Last Updated on November 21, 2023 by Cathy
The cause of multiple sclerosis (MS) is due to many factors. Researchers believe it’s due to a genetic predisposition and environmental factors. You can’t change your genes but you can change your gene expression by living a healthy lifestyle. – Stop eating food that causes inflammation.
Genetics only plays a small role. Researchers discovered this when they studied identical twins. It turns out that when one twin has MS the odds that the other twin will develop MS is about 30%. Leaving 70% where the other twin won’t get MS.
This led researchers to believe environmental factors played an important role. Twins enter the world with the same risk for MS. However, their habits and exposures determine whether they develop MS or not.
This is good news. – Why?
Because YOU can control your environment and your behavior. And that’s starting with what you eat. You can choose to eat foods that cause inflammation or eat foods that lower inflammation.
Food That Causes Inflammation
Most people in the U.S. eat the standard American diet (SAD), also known as the Western diet. As other countries adopt this same eating pattern the increase of MS is going up worldwide. It’s estimated more than 2.3 million people worldwide have a diagnosis of MS.
Nearly 1 million adults in the U.S. have MS. That’s more than double from the last reported estimate of 400,000. There are about 200 new cases of MS diagnosed each week in the U.S. alone. And it’s mainly due to environmental factors that you can control.
The SAD consists of foods that cause diseases. Such as highly processed foods, conventionally-raised animal products, high-fat, and high sugar. It raises inflammation – it’s the main cause of chronic inflammation.
Chronic inflammation causes many serious health issues. Including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and autoimmune diseases. We’re eating our way to death.
The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks chronic diseases as:
“Chronic diseases are the greatest threat to human health.” – WHO
65% of the world’s population lives in a country where overweight and obesity kill more people. Chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, are responsible for over 70% of all deaths worldwide. – That’s more than half the world’s population dying due to what they eat.
Our ancestors ate to live, today people live to eat, and that food is killing us.
Anti-inflammatory Diet
Starting an anti-inflammatory diet may seem hard. Especially if you are currently eating the Standard American Diet (SAD). But, it doesn’t have to be hard or boring. What makes it hard is not knowing what to eat.
After removing most of the food you’re used to eating it may leave you wondering what you can eat. Fortunately, there are plenty of foods that are healthy and delicious. Plus, they leave you feeling full and satisfied.
An anti-inflammatory diet improves:
- Bowel movements
- Brain health
- Concentration
- Energy
- Gut health
- Heart health
- Mood
- Pain
- Protects against cancer
- Symptoms
Eat a wide variety of vegetables each day. The more you eat the better. Dr. Terry Wahls, the author of “The Wahls Protocol” recommends nine cups each day. Eat fruits and vegetables for fiber, phytonutrients, vitamins, and minerals.
Dr. Wahls recommends three cups of each:
- Dark leafy greens
- Colorful all the way through like beets and one cup of colorful fruit
- Cruciferous/sulfur such as asparagus, bok choy, and leeks
Phytonutrients or phytonutrients are in plant-based foods. They help protect the plants from insects and the sun’s UV rays. As you eat these foods phytonutrients also protect you. Phytonutrients are anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-fungal, and repair DNA damage from toxins.
To learn more about phytonutrients check out: Eat A Rainbow Of Colors
An anti-inflammatory diet consists of:
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Herbs
- Healthy fats like avocados, olive oil, salmon
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Wild-caught fish
- Grass-fed, pasture-raised animals
Don’t look at this as a restrictive diet where you can’t go out to eat with your friends. With a little planning, you can still go out. Maybe you can show your friends what a healthy diet looks like.
Anti-inflammatory Meal Plan
To make it easy, it helps to make a meal plan. You don’t need to make it complicated by planning out every detail. Instead, make a general plan that’s easy and flexible. Here’s an example:
- Monday – fish
- Tuesday – chicken
- Wednesday – meat (beef, bison, lamb, organ meat, etc.)
- Thursday – fish
- Friday – soup
- Saturday – leftovers
- Sunday – fish
Notice there’s fish listed three times? Fish is very beneficial for people with MS, especially fatty fish like salmon. Fatty fish is high in anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids. They’re also high in vitamin D which people with MS tend to have a deficiency.
Omega-3s are important for building brain and nerve tissue. They also help rebuild the myelin sheath. You can get omega-3s from foods such as wild-caught fish, dark leafy greens, raw nuts, and seeds. Eat red meat in moderation. Studies show, that conventionally raised red meat increases inflammation. If possible buy grass-fed meats, check wildEATS to find a rancher/farmer near you.
Intermittent Fasting for Gut Health
I only eat twice between certain times because I do intermittent fasting each day. Researchers found this to be very beneficial for repairing the brain. Once I stop eating in the evening I don’t eat again for 14-16 hours.
This may sound impossible but 8 of those hours are while I’m sleeping. If I stop eating at 8 pm I don’t eat again until 10 am or noon. The trick is, to keep yourself full! This is not a diet to lose weight, it’s a diet to lose inflammation and heal your gut.
While you’re fasting, your stomach doesn’t have anything that could create problems. Instead, it gives your gut a chance to calm down and heal. If possible, try a three-day water fast, it’s the best way to quickly heal your gut.
Another way to heal your gut is to drink a cup of bone broth first thing in the morning. Instead of drinking a cup of coffee, drink a gut-healing cup of bone broth. I found chicken and turkey more palatable than beef bone broth, try them all to see what’s your favorite.
My functional medicine doctor told me beef bone broth is more healing. So, I use it for soups and stews where I can’t taste it. Here’s an easy recipe: Beef Bone Broth
Lately, I haven’t been in the mood to make bone broth so I’ve been buying it. A couple of good brands, and they taste good, are Kettle and Fire and Bonafide Provisions. You can find Bonafide Provisions in the freezer section in grocery stores.
Sample of What I Eat in a Day
I eat a nutrient-dense diet based on a combination of The Wahls Protocol and the book Healing Multiple Sclerosis. Since I was already following a paleo diet it wasn’t a big change for me. I needed to rebuild my gut wall and reduce my yeast overgrowth so that’s what I focused on.
This is a basic outline of what I ate (and still eat) each day:
- Dark leafy greens – 3 cups
- Intensely colored vegetables – 2 cups veggies, 1 cup fruit (1 red, 1 blue/black, 1 yellow/orange)
- Sulfur vegetables – 3 cups
- Omega-3-rich foods like wild-caught salmon
- Pasture-raised meats such as poultry, beef, and lamb
- Organ meats (offal) once a week, we enjoyed liver and onions
- Bone broth – I drank this first thing every morning to help heal my leaky gut
- Fresh ground flaxseeds – 3 tablespoons (high in omega-3 and fiber)
- Different antifungals such as garlic and onions
I avoided all foods I was sensitive to, pork (parasites), tuna (mercury), and fermented foods (yeast overgrowth). I also kept my carbohydrates down so my co-infections wouldn’t feed on the sugar. Since healing my gut, I’ve been able to reintroduce many foods back into my diet.
To heal my gut I either ate a bowl of soup that included collagen and bone broth or drank a green smoothie with collagen. I did this each day, it took about six months before I noticed my bowel movements were improving. – This is a sign that my gut was healing!
Smoothie recipe:
- Dark leafy greens
- Cruciferous veggies
- Parsley
- Broccoli sprouts
- Berries like strawberries for fiber
- Protein such as pumpkin seeds or flaxseeds
- Healthy fats like avocado, coconut milk, or olive oil
- Herbs (cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, etc.)
- Collagen (heals a leaky gut)
- Zeolite (a binder to remove mycotoxins)
- Pau d’arco powder (to control yeast overgrowth)
- Filtered water
Stop Eating Food That Causes Inflammation
I still drink a smoothie each day but I don’t drink the exact same smoothie day after day. Instead, I change it to get different nutrients, I also drink the entire pitcher throughout the day. It’s nutritious and it helps with my water intake. The soup had the same ingredients except I’d add an animal protein either beef, fish, or poultry.
Remember, this isn’t a diet to lose weight. If you’re hungry – eat something. MS is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. A well-balanced, nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory diet is the best natural way to manage it.
Eat lots of vegetables, fruit, healthy fats especially omega-3’s, and quality proteins. Get plenty of sleep, remove co-infections, lower stress, and exercise. – These are the key steps to stopping the progression of MS.
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Resources:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight
Stop Eating Food That Causes Inflammation
