What is the right diet for Multiple Sclerosis?

Everyone agrees on the importance of a healthy diet to manage a health condition. Doctors are urging us to eat a balanced diet… Others will tell us to follow this diet, this protocol… You should go Keto… follow an anti-inflammatory diet… meat is bad… Fat and cholesterol are dangerous… Confused? I was too.

And how to make sense of all of it when all the different diets advised to manage Multiple Sclerosis or any autoimmune conditions seem to work, and yet, are so different? …when they are all backed up with science, and yet, tend to contradict themselves?

Here is the short answer: Nutrition needs to be individualized. It is not a one size fits all. What works for someone, might not for someone else.

Still, nutrition is science and all these “diets” have some commonality. So, let’s forget about the words diet, protocol, healthy, balanced… as their meanings can be really different from person to person, from you to me. Instead, let’s talk about food and science.

“The food you eat can be your worst poison, or your best medicine”

There are 3 things on which almost all MS, Autoimmune and Brain health diets agree. These 3 things are hurting the ones with those conditions (and sadly, not only those ones):

• Sugar and processed food

• Gluten

• Dairy

Which one could be your starting point?

Sugar is extremely inflammatory and messes up with our hormones: insulin (blood sugar control), ghrelin (I’m hungry) and leptin (I’m full). Avoiding sugar is more than just paying attention to treats and sugary drinks. All processed and ultra-processed food are ladened with sugar (sugar comes under more than 30 different names). The solution? When shopping, go as close to nature as possible. Pick food that resembles the most what you could find in the wild. Avoid food that comes in package and if picking those, choose the one with less than 5 ingredients in it (ingredients that you can recognize as food, not numbers or unpronounceable name…)

Gluten has been found to damage the lining of the gut for those having a sensitivity with it. Different types of gluten allergies have been found: allergies (as in Coeliac disease), intolerances (enzyme and digestive issues), and sensitivities (slow immune reaction). For the NCGS (Non-coeliac gluten sensitivities), you do not need to have an acute or severe reaction to have a problem with gluten. This is often the case for many autoimmune conditions. The slow damage to the gut lining (through gluten and/or other aggression) leads to what we call a leaky gut, than leading to an autoimmune reaction… Gluten is the name commonly used to identify the protein gliadin found in wheat, barley, rye, and sometimes oat. By extension, it is the name of a family of protein found in all grains. If removing wheat, barley and rye does not seem to be enough for you, try excluding other grains. Be careful with Gluten Free product as they quite often end up in the processed or ultra-processed food and are full of sugars.

Dairy has been identified as a trigger for many autoimmune conditions and neurological conditions. Absolutely all Multiple Sclerosis diets agree on the effect of dairy on the condition. Dairy (all types) can act on the gut the same way as gluten. On the top of this, once the dairy proteins crossed the gut lining, the immune system recognizes it as foreign and fight it. Unfortunately, the dairy proteins (casein and butyrophilin mainly from cow’s milk) look really similar to the myelin and after being misinformed, the immune system start attacking the myelin too. Dairy is unfortunately found in a lot of processed food as well, even where we don’t really expect it. If removing dairy entirely is too much for you, start by avoiding cow’s milk. A lot of substitutes exist and are great for cooking: coconut or nuts milk and cream are some of them.