bring. Our red-zone list keeps the focus where it belongs: on the animal foods that consistently measure highest and carry the strongest links to flares.
What This Chart Leaves Out — Honestly
Our database does not have a measured value for every food. It has no measured value for mussels or sweetbreads, two foods that other gout guides list as high-purine, and none for oatmeal. We leave those foods off the chart rather than borrowing numbers from unverified sources. If you eat them, treat mussels and sweetbreads with the same caution you would give other shellfish and organ meats, and check our food list for new entries as measurements arrive.
The chart also simplifies a complicated biology. Diet alone rarely controls gout: Mayo Clinic stresses that most people who follow a gout diet still need medicine to manage pain and lower uric acid. Food choices can cut the number and severity of attacks, but they do not replace treatment. If you take uric-acid-lowering medicine, keep taking it, and use this chart to support the treatment, not to replace it. Small daily habits help as well — our guide to coffee and gout shows how an ordinary morning cup fits into the picture.
References
- Mayo Clinic — Gout diet: What’s allowed, what’s not — supports the advice to limit organ meats, red meat, and certain seafood, and the point that diet alone rarely controls gout.
- Kaneko et al. — Daily Amount of Purine in Commonly Recommended Well-Balanced Diets (Nutrients, 2024) — supports the 400 mg/day guideline figure and the finding that balanced Mediterranean and DASH-style diets land near it.
- Arthritis Foundation — Safe Foods for Gout — supports the high-purine and moderate-purine food groupings used in this chart.