Diet?

[sgoethe]

:D How much have you changed your diet since being diagnosed?

How much do you feel diet effects MS symptoms?

i try and try to get my husband to eat better (the fast food junkie he is) :D


but i was watching montel on the view last night and he really pushed A GOOD DIET and lots of fruits and veggies..it made me go YES I NEED TO WORK ON THIS MORE and bring more fruits and veggies into the house and incororate them into our diet..(and try get DH to eat them) :D

so how much do you do with you diet? what do you do? changes you have made?

[MS Bites]

I gave up red meat and pork.... high in saturated fat.... about 6 or 7 years ago..... partially because of MS and partially because I read Toxin by Robin Cook (novel).

[lady_express_44]

I eat very little beef/dairy, but that was initially because I was told my body had trouble processing some protein in it. With all the reading I've since done about diet and MS, I feel I made the right decision about cutting it out years ago.

I eat a lot of FRESH vegetables, either raw or steamed. Frozen are acceptable too, but not nearly as tasty. :) I should eat more fruit, but mostly only like tropical ones.

I think diet and exercise (whatever we are capable of doing) is important.

Cherie

[Cat Dancer]

I think many Americans eat badly -- lots of red meat, fats, too much sugar, salt, "junk food" everywhere.

I've seen people with MS who have lousy diets; I've seen people with MS with excellent diets -- and the common theme is **they have MS**.

Bottom line: I think a healthy diet is good for lots of reasons. More fruits, veggies, less red meat, fat, sugar, salt. And exercise. Does it help/hurt MS? I've not seen any evidence that suggests that (yes, I know -- all you Swank diet fans can beat me up here. But I stand by my OPINION.) But there is plenty of evidence that suggests that a diet like Montel (and others) push is generally good for overall health.

So if you can convince your hubby to go that route, then good. But I wouldn't expect a whole lot of difference as to his MS.

That's my OPINION, folks..and I'm entitled to it, right or wrong. (Just warding off the Cat-haters here...)

[BBS1951]

I do Swank Diet. xo++ has posted research here in teh past that shows there are some modest benefits of Swank for MS.

Since starting Swank several years ago, my fatigue improved immensely. I have had no major attacks, but that part could be luck. The fatigue part isnt luck, cuz I went off teh diet and the fatigue worsened, I went back on the diet and it improved.

My motto is "I cannot control my illness, but I can control my wellness". To that end, I Swank and I exercise daily.

I doubt that many MS patients would be willing to eat healthy for the long term (i.e. life long) (Swank is a very healthy diet low in sat fats)--how do I know that? One only has to look at a cross section of AMericans who are obese and sedentary. WHy would MS patients be any different?

[fahrmar]

I do Swank Diet. xo++ has posted research here in teh past that shows there are some modest benefits of Swank for MS.

Since starting Swank several years ago, my fatigue improved immensely. I have had no major attacks, but that part could be luck. The fatigue part isnt luck, cuz I went off teh diet and the fatigue worsened, I went back on the diet and it improved.

My motto is "I cannot control my illness, but I can control my wellness". To that end, I Swank and I exercise daily.


Were you tested for food allergies?

[KLG]

Hi sgoethe,
I came out of "lurking" to respond to this post. I have been with with this site for 10 years but never rejoined since the "crash". Was KennyG3

Note...this is not just my opinion, it is my experience.

I am on the Swank diet along with several lifestyle changes. The first 4 years with this lovely disease were horrible. I had no feeling at all from the waist down (yeh guys...the waist down):( . My whole body was barely working with numbness and tingling all over. Not to mention eyes, bowels, bladder etc. The feeling in my legs returned after 1 year. 1 year of reading medical sites saying numbness that long was probably permanent.

My numbness and fatigue got much worse after a big meal and I thought it just might be the body's effort to process/digest all that food. Stress/exertion had very negative impact on me.

After reading about the Swank diet, I started counting the sat fat in my food. Low and behold, like the book says about most Americans, I was consuming easily twice as much sat fat as I should.

I started keeping track and I was then able to determine that the sat fat had a major effect on my symptoms. I now don't overdo the sat fat and eat a much healthier diet.

I weighed 195 lbs when I was dXed and now ( and for the past 9 years) weigh 165. I wanted to lose weight also because trimming down made my barely working body easier to manage.

This lifestyle helped me go from "living to eat" to "eating to live". Don't get me wrong, I now eat three meals a day without skipping and eat as much or more than I did before the plan, just healthier food. If I was cured tomorrow (yeh , right) I would not go back to my old ways. This plan gave me the answers to proper eating and weight loss that I was looking for all my life.

My other major change is that I never eat a meal without protein and I don't overdo the carbs. This helped my fatigue more than any drug I tried.

In summation, food has a major effect on me and it's easy to see if anything has a negative effect on you.

Oh, and after four years (6 years ago) I started Novantone and MY results were miraculous. It was like it shut off (not cured) my MonSter and my body started to repair itself. And these results started a few weeks after my first dose. I stopped at three and have done three again since then.

Cat said:
"I've seen people with MS who have lousy diets; I've seen people with MS with excellent diets -- and the common theme is **they have MS**."

This is not an issue of cause or cure but management of the disease. Not everyone has heat sensitivity but that does not mean it is not a real issue.

sgoethe, try to get your husband to experiment and see if things effect him. With me, my body's function far outways anything I consume.

Sorry fo the novel.:)

Ken

[agate]

For me diet matters. When MS symptoms came along in a big way (about 1978) I began putting on weight though I'd never been overweight before. I attribute the weight gain to a more and more sedentary life because mobility was getting so impaired.

By 1984, when Type 2 diabetes was diagnosed, I weighed about 214 lbs.--and needed to lose 100 lbs. I lost the hundred pounds and have been rewarded (so far) by not having any diabetes complications and not needing any diabetes meds.

But there's been another huge reward. When overweight I needed a 2-hour nap every day. Now I get by with an hour or even half an hour of naptime daily.

I also have more stamina and strength than I did with the excess pounds.

My diet has been a more or less standard diabetes diet but without meat. I eat dairy products, fish occasionally, and lots of fruits, vegetables, and especially grains. I concentrate on getting enough fiber. I also try hard to get at least 30 minutes of exercise every day without fail.

To maintain my weight I need only about 1300-1400 calories a day. I count them daily. I'm trying to lose about 15 pounds now but my weight has been in the normal range ever since the big weight loss in 1984.

I'm diligent about checking nutrition labels on food. It takes time and is tedious, but it has to be done, as I see it. There are too many foods out there on the market that are junk, even junk masquerading as "good for you" food.

[stillstANNding]

Sgoethe,

You are trying hard to help your husband deal with his MS. Like going to the Mayo Clinic and gathering info and now the diet. I think that is perfectly natural. But he is 28 (I think) and is not in the same place that you are. You want to fix it and he just got hit by a truck and is dealing with that. Yeah, put more veggies into the meals you cook and deep six the whipped cream. Then let him find his questions and his answers.

He'll appreciate your help when he asks for it. Don't make his whole day about MS.

Warmly-ANN
"I could be wrong"

[BBS1951]

welcome back KennyG :)

farmahr: I have no food allergies.

[KLG]

welcome back KennyG :)

farmahr: I have no food allergies.

Thanks BBS, I never really left (I couldn't.) I read about everyday, but it's good to be log on again.

Ken

[Howie]

One cup of real coffee to start the day.
No red meat or pork.
Low sodium foods for my BP.

A glass of cranberry juice per day.
Salmon and a potato each day.
Steam Fresh brand sweet corn and sweet peas.
One glass of soy milk.
Snack on Sweet Potatoe Chips or peanut butter crackers.

400 ml of vodka mixed with Crystal Light Pink Lemonade each evening.

"Man does not live by bread alone". :)


.

[mark53]

hello, i try to eat good food, vegies/fruit/berrys/nuts/seeds/fish/seafood/white meat from chicken&turkey
100%juice. no red meat-pork-fast food- or junkfood-pasta-bread or candy & pop. i eat a Very LOW FAT Diet.the only time i stray from my diet is when my wife and i are out and about. then i just do the best i can.

[bluesky63]

* Get checked for food allergies, especially gluten intolerance. For some reason many people with MS have gluten intolerance. It's an easy blood test.

* Get checked for anemia.

* Get checked for vitamin deficiencies (B12, etc.)

* If you do introduce changes, be reasonable, not drastic, and you're more likely to stick with it.

* If you look through xo++'s sticky thread above you will see that there is evidence for some benefits from a healthy diet with low saturated fat. Of course anyone would benefit from this, not just people with MS.

* A person in good shape is going to recover more easily from a flare-up than a person in worse physical condition.

* The vast majority of people with MS die from the same things most people die from, such as heart disease, many of which are significantly affected by diet and lifestyle.

* I know from experience that even a few pounds can sometimes make a difference in your mobility. I have been so weak at times that I know if I weighed even five or ten pounds more I would not be able to stand.

Good luck. :-)

[sgoethe]

thanks so much everyone for your thougths and ideas..i am going to incorportate more into his diet and our diet as well so we all eat healthier..i wont even tell him..

honestly i bet you all think i am this hoovering overwhelming obsesive wife huh :o ..im not..we dont talk about his MS much at all unless he wants to or he is having some major issues that we need to discuss...and i dont hound him about diet and health at all..i just read things and watch things and want to make healhty changes for us all..ok so i tell him he shouldntd drink mountain dew and smoke but thats cause i think they are down right nasty :D

this place is where i can go on the side when i read things or find out things or wonder things and i need some expert advice or thoughts..SO I DONT BUG HIM ALL THE TIME :)

p

[stillstANNding]

Got it. :)

ANN