Raise the pH levels in your body, eat more potassium, avoid protein.

Employ these three diet-savvy strategies when stricken with a gout attack:

1. Raise the pH level of your Body.

Avoid drinks with low pH levels. Gulp cherry juice instead.

Gout is highly responsive to the body's pH. The lower the pH, the more uric acid crystals can form in joints, causing inflammation and a gout attack.

Raising the body's pH level will dissolve uric acid crystals. This is why pH balancing drinks like black cherry juice with pH values of 7.5 or more are recommended for gout attack sufferers.

Many drink cranberry juice for health benefits only to find it triggers gout because its pH of 2.5 is too low. Soft drinks have a pH of 3 and can also trigger gout attacks.

Out of cherry juice? Try water with apple cider vinegar or lemon juice to raise pH levels and ward off gout attacks.

2. Take Extra Potassium.

A gout attack is the perfect time to binge on bananas. They contain 594 mg of potassium. Gout sufferers are often found to be deficient in this mineral, which is known to dissolve uric acid crystals, the cause of gout attacks. You need 3,500 mg of potassium a day. In a gout attack, munch high potassium foods like apricots (405 mg) or cantaloupe (454 mg).

3. Ditch the Protein.

Avoid meats, nuts, dairy and other foods laden with protein. They add purines to the body. When purines are digested they turn into uric acid, which can crystallize and cause gout attacks.