A Plant-Based Diet

Last Updated on December 5, 2023 by Cathy

There are many diets for multiple sclerosis (MS) and picking the right one for you can be difficult. Since everyone is different, there is no “one diet” that’s perfect for everyone. There are low saturated fat diets, anti-inflammatory, ketogenic, Candida diets, and more.

I’ve also been on many diets and I was able to stop the progression right away. Each time I changed diets it was because my symptoms weren’t reversing. It wasn’t until I realized I had a yeast overgrowth called Candida that my symptoms started to reverse.

Lately, I’ve been researching communities that have the fewest amounts of MS diagnoses. It’s a known fact the further away a person lives from the equator the higher their risk. It is due to a lack of vitamin D. Vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin and most MS patients are deficient in vitamin D.

There are also clusters where certain communities have higher levels of MS patients. The reason is unknown. But many of these communities were near some kind of environmental toxin. Such as waste dumps or heavy metal plants where the toxins leach into the water or air.

Knowing that the U.S. has a high incidence of MS and other chronic diseases. I wanted to know where the healthiest communities lived and their lifestyles. I know the importance of a healthy diet but I wanted to know exactly what they were eating. That’s when I discovered the book The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest. The author, Dan Buettner, discovers five of the healthiest areas on earth.

Healthiest communities in the world:

• Ikaria, Greece
• Loma Linda, California, USA
• Nicola Penninsula, Costa Rica
• Ogliastra region of Sardinia, Italy
• Okinawa, Japan

Even though they are miles apart, these five areas all share common lifestyle habits. They discovered that diet and environment play a huge role in longevity. These five areas not only had longevity but they also had lower rates of chronic diseases.

Diet

They lived in different areas of the planet and ate different things. But all five areas ate a mostly plant-based diet and very little meat. Either small amounts of meat each day or a few times each month. Fruits, whole grains, beans, soy, and nuts were also included on their menus. They also eat their largest meal in the first half of the day not the last.

The key here is to stop eating processed foods! Processed foods are man-made foods, not natural foods. Food manufacturers spend a lot of money on their campaigns. Making you believe their product is the best. They use artificial ingredients and fillers that make people overweight and sick. Diet (heart disease) is the number one cause of death in the world.

They also drink a glass of alcohol daily. However, drinking alcohol for people with MS may be a bad idea. It makes you feel tipsy which is a bad combination if you have balance or coordination issues. Plus, it’s best to avoid alcohol while you are healing since it is hard on the liver.

Keep Moving

A big problem in our society is being sedentary. After a long day at work, we come home, eat dinner then zone out in front of the television for hours. Television is soul-sucking. The news is filled with bad stories, drama television is usually about crime. Even reality television has people fighting or teaming up against each other raising our anxiety levels. Most television shows get your heart pumping, aggravated, or depressed.

Instead, start moving! Go outside and enjoy the sunshine, go for a walk, or do some gardening. If it’s cold outside walk on a treadmill or at an indoor location like a mall. It keeps your blood and lymphatic system moving. The people who live the longest stay active.

For MS patients it’s also important to work on your balance since falls are very common. Also, work on foot drop, massaging (stiff muscles), and low-impact muscle strengthening.

Social Networks

Each area was very big on family, friends, and interaction with other people. This is something we are lacking today. With social media, it is too easy to lock yourself up and not spend quality time with other people. Humans are social beings, we love, laugh, and cry together. We help our neighbors when they are in need.

Spend time with other happy people. It will lift your spirits and keep you from feeling depressed. Make sure you don’t spend time with people who are always gripping and complaining. These are toxic people and you don’t need them in your life.

Stress

Stress is in everyone’s life including these five areas but it’s how you handle it that matters. They have learned to keep stress under control through napping, praying, etc. Stress plays a huge roll in most diseases making your symptoms worse. Until you get stress under control your body won’t be able to heal.

Family

One thing I like about these five areas is how they put family first. Living in social, loving circles being close to their family members. Investing time in both young and old family members alike. Plus, they don’t see getting old as a terrible thing like other countries.

Multiple Sclerosis

During the 1950s Dr. Roy Swank put a lot of research into why people were getting MS. He discovered people in poorer countries had less MS than in industrialized countries. Dr. Swank also looked into data from World War II in occupied countries and why their MS rates fell during that time. He believed it was due to the rationing of meat and dairy. That’s when he realized it was the saturated animal fats and a plant-based diet would be best.

He decided to try a test study by limiting the number of saturated animal fats to patients. In each study, he showed that limiting saturated animal fats would stop the disease in 95% of patients. Dr. Swank believed saturated animal fats clogged tiny capillaries feeding the nervous system. He has a low-fat diet book called The Swank Diet.

Also, Japan is an industrialized country with pollution and stress. Yet they have fewer MS patients than other industrialized countries. But they eat a diet based on rice and less animal-saturated fats. Although, as Japan is adopting the westernized high saturated fats diet, MS rates are going up.

Dr. Terry Wahls was able to reverse her secondary progressive MS by eating a diet high in vegetables. Her book, The Wahls Protocol, walks you through each step to get your MS to stop progressing.

A Plant-Based Diet

This doesn’t mean you have to cut meat out of your diet. Avoid conventional meats that have antibiotics and growth hormones. Instead, buy grass-fed meats, pasture-raised poultry, and wild-caught fish. Also, purchase organic produce as much as possible to avoid pesticides.

Researchers still don’t know if a high plant-based diet is helpful for MS or not. Don’t wait for the research! Any diet that includes lots of nutrients and no processed foods is better than eating junk.

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A Plant-Based Diet