Is Ground Beef Bad for Gout? Lean vs Regular, and Burgers

TL;DR

• Ground beef is a high-purine meat: about 133 to 190 mg per 100 g raw, or roughly 150 to 215 mg in a quarter-pound patty.
• Leaner blends have slightly more purines per gram, but far less fat and fewer calories, so lean is still the better buy.
• One patty now and then is fine for most people with gout. Double patties, bacon, beer and soda are what push a burger meal over the top.

Ground beef isn’t off-limits with gout, but it is a high-purine meat. A quarter-pound burger carries roughly 150 to 215 mg of purines, so how much you eat and how often matter more than which blend you buy.

The surprise is that lean ground beef is a little higher in purines per gram than regular. That doesn’t make fattier beef the better choice, as you’ll see below.

How many purines are in ground beef?

In 2024, USDA ran new lab analyses on US retail ground beef for the USDA and NIH purine database. These are the numbers:

Ground beef blend	Raw (mg/100 g)	Cooked (mg/100 g)	Quarter-pound raw patty (113 g)
93% lean / 7% fat	190	252	~215 mg
80% lean / 20% fat	160	not measured	~181 mg
73% lean / 27% fat	133	233	~150 mg

Source: USDA and ODS-NIH Purine Database, Release 2 (2025). Per-patty figures are raw weight × the raw value.

All three raw blends fall in the High band (100 to 200 mg per 100 g). For context, raw beef cuts across the whole database range from about 75 to 190 mg per 100 g, and US ground beef sits near the top of that range. An older Canadian analysis of cooked ground beef of unspecified fat found only about 90 mg per 100 g, a reminder that the lab, the sample and the cut all move the number. The recent US data is the best guide for beef bought in the US.

For how ground beef compares with steaks and roasts, see is beef bad for gout.

Why is lean ground beef higher in purines?

Purines are building blocks of DNA and RNA, so they’re concentrated in cell-dense lean muscle. Fat tissue carries very few. When a blend is 20% or 27% fat, that fat takes the place of lean muscle, and the purines per 100 g drop. USDA’s three blends line up exactly that way: the more lean, the more purines.

The difference per patty is modest, though, and the other numbers point firmly toward lean beef. Here’s a quarter-pound raw patty, from USDA FoodData Central:

Quarter-pound raw patty	Purines	Calories	Fat	Saturated fat
93/7	~215 mg	172	7.9 g	3.3 g
80/20	~181 mg	287	22.6 g	8.6 g

About 35 mg of purines separate the two. The 80/20 patty carries 115 more calories and more than twice the saturated fat. Weight matters for gout: the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2020 guideline conditionally recommends weight loss for people with gout who are overweight. Choose lean beef for your heart and your waistline, and manage purines through portion size.

Raw vs cooked: why does the number go up?

Cooking drives water (and, in fattier blends, fat) out of the meat. USDA data show a quarter-pound raw patty of 85% lean beef cooks down to about 83 g, just under 3 ounces. The purines stay in a smaller piece of meat, so the value per 100 g rises.

That’s why 93/7 beef reads 190 raw and 252 cooked. The patty didn’t gain purines. A 3-ounce (85 g) cooked 93/7 patty, roughly what a quarter pound of raw beef cooks down to, works out to about 214 mg, almost the same as the 215 mg in 4 ounces of raw. Fattier blends lose fat as well as water, so 73/27 jumps further, from 133 to 233.

The practical rule: compare raw with raw and cooked with cooked. If you weigh your portion after cooking, use the cooked numbers.

Is a burger bad for gout?

A single-patty burger is a moderate-to-high purine meal, and almost all of it comes from the beef. Here’s how the extras stack up:

Burger component	Purines
Quarter-pound 80/20 patty (raw weight)	~181 mg
Hamburger bun (44 g)	~4 mg
Slice of cheese (1 oz)	~3 mg
Lettuce, tomato, onion	~0 to 2 mg
2 slices cooked bacon (16 g)	~69 mg
Second patty	+181 mg
12 oz regular beer	~35 mg, plus the alcohol

Frying concentrates bacon’s purines the same way cooking concentrates beef’s: USDA measured cooked bacon at about 429 mg per 100 g. A bacon double cheeseburger with a beer lands near 470 mg, more than twice a plain single.

The drink matters as much as the toppings. Beer adds purines and alcohol, which raises uric acid on its own. A 12-ounce regular cola carries about 22 g of fructose (USDA), the sugar that raises uric acid directly. Water, sparkling water or a diet drink is the gout-friendly pairing. Our gout and BBQ guide covers the cookout version of this plate.

How much ground beef is reasonable with gout?

The ACR’s 2020 guideline conditionally recommends limiting purine intake. It doesn’t set a daily number, and it doesn’t ban single foods. Two studies show why portions still matter:

• In the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study of 47,150 men followed for 12 years, those who ate the most meat had a 41% higher risk of developing gout than those who ate the least.
• In a study of 633 people who already had gout, those in the top fifth of purine intake over two days had almost five times the odds of a flare compared with the bottom fifth. Purines from animal foods were the stronger driver.

In practice, most people do well with:

• One patty, about 4 ounces raw, as the meat for that day.
• Not every day. Rotate in lower-purine proteins through the week.
• Half the plate as vegetables, and water to drink.
• Smaller portions during a flare, until it settles.

If you’re unsure how burgers affect you, log them. An app like Urica can scan a plate and line it up against any flare in the days that follow.

What can you swap ground beef for?

Not every “lighter” ground meat is lower in purines. The purine database puts ground chicken and ground pork at about the same level as lean ground beef, and above regular 80/20:

Per 4 oz (113 g), raw	Purines (mg/100 g)	Per serving	Lower than beef?
Ground chicken	195	~220 mg	No
Ground beef, 93/7	190	~215 mg	—
Ground pork	185	~209 mg	No
Ground beef, 80/20	160	~181 mg	—
Half 80/20 beef, half chopped white mushrooms	160 / 45	~116 mg	Yes
Ground turkey	95	~107 mg	Yes
Firm tofu, crumbled	25	~28 mg	Yes
Chickpeas, cooked	10	~11 mg	Yes

Canned beans, drained and rinsed, also measure low in the database, about 21 to 25 mg per 100 g. Tofu and beans work well in tacos, chili and pasta sauce. Mushrooms blend into burgers and meatballs without changing the texture much; see are mushrooms bad for gout.

If you want beef, whole cuts such as flank steak (about 100 mg per 100 g raw) and sirloin (about 110) measure lower than US ground beef. Steak portions tend to be larger, though, so the per-plate total may end up similar.

The Bottom Line

Ground beef is a high-purine meat, and a quarter-pound patty carries about 150 to 215 mg. Leaner blends run slightly higher per gram, but they’re still the better choice for weight and heart health. Cooked values look higher only because water and fat cook out. Keep it to one patty or about 4 ounces, not every day. Skip the double and the bacon, drink water instead of beer or soda, and try ground turkey, a mushroom blend or beans when you want a lighter version.

Sources

• USDA and ODS-NIH. Database for the Purine Content of Foods, Release 2 (2025).
• USDA FoodData Central. Beef, ground, 85% lean meat / 15% fat, patty, cooked, pan-broiled.
• Choi HK, et al. Purine-rich foods, dairy and protein intake, and the risk of gout in men. New England Journal of Medicine, 2004.
• Zhang Y, et al. Purine-rich foods intake and recurrent gout attacks. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 2012.
• FitzGerald JD, et al. 2020 American College of Rheumatology Guideline for the Management of Gout. Arthritis Care & Research, 2020.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Talk to your rheumatologist or healthcare provider about your specific situation.