Is Kiwi Good for Gout? Vitamin C, Fructose and the Evidence

TL;DR

• Kiwi is a good fruit to eat with gout: very low in purines, rich in vitamin C (about 64 mg in a green kiwi), and low in fructose (about 3 g).
• Vitamin C supplements lower uric acid only slightly, and no study has tested kiwi itself on uric acid or gout flares in people.
• Eat it whole, a kiwi or two a day, as part of a mostly plant-based, low-sugar pattern. Don’t count on it as a treatment.

Kiwi is a good fruit to eat with gout, but it isn’t a treatment. It’s very low in purines, rich in vitamin C and lower in fructose than most fruit, yet no study in people has shown that kiwi itself lowers uric acid or prevents flares.

That distinction matters because kiwi often shows up on “foods that lower uric acid” lists on the strength of its vitamin C. Here’s what the evidence supports and what it doesn’t.

Is kiwi high in purines?

No. Kiwi hasn’t been analyzed for the USDA and NIH purine database, but the fruits that have been are all very low: banana measured about 5 mg per 100 g and strawberries under 2.5. Our reference lists other common fruits, such as apples and oranges, at around 5 to 10 mg per 100 g.

Even if kiwi were at the top of that range, 10 mg per 100 g, one green kiwi (69 g) would carry about 7 mg of purines. A quarter-pound beef patty has roughly 150 to 215 mg. With fruit, purines simply aren’t the issue; the questions are vitamin C and sugar.

How much vitamin C and fructose is in kiwi?

Here’s kiwi next to other common fruits and drinks. Fructose includes the free fructose plus the half of any table sugar (sucrose) that is fructose. All values are from USDA FoodData Central.

Fruit or drink	Serving	Fructose	Vitamin C
Kiwi, green	1 fruit (69 g)	3.1 g	64 mg
Kiwi, gold	1 fruit (81 g)	5.2 g	131 mg
Strawberries	1 cup halves (152 g)	4.1 g	89 mg
Orange, navel	1 fruit (140 g)	6.1 g	83 mg
Banana	1 medium (118 g)	7.1 g	10 mg
Cherries, sweet	1 cup, pitted (154 g)	8.4 g	11 mg
Pear	1 medium (178 g)	12.1 g	8 mg
Grapes	1 cup (151 g)	12.4 g	5 mg
Apple	1 medium (182 g)	12.6 g	8 mg
Mango	1 cup pieces (165 g)	13.5 g	60 mg
Orange juice, chilled	1 cup (249 g)	10.5 g	84 mg
Cola, regular	12 fl oz can	21.6 g	0 mg

Per serving, green kiwi has the least fructose on this list and one of the highest vitamin C counts. One green kiwi covers most of the daily target for adults (75 mg for women, 90 mg for men). Gold kiwi doubles the vitamin C but has about 70% more fructose and roughly half the fiber (about 1.1 g versus 2.1 g per fruit). For more fruits and drinks, see our fructose content in foods table.

Does the vitamin C in kiwi lower uric acid?

Vitamin C does lower uric acid, but only a little, and the evidence comes from supplements rather than fruit.

• The trials. A 2011 meta-analysis pooled 13 randomized trials with 556 people, mostly using 500 mg of vitamin C a day for about a month. Uric acid fell by an average of 0.35 mg/dL.
• In people with gout. The American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) 2020 guideline notes that two small trials in people with gout showed clinically insignificant changes in urate. It conditionally recommends against adding vitamin C supplements as a gout treatment.
• What that means for kiwi. Matching the 500 mg trial dose would take about eight green kiwis or four gold ones every day, and even that dose barely moved uric acid in people with gout.

None of this is a reason to avoid vitamin C from food. The ACR’s advice is about supplements as a treatment, and fruit and vegetables are part of the eating patterns linked to lower gout risk. For the full picture, including kidney-stone risk from high-dose pills, see does vitamin C lower uric acid.

Does the fructose in kiwi matter?

Fructose is the one common sugar that raises uric acid directly: the liver produces uric acid as it breaks fructose down. The ACR guideline also conditionally recommends limiting high-fructose corn syrup.

But where the fructose comes from seems to matter. A 2019 meta-analysis of three large cohort studies (154,289 participants) found that the highest intakes of sugar-sweetened drinks were linked to about twice the risk of gout (RR 2.08), and fruit juice to a 77% higher risk (RR 1.77). Whole fruit showed no significant link (RR 0.85), although the certainty of that evidence was rated very low.

Whole fruit delivers its fructose slowly, with fiber and water, and in much smaller doses. A green kiwi has about 3 g; a can of regular cola has about 22 g. The fructose in a kiwi or two isn’t a concern. Juice is a different story; see is orange juice bad for gout.

Is there any research on kiwi and gout specifically?

Not in people. The kiwi-specific research so far is lab and animal work: a flavonoid extract from hardy kiwi, a smaller relative of the grocery-store fruit, lowered uric acid in rats, and a probiotic mix made with kiwi powder did the same in mice. That kind of study can suggest a mechanism, but it can’t tell you what eating a kiwi does for a person with gout.

Cherries are the fruit with the most gout-specific evidence, including an observational study in people with gout that linked cherry intake with fewer flares. Kiwi has nothing comparable yet. It earns its place on a gout-friendly plate as a low-purine, low-fructose, high-vitamin C fruit, not as a uric acid remedy.

How to eat kiwi with gout

• One or two a day is plenty. Two green kiwis give about 128 mg of vitamin C and 6 g of fructose.
• Eat it whole. Slice it, scoop it with a spoon, or add it to plain Greek yogurt, which is also very low in purines.
• Skip juice blends. Kiwi smoothies made with apple or orange juice add the fructose back.
• Don’t swap it for treatment. If your uric acid is above target, talk to your doctor about urate-lowering therapy.

If you want to see whether your fruit habits line up with your flares, an app like Urica can log what you eat alongside your symptoms.

What are better choices than high-fructose fruit and juice?

Instead of	Try	Why
1 cup orange juice (10.5 g fructose)	2 green kiwis (about 6 g)	About 40% less fructose, more vitamin C, plus fiber
1 cup grapes (12.4 g)	1 green kiwi and 1 cup strawberries (about 7 g)	Less fructose, far more vitamin C
A mango smoothie	Kiwi with plain yogurt	Less fructose, adds dairy protein
Vitamin C gummies	Kiwi, strawberries or bell peppers	Vitamin C with fiber; the ACR advises against supplements as a gout treatment
Regular soda	Sparkling water with a squeeze of lime	Cuts about 22 g of fructose per can

The Bottom Line

Kiwi is a good fruit for gout. It’s very low in purines, lower in fructose than most fruit, and one of the richest everyday sources of vitamin C. But it isn’t a proven way to lower uric acid: vitamin C’s effect is small, the ACR advises against vitamin C supplements as a gout treatment, and kiwi itself has only been studied in animals. Enjoy a kiwi or two a day, eat it whole rather than juiced, and rely on proven treatment for your uric acid.

Sources

• USDA and ODS-NIH. Database for the Purine Content of Foods, Release 2 (2025).
• USDA FoodData Central. Kiwifruit, green, raw.
• Juraschek SP, et al. Effect of oral vitamin C supplementation on serum uric acid: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Arthritis Care & Research, 2011.
• Ayoub-Charette S, et al. Important food sources of fructose-containing sugars and incident gout: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. BMJ Open, 2019.
• 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.