Changes to Your Diet and Multiple Sclerosis

Healthy Eating Creates a Healthier You

Nov 7, 2009

Healthy eating is an important factor in everyone's well-being, but it's especially important for people suffering with autoimmune diseases and other chronic illnesses.

The old expression “you are what you eat” is absolutely true. There has been a great deal of research that points to the benefits of eating healthy. This research also lets us know what we need to eat to improve our health.

Most of the research points to eating a low-fat (especially saturated fat) and low-carb diet. The Swank Diet, developed by Roy Swank, M.D., former head of University of Oregon's neurology department, focuses on a low-fat diet. He has had amazing results with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) sufferers. Dr. Swank has spent over 35 years treating his patients with this diet and has had very impressive results. The Swank diet consists primarily of grains, vegetables and fruits with about 20 percent fat by calories.

While this type of diet may be a little drastic for some, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), you can help your body even if you make small changes at a time. To get you started, they suggest the following:

Simple Changes to Your Diet That Will Help Multiple Sclerosis

1. Portion control - reduce the amount of food you eat. Pay attention to how much food is on your plate. It’s important to know what healthy portion sizes are.

2. Change your eating habits slowly – make it a point to have a healthy breakfast. Instead of bacon and eggs on a bagel, have an egg white omelet on whole grain toast. Better yet, have a bowl of rolled oats with fruit. Once you’re comfortable with eating a healthy breakfast move on to lunch, and then dinner. And, slowly add more fruits and vegetable into your eating habits.

3. Have snacks – snacks help curb the appetite and also keeps your metabolism going steady. The key here is to eat healthy snacks such as baby carrots, fruits, nuts, and low-fat yogurt.

4. Go lean – limit the amount of fatty meats you eat and pay attention to portion control. Chicken, turkey and fish are healthy choices.

5. Focus – it’s important to eliminate distractions while you’re eating. It seems if you’re distracted, you will eat more and be less satisfied. So, pay attention to what’s on that fork or spoon.

Along with foods that should be included in your diet, there are also foods that should be avoided to help your body function properly. This aspect of the change may be a little more difficult since a large majority of the American diet is full of unhealthy foods, but with a conscious effort it can be done. Here are several items that will benefit your overall health if they are eliminated from your diet:

Foods to Avoid to Help Your Overall Health, Multiple Sclerosis and Other Chronic Illnesses

According to Dr. Henry Zhen-Hong Lee, a NYS Licensed Acupuncturist and NCCA DPL Herbalist, sugar actually stops the immune cells from functioning. This is essential since you are then left with no line of defense.

All evidence points to the fact that improving your eating habits will improve your health. Start today to make slow and steady changes in your diet so you will reap slow and steady benefits to your health. And, remember to discuss any changes to your diet with your doctor.

National Multiple Sclerosis Society

PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)

The copyright of the article Changes to Your Diet and Multiple Sclerosis in Disabilities is owned by Karen Cioffi-Ventrice. Permission to republish Changes to Your Diet and Multiple Sclerosis in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.