Embedded Files
Autoimmune Disease
The path to reversing Multiple Sclerosis, getting off your medications, and regaining your health may be the food you eat. Switching to a whole food, plant-based, no oil diet is a tried and true method for regaining your health.
Articles and Studies
Plant-Based Diets for Multiple Sclerosis
Treating Multiple Sclerosis with Diet: Fact or Fraud?
Dr. McDougall's Health & Medical Center Topic: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) & Diet
Effect of low saturated fat diet in early and late cases of multiple sclerosis
4 Ways a Low-Fat Vegan Diet May Benefit Those With MS
Low-fat, plant-based diet in multiple sclerosis: A randomized controlled trial
Results of the Diet & Multiple Sclerosis Study
Sodium and Autoimmune Disease: Rubbing Salt in the Wound?
Plant-based diet for MS patients tastes of success
The Multiple Sclerosis and Diet Saga
Hope for Multiple Sclerosis By Linda Carney M.D.
Lectures
Multiple Sclerosis and Autoimmune Diseases: The Impact of Diet - John McDougall, MD
Roy Swank, MD: Multiple Sclerosis Pioneer - Plus a Conversation with Dr. McDougall
Success Stories
Can MS Be Reversed?? (Multiple Sclerosis Success Story)
Karen Cooper, MSW, LICSW: “I Can’t Have MS!”
Rebecca no longer suffers from MS
Donna McFarland: Diagnosed with MS; Food Became My Medicine
Deb Tasic: Stops Multiple Sclerosis
How a Plant-based Diet Healed My Body from Multiple Sclerosis By Angela Zagoren Ph.D.
Herbie of the Week: Denise (How a Plant-Based Diet Helped With Multiple Sclerosis!)
MS and 100 Pounds Fade Away Eating Mostly Raw, Vegan Diet By Sandy Henson Corso
Possible Food Sensitivities that may contribute to autoimmune diseases
Possible Food Sensitivities that may contribute to autoimmune diseases
Once you've eliminated all animal products (meat, fish, eggs, dairy, cheese etc...) what's left that might prove troublesome? Under normal circumstances veggies, fruits and even gluten containing whole wheat reduce inflammation. But there are certain people allergic or sensitive to various plants. For these folks finding and eliminating those food sensitivities are critical to reducing inflammation and possibly reducing or eliminating the symptoms of their autoimmune disease. Keeping a food journal outlining what you eat and the associated increase or decrease of symptoms may come in handy.
If you are already aware of allergies or sensitivities to certain plant foods these should have already been eliminated from your diet, if not eliminate them now.
If after trying a whole food, plant based, no oil diet for a while you see no relief or your symptoms get worse you may have to remove certain other foods from your diet. If you have been keeping a food journal you may already have an idea what to eliminate first. If not, here are two sources of plants that are often trouble for a small percentage of folks suffering from autoimmune diseases.
1. Some of the common sensitivity of plants include gluten, 1-3% of folks fall in this category. It would be easy to say that wheat, rye and barley are the main sources of gluten, but exactly what does this mean in the real world. Check out this article, "Sources of Gluten."
2. Another source of sensitivity among a very small population is an intolerance of Nightshade vegetables. These include: bell peppers, eggplants, potatoes, tomatoes, chili pepper, cayenne pepper, and paprika. More information on nightshades can be found here.
If eliminating all animal products, oil, and the above 2 sources, isn't sufficient then an all out elimination diet might be required. One example of an elimination diet can be found below.
From Dr. McDougall's May 2014 Newsletter
The following foods are allowed without calorie restriction. Portion control (based on a visual estimate) should result in about 80% of the food coming from starches; the remainder will be from vegetables and fruits. Cook all foods thoroughly. Heat breaks down and deactivates proteins and other troublesome components of the food. Boiling and steaming are the healthiest ways to cook.
Starches (all cooked), include:
Brown rice (or white rice)
Sweet potatoes
Winter squash (Acorn, Butternut, Pumpkin, etc.)
Taro (or poi)
Non-starchy green and yellow vegetables (all cooked) include:
Asparagus
Artichoke
Beets
Beet greens
Celery
Chard
Kale
Lettuce
Spinach
String Beans
Summer squash
Almost all other non-starchy yellow, orange, red, green, and purple vegetables are allowed (cooked). Avoid onions, green pepper, cucumbers, and radishes, especially when raw because they can be very troublesome for the stomach, causing indigestion.
Fruits (all cooked) include:
Apricots
Bananas
Berries
Cherries
Papaya
Peaches
Plums
Avoid all citrus fruits, including oranges, grapefruits, tangerines, lemons, limes, etc. and also tomatoes.
Condiments include:
Salt
Sugar
Only common table salt and table sugar are allowed, if not restricted for other health reasons. This means no salad dressings, mustard, lemon juice, vinegar, pepper or other condiments.
Beverages:
Water (sparkling water is OK)
Managing the Elimination Diet:
After one week of being strictly on the new diet, food-caused problems should be ending and the dieter should be feeling much improved. If this is the case, then the dieter can begin adding other foods (those not listed above) back to his or her diet, but only one at a time, in order to determine if any of these cause unpleasant reactions. For testing purposes, each "new" food should be eaten in large amounts three times a day for two days. If the food does not cause a reaction, then the dieter can conclude that this food is not a troublemaker. Most reactions occur within a few hours, but some may not show up for several days. Each food must be tested individually; do not introduce two new foods at once. When there is a reaction to a specific food, the dieter must wait for four to seven days before testing the next item. This interval gives the time required to clear the intestines and to rest the system from that allergy-causing food.
The foods added back during the elimination diet should not be from animal products of any kind or from vegetable oils for general health reasons. No one should follow a diet "more liberal" than the basic McDougall Diet.
The Wahls' Protocol
The Wahls' Protocol
The Wahls Protocol developed by Dr. Terry Wahls. Dr. Wahls credits this protocol as her path out of her wheel chair and back to health. It is a paleo based diet heavy in plant consumption. I mention it here because if you have MS you should note that both a pure whole food, plant based, no oil diet and Dr. Wahls' Paleo centered plant based diet with grass fed animals, fish and organ meat both have many success stories.
I came across this article by Julianne Taylor that seems to do a good job outlining Dr. Wahls' story and protocol. Specifically she writes the following:
"Dr Wahls outlines what she sees as having made the most impact:
1. Neurostimulation – Nov 2007 – plus exercise, increased muscle strength and size and generated growth factors in the brain, which stimulates repair of myelin and grows new connections between brain cells. She says that prepared her brain to do repair work, and the food made it possible for the brain cells to use the growth factors.
2. Rigorous elimination of foods to which blood tests showed she was sensitive.
3. Greatly increased intake of B vitamins, co-enzyme Q, antioxidants, and organic sulphur with specific food choices. This resulted in a big boost of micronutrients.
4. Switched to eating entirely organic food.
5. She focussed on eating food of every colour each day.
6. Entirely eliminated white potatoes, grains etc., so the amount of insulin her body made each day is low.
7. Kept a food / symptom diary and followed a 4 day food rotation.
She is clear for herself that increasing the nutrient content of her diet had a huge impact on her health. For example she eats 700 – 1000 grams kale each day. She says she notices a decline in energy and mental clarity if she doesn’t eat kale for a few days, but not the same decline if she misses supplements."
I can't argue with any of the above. It is what I already outlined and seems to be sound advice. The reason for removing potatoes and grains is listed as having to do with reducing insulin, but if reducing insulin is truly the goal you would remove all meat and keep fat intake to 10% of daily caloric intake. In the diabetes section of this site you will find that Type 1 diabetics that stop eating all animal products and processed junk and keep their fat intake at 10% or below end up increasing their insulin sensitivity and dropping their required daily insulin needs by 40-50%.
I suspect the grain and potato elimination works well for her protocol, primarily because folks with autoimmune diseases frequently have sensitivities in these areas and eliminating them off the top saves folks time and possible suffering.
The article further gives a brief outline of foods Dr Wahl eats each day.
- "3 cups of cruciferous and dark greens
- 3 cups intensely coloured: 1 cup red vegetables / fruit, 1 cup blue black vegetables / fruits, 1 cup yellow/orange vegetable / fruits
- 3 cups others including: 1 cup mushrooms / onion family (for organic sulphur), and seaweed for iodine and trace minerals.
- (Note: 1 cup = raw vegetables chopped = 1/2 cup cooked, an apple sized fruit, or 2 cups leafy greens)
- Include spices and herbs.
- Omega 3 rich foods, green leaves and animals fed green leaves, wild fish and seafood. And you could add fish oil.
- Eat organ meats once per week
- Regular bone broth
- Fermented foods or a probiotic."
If I had MS and wanted to ensure I had adequate Omega 3 intake I wouldn't resort to grass fed anything, nor fish, or fish oil. These not only have omega 3 fat, but they are also loaded with saturated fat, mercury, dioxins and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Instead I would eat lots of greens as she already suggests, along with 1-2 tbsp of flax seeds, hemp seeds, or chia seeds daily. I might also resort to 250mg of a micro-algae based DHA/EPA supplement which has the omega 3 without the pollutants.
Sea vegetables can certainly be a plus when added to most diets, more on seedweed and iodine here.
I'm not sure why you would want organ meat once a week, but it would be consistent with the Okinawa Blue Zone diet, whose populous were some of the longest lived on the planet. They got about 5% of their calories from meat / animal products and about 69% of their calories from sweet potatoes.
It would seem that Dr. Wahls' protocol and a whole food, plant based, no oil diet have more things in common than different. Both diets eliminate all processed crap right up front. Dr. Wahls' protocol does skip straight to eliminating potatoes (not sweet potatoes) and grains, which may be a better starting point.
Disclaimer: The information and advice herein is not intended for use in or as a substitute for the diagnosis or treatment of any health or physical condition or as a substitute for a physician-patient relationship which has been established by an in-person evaluation of a patient. Do not change your diet if you are ill or on medication without the advice of a qualified health care professional such as your physician. In layman's terms, if you are taking any medications switching to a whole food, plant based, no oil diet will require your medications be closely monitored by your physician. And may require some of your medications to be quickly reduced or stopped. Reducing or stopping medications needs to be done under the direct supervision of a physician.
Google Sites
Report abuse