The researchers, led by Dr. Hyon K. Choi, a rheumatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, documented the development of gout in 730 of these initially healthy professionals over 12 years. The purpose of the study, published in the March 11 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, was to test longstanding assumptions about the relationship between the consumption of certain foods rich in the amino acids called purines and the risk of developing gout.

Gout, an inflammatory form of arthritis, results from a buildup of uric acid in the blood to a point where it can no longer remain in solution and instead forms crystals that lodge within the joints - most often in the big toe, but sometimes in the ankles, knees, wrists, fingers and elbows.

Uric acid is normally formed in the body when purines are metabolized. Purines are found in large amounts in high-protein foods like red meat, especially organ meats, and seafood, especially sardines, anchovies and other oily fish and shellfish, as well in some vegetables like asparagus.

In an article accompanying the research report, Dr. Richard J. Johnson, a nephrologist at the University of Florida, and Dr. Bruce A. Rideout, a veterinarian at the Zoological Society of San Diego, noted that "humans are the only mammals in which gout develops spontaneously," probably because humans are the only mammalian species commonly afflicted by a high blood level of uric acid, known as hyperuricemia.

But sometime during the Miocene Epoch, mutations occurred in the gene that dictates the production of uricase. That eventually led to the silencing of the whole gene in our hominoid ancestors, from the great apes through Homo sapiens, leaving them vulnerable to the potential buildup of uric acid in their biood.

But Dr. Johnson and Dr. Rideout noted that "gout has become epidemic among some native peoples, such as the Maori of New Zealand, since the introduction of Western culture and dietary habits." The traditional diet of lean and strong Maoris - sweet potato, taro, fern root, birds and fish - is nearly gone. Instead, the modern diet, high in fatty meats and carbohydrates and low in dairy products, has produced an epidemic of obesity and gout.