" uric acid accumulates in the circulation (hyperuricemia) to the point that it falls out of solution, as a chemist would put it, and crystallizes into needle-sharp urate crystals. These crystals then lodge in the soft tissues and in the joints of the extremities—classically, the big toe—and cause inflammation, swelling, and an excruciating pain that was described memorably by the eighteenth-century bon vivant Sydney Smith as akin to walking on one’s eyeballs. "

― Gary Taubes , The Case Against Sugar