Diet for MS

Transcript:

MELANIE: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition. If you tune in each week, we thank you. Each week as we get ready to address a topic you have requested, we as a team of nutritionists and dietitians research the topic. We write it out, we write out the talking points, we remind ourselves of some of the successes we've had with our clients.

And also remember to share something great we cooked this past week. We try to address what we think you as listeners want and need to know. And many of you requested, “What is the best diet for someone with multiple sclerosis or MS?” You may already know that MS is a rare autoimmune disease affecting the nervous system.

As nutritionists, we work daily with clients with MS. What we recommend is based on both research studies and on clinical experience. And today we will offer guidelines about what to eat and what to avoid to heal the nervous system. We know real food, right? Meat, vegetables, natural fats. Those are very healing.

While sugar, alcohol, processed foods, gluten grains, and refined oils stress the nervous system. That said, each body and immune system requires an individual plan and today is just a guide and with an individual consultation, we then make the plan to fit your body's requirements.

You may need a strict diet plan to heal while others may not be so restrictive. So, now let's introduce ourselves so you understand who we are and what we believe. I'm Melanie Beasley and I'm a Registered and Licensed Dietitian and I've been a dietitian for over 30 years. I've had a variety of work experiences and in my younger years I was a dietitian, yes, in prison.

Now let me tell you what was an interesting experience. I learned a lot about cardiovascular health there. I've also been a dietitian for the Navy and that was certainly a different type of clientele. Again, I also worked in one of the VA hospitals, which I learned a different type of nutrition service.

Also worked with an allergy group where I was consulting for them. I did that for a number of years. So I'm aging myself rapidly as I go here, but I've become known as an expert in helping people with osteopenia and osteoporosis, which that's one of my passions. So why did I become an expert in bone health?

I think it's because I've had a history of cancer and that resulted in my own bones becoming thinner and frail. We study what we, what we need to study for ourselves, right? Take that deep dive. And as we know, more women die of a fracture than they do from cancer. And when I say that, it makes sense that this is my passion.

As I reflect over this topic today, the diet for MS, it is similar to the best diet for bone health or to prevent osteoporosis. And we'll talk more about that as we go along in this podcast. I think there's a lot of crossover.

BRANDY: There's a lot of overlap to a lot of different conditions and the recommendations we'll talk about today.

MELANIE: Yeah. Healthy living is healthy living, which protects the entire body. So as you realize, I have been helping a variety of people with their nutrition and health for a number of years. Healthy healing nutrition is best when it's kept very simple.

BRANDY: I love that.

MELANIE: It's, you got to keep it simple or no one can do it.

BRANDY: Right.

MELANIE: So it's something anyone can actually do. And yes, our bodies are very complex and there are many biochemical reactions in our bodies, but how you support these biochemical interactions in your body is actually fairly simple.

So let me give you the secret. You start every meal out with a good source of protein, four to six ounces of meat or fish. You add two to three cups of vegetables with a variety of color, and then you top it off or you prepare it with good healthy fats like coconut oil, butter, avocado oil, or even some good bacon fat; all natural fats. We go into more detail as we go along, but Brandy, tell us a little bit about you.

BRANDY: All right. Thanks Mel. Yeah. And I'm happy to share a little bit more about my story, how I came to the field of nutrition. We all have a story, and my health journey started when I was pretty young, actually. I was 12, 13, kind of entering my teen years and you know, I realized I had a weight problem. I was always one of the chubbier kids in school, but as a teen, it really started to become a problem for me.

MELANIE: That's when we care.

BRANDY: That's when we start to care. We start to notice. And honestly, I just wasn't feeling good physically. I wasn't really feeling good mentally. It was really difficult for me to find clothes that fit well.

MELANIE: Oh gosh.

BRANDY: So this was back in the day when, by the way, I grew up on a farm, you know, in North Dakota. So we were pretty isolated. You couldn't just go to the store and go shopping. It was the catalog. So I'd select the outfits that I wanted to wear. They would take a few weeks to arrive and then they wouldn't fit.

MELANIE: Oh, for goodness sakes, you shopped by catalog. That's kind of quaint.

BRANDY: But really frustrating at the time because nothing was working. So I had to shift to shopping in the plus size section for adult women, you know, didn't feel good as a 13 year old. So that's when I started to pay attention to what I was eating. And thankfully at the time, one of my aunts was kind of going through a health kick and left some of the information behind at our house. And it was basically a pamphlet that was giving you suggestions; eat this, not that for weight loss.

And there was some good advice there. So one of the main things was cut out sugar. And that's one of the first things that I did. I stopped drinking soda. I cut out the candy. I cut out a lot of the processed foods.

MELANIE: Wow. You were determined. How old are you? 13?

BRANDY: 13 years old. And it worked. Thankfully, you know, I, my body loved it. I gradually started to lose some weight, but I also gained so much more energy. My moods were so much better. I discovered that I really love to spend time outdoors and move my body. Started riding my bikes, picked up running.

MELANIE: Wow. I love this story.

BRANDY: I mean, this was life changing and for me, it just helped me discover what food could do for me. And that was one of the major experiences that motivated me to pursue this as a career. And around the same time, later in my teen years, I started working as a nursing assistant. So I had a lot of experience working really closely with people with MS.

So, you know, bringing us back to our topic today, you know, I have seen what this disease can do. I've seen this disease in its latest stages where you're completely dependent on somebody else for care.

MELANIE: Yes.

BRANDY: And You know as a nursing assistant at the time I didn't realize how powerful food could be in managing this disease and what it could do to prevent It from progressing to this point But at the time I still knew I wanted to help people.

MELANIE: Oh, yeah.

BRANDY: So now it's kind of interesting to see these two parts of my life intersect.

MELANIE: Yeah. That's amazing. You know, I had an aunt that died from MS and, but I wish I would have known what I knew and she was a nurse and she really didn't know the connection with food and the progression.

BRANDY: Right. Well, and that's just such an amazing thing about what we do. We're always learning. The science is always progressing, and we can help empower people take control of their life and their own health journey. And that's what we're both doing today.

MELANIE: Yes.

BRANDY: So it's a little bit about me and how I came to be here today.

What is MS?

MELANIE: It's great. Well our topic today is the best diet for people who are experiencing multiple sclerosis. Before we start talking about food, let's explain what MS or multiple sclerosis is. It's a chronic disease that affects the central nervous system. It's often called an autoimmune disease that affects the myelin sheath. There are trillions of neural pathways from the brain through the spinal cord and the myelin sheath acts like the insulation that surrounds the electrical wiring between the nerve cells in your brain and the rest of your body.

And the myelin sheath or the covering around the nerves becomes damaged and it is almost like an electrical short occurs. If you think about if the tubing around an electrical cord got damaged and the wires would be exposed and the connection from the appliance to the outlet would start being finicky and eventually stop working, that's what's going on in MS.

And when the myelin sheath is protecting the connection from cell to cell, and that becomes damaged. So, MS is an unpredictable disease, and it affects some people with mild symptoms, while others lose their ability to see or speak or walk or have bladder control or clear focus, just unable to think straight.

BRANDY: Exactly. Yeah. It definitely affects cognition.

MELANIE: Yes.

BRANDY: Your ability to care for yourself. I've seen how severe it can get.

MELANIE: Devastating.

BRANDY: And when I'm meeting with clients that are maybe in those earlier stages of the disease and they're trying to be proactive, and I love the analogy that you just gave, but one other thing that I might say, you know, is if I had a magical pair of glasses and I could peer inside your body and brain, what I might see is your immune system is in a frenzy.

You know, it's whipped up into high gear and it's attacking that protective myelin sheath that surrounds each and every one of your nerves.

MELANIE: That's great. That's a great picture.

BRANDY: Yep. So your immune system is attacking that tissue. And then over time, your immune system is actually causing damage, which leaves bare spots. And sometimes they call these bare spots, lesions or scar tissue or sclerosis. And that's kind of where part of the name of the disease comes: multiple sclerosis. So basically when you are left with those little bare spots or lesions, that's when the nerves will short out. So basically that nerve signal is interrupted and that's when those symptoms can appear.

What can cause MS?

MELANIE: Yeah. So clients often ask us, what causes MS? And that is a very good question. Some people believe that we have a genetic predisposition to having MS. Some people believe that it's an environmental factor that puts stress on our body, causing our immune system to overreact. And that can lead to the breakdown of the myelin sheath.

Some people believe that it's an autoimmune disease with a connection to food and lifestyle factors. Well, since we can't change or alter our genetics, that leaves us with an eating plan.

Eliminate gluten for autoimmune diseases

That's our wheelhouse: nutrition and lifestyle that reduces stress from our body's nervous system. When we're working with clients who have an autoimmune disease, the first thing we eliminate from their diet is gluten.

When people stop eating gluten, we find that they take stress off their immune system and often the autoimmune disease goes into remission. It can be really amazing. So what is gluten and why would a gluten free diet have an effect on MS? Gluten is a protein found in a variety of grains. I think the easiest way to think about gluten is that gluten is found in crackers, cookies, bagels, most processed foods. And if you want to dig in more and understand the damaging effects of gluten, I recommend that you read Gluten Freedom by Alessio Fasano, and he's a well known expert on the damaging effects of gluten for many people.

And we as nutritionists know that someone with an autoimmune disorder should be a hundred percent gluten free. There's such a strong correlation between gluten and overall processed food damaging our intestinal lining, and then our body having a strong immune response.

Many times, it's migraines. More times than not, when someone experiences an autoimmune disorder, their symptoms improve, often going 100 percent gluten free along with eating a nutrient dense real food diet.

BRANDY: Right, so it's not just replacing those processed foods that have gluten in them with a gluten free processed food.

MELANIE: Yes, I'm so glad you said that.

BRANDY: Kind of an overhaul of replacing them with real foods.

MELANIE: Real food that you can find in nature.

BRANDY: Exactly.

MELANIE: You can pluck it or hunt it. It's, it's a natural food.

BRANDY: I love that. And it might take a little bit of time for you to see symptoms improve when you remove gluten. You know, it's not, you remove it and a week later, you're good as new. It's a healing process, kind of like recovering from a fall or a broken bone. It might take a few months, but it's worth it.

MELANIE: But I do see improvement along the road. It's not like you wait three months and then finally you get relief. Don't you see that in your clients?

BRANDY: Absolutely. Things turn a corner usually within a few weeks. Let's stick it out for at least a few weeks. It's worth it. And since MS is an autoimmune disease, I would advise anybody that has MS to try that gluten-free diet 100%. You know, not the type of gluten free diet where you might have a piece of bread once a day or only when you go out to eat with your friends, you'll have the sandwich. We're talking 100 percent gluten free every day. I would give it at least three or four weeks.

MELANIE: Not a nibble, not a bit because it just sets up that whole inflammation again.

BRANDY: Yep, exactly. And. You know, gluten isn't found in just bread or bagels. You know, I would say it's in most processed foods and it can be a little overwhelming to think about all the foods, all the processed foods that you can find gluten in. So what I like to do is think about all of the naturally gluten free foods that are still on the table for you. Right?

MELANIE: Right.

BRANDY: So all vegetables are naturally gluten free. You still have potatoes. You still have squash, cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, all delicious, all real food, all gluten free.

MELANIE: Yes.

BRANDY: And gluten basically is only found in grains. So that's one thing to remember. Of course, wheat has the most gluten, but there are other grains that some people wouldn't suspect that it might contain gluten. And I think a good example is oats or oatmeal; not technically a gluten grain, but there is enough cross contamination in the field and within the processing facility that there could still be gluten proteins that kind of slip into the mix. And if you're sensitive to gluten. It's something that I would avoid. I would try to avoid those oats.

MELANIE: I would too. And I think that with oats and even corn, there's a little bit of molecular mimicry of gluten. So even though it may say a hundred percent gluten free, it's recommended that you just remove those grains.

BRANDY: And what you mean by that molecular mimicry is basically…

MELANIE: Behaves as if it were gluten.

BRANDY: Right. So the, the proteins look so similar to each other that they behave very similarly.

MELANIE: The body gets a little confused and reacts as if it's gluten.

BRANDY: Right.

MELANIE: Yeah. So it's just good to be on the safe side, especially when you're dealing with something as detrimental as multiple sclerosis.

A balanced gluten free approach is recommended

BRANDY: So other than vegetables, another delicious and naturally gluten free food is high quality animal based protein. So basically any kind of meat, fish, eggs; they're all naturally gluten free as long as they're not processed, as long as they're not breaded, they're gluten free. That's a great aspect of a balanced diet. We need that protein. We need that protein for healing and it's great that, you know, it's fair game.

And I would also recommend adding one or two servings of natural fat with every meal. So a good natural fat would be good oils like avocado oil, coconut oil, even butter. We do want to avoid the processed and refined oils like canola oil, soybean oil, anything deep fried, and just stick to the natural, unprocessed fats.

MELANIE: Well, we need to take a short break and for those of you interested in the topic of nutrition for MS, we invite you to keep listening to Dishing Up Nutrition in the coming months. This fall, we will be interviewing a long time Nutritional Weight & Wellness client that has been able to put her MS in remission for years through eating a real food diet. She's not taking medication. She will be sharing her story with us about how real food healed her. And she’s very dedicated to her diet because it’s worth it for her to keep her MS in remission. So stay tuned to hear that episode coming this fall and we’ll be right back.

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BRANDY: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. If this is your first time listening to the Dishing Up Nutrition podcast, let me tell you a little bit about us. First, we are a group of nutritionists and dietitians who have been teaching the real food nutrition message and the role that real food plays in the health of the body and the brain for over 20 years. Can you believe that we've been teaching about real food nutrition for 20 years?

MELANIE: No. Yeah. That's amazing.

BRANDY: We never believed that the low fat, low calorie nutrition advice was accurate. It really does take real food to nourish and heal the body and the brain. So 20 years ago, before podcasts were even a thing, we had a weekly radio show that turned into one of the first nutrition podcasts out there.

And now there are hundreds of podcasts about nutrition, but as a team of nutritionists and dietitians, we counsel and educate our clients every single day. When we're not writing and producing these podcasts we are working individually with clients either in person or on Zoom or by phone call.

BRANDY: We also teach a lot of nutrition classes virtually and in person. One of our favorite nutrition classes is our 28-Day Sugar Challenge. Another popular class is our six hour Menopause Solution Seminar. We also have a lot of classes that are shorter in length, such as our one-hour Pain and Inflammation class.

MELANIE: That's a great one.

BRANDY: That is a really good one. If you want to learn more about all of the classes that we offer, you can head to our website, weightandwellness.com.

Check Out Our Class Offerings!

Or you could just call us, pick up the phone, ask us your questions. Our number is 651-699-3438. We'll be happy to answer any questions you have.

MELANIE: Yeah. That sugar challenge. I have so many clients that it just has changed their world, their life, you know, by doing that sugar challenge. You hear it too?

BRANDY: It's incredible. They, they do the challenge. You know, it's a short enough amount of time that seems manageable, but they learn so much and they feel so good after it that it's really motivating to just stick to it, stick to all the changes that they made in that four weeks.

MELANIE: I have a client and she lost belly fat.

BRANDY: Oh yeah.

MELANIE: …that she has struggled with and struggled with and it was getting all those sugar out really made a difference.

BRANDY: Definitely.

MELANIE: Well, before break, we were talking about going gluten free from multiple sclerosis and following a gluten free diet and it may not be easy at first, not always, but once you get that results of lowering inflammation, lowering pain, you know, even working with younger clients, when I work with younger clients, I, I have them think of a molecule of gluten as having little teeth that can destroy healthy cells, set up pain and inflammation and damage. And I have not had one client who did not feel better when they went gluten free.

BRANDY: Yeah.

MELANIE: So when starting out, most people need a little help. A great online class we put together is on our website called Going Gluten Free the Healthy Way.

Cassie Weness is a coworker dietitian whose two children have to eat gluten free. And she teaches viewers all about the tricks of staying gluten free. And just to remind you, Cassie's children are teenagers now, which is a very difficult time to be gluten free.

They just want to eat what their friends are eating and not have to worry about looking different, right? And this online class, again, called Going Gluten Free the Healthy Way, will explain how to eat a gluten free diet in a way that's easy to understand. It's manageable to follow in a real life situation.

So if you have a child that needs to eat gluten free, I recommend watching the class with them. It's virtually a one hour class and it costs $25. So it's, it's kind of a screaming deal. It has good practical ideas, all coming from a real life mom raising gluten free kids. And you can search for the going gluten free, the healthy way on our website, weightandwellness.com.

Check Out Going Gluten-Free the Healthy Way - Online

BRANDY: Yep. Cassie lives that life. Her kids live that life. So this class is a great resource. And I have to say, I think most of the dietitians here at Nutritional Weight & Wellness follow a gluten free meal plan for their own personal reasons.

MELANIE: And not one recipe on our website has gluten in it if that tells you how we feel.

BRANDY: Yeah. Yep. That is a really good point. So we're all really great resources. We speak from life experience. We can help you with that.

MELANIE: Yes.

BRANDY: Yeah. Well, and just to share something really interesting that I learned about MS when I was preparing for this show, like we mentioned earlier, in the disease of MS, those neural pathways aren't getting the message across to different body parts due to that damage to the myelin sheath or the breakdown of that myelin sheath.

So there are new medications now that are actually helping rebuild that myelin sheath. They call it remyelination drugs; kind of a mouthful, but the results are pretty promising. So remyelination basically means that you're healing that myelin sheath and restoring the function of the neural pathways.

The myelin sheath can heal through diet & lifestyle changes

But I want to say, this process of healing the myelin sheath can also occur through diet and lifestyle changes. So you can do this on your own. You don't necessarily need a medication. If you have the right meal plan and regular exercise, this is all going to promote remyelination, that healing of the myelin sheath.

So let me repeat that: diet and exercise can heal the neural pathway, even after damage has occurred in the case of MS. It might take a little more effort, a little more time and patience than relying on a medication, but healthy diet and exercise has no side effects like medications do. You're also going to experience a lot of different benefits from a real food diet. You know?

MELANIE: Yes. That's exactly what I was going to say. There's so many more benefits and diseases we can prevent through eating a real food diet.

BRANDY: Exactly. And overall, that is worth the effort. Your life is going to change for the better, no matter what. And, in fact, here at Nutritional Weight & Wellness, we have several long term clients that have successfully put their MS into remission through diet and lifestyle change, and they’re feeling good.

MELANIE: Yeah. It's, it's more than just the remission of the MS. It's the overall feeling well.

BRANDY: Absolutely.

MELANIE: When you lower inflammation in the body, you're lowering your risk of all disease.

BRANDY: Definitely. And they're dedicated. You know, this doesn't come easy, but if you change your habits incrementally over time and you stick to them, you’re going to find results. You're going to feel better.

So this isn't something they do temporarily for a few weeks and then slip back into old habits. They change their life for good. And it's worth the effort they put into it every day. They think of it as their medicine. They think of it as their medication to treat MS and prevent it from getting worse.

So even if you end up taking some of these medications that are promising healing for MS, we still encourage you to follow that real food diet and move your body because it's going to help your body heal no matter what. Just like you said, it's going to, it's going to tackle a lot of different aspects of your health at one time.

Healing food recommendations for MS

MELANIE: So you might be wondering what diet would be prescribed for a client with MS, and we need a real food diet, like you mentioned, Brandy; no processed foods that cause more inflammation. So first the immune system needs to heal. So we suggest about 14 ounces of animal protein daily. We need the amino acids from the animal protein to patch up and heal our intestinal lining and our tissues.

So if you eat four ounces of animal protein for breakfast, four ounces of animal protein for lunch, and four ounces of animal protein for dinner, you're there. You've eaten that 12 ounces of protein. You add in a snack with two or more ounces and suddenly you're at 14 ounces of animal protein per day. So what do we find when people start eating four to 16 ounces of protein daily?

People have more energy. People have better moods. People have hair growth when their hair was thinning. Their nails get strong. People have stronger muscles, and most people actually lose those extra pounds that they wanted to lose because they're boosting their metabolism with the protein. So an idea would be two eggs with two ounces of turkey sausage, two cups of sautéed spinach and a half cup of sweet potato. You put your butter on the sweet potato, sauté your spinach in olive oil or avocado oil, and you've got a very healing breakfast.

BRANDY: Yeah. That sounds awesome. One of the things I've been doing for lunch lately is I'll make a big batch of soup on the weekend, like a chicken wild rice soup with maybe a little heavy cream in there for some healthy fat, chicken for my protein, wild rice, and a ton of vegetables as my real food carb.

This is completely gluten free and it's really easy to make. I just throw everything in a crock pot. I use bone broth as my broth base and it's done by the end of the day.

MELANIE: And bone broth is an additional protein.

BRANDY: It is, it's really rich in protein. It's really healing.

MELANIE: It's very healing.

BRANDY: It's high in collagen and that is something that can help repair your tissues. And it's actually something that I might recommend any of my clients that are working on healing to incorporate into their day, almost like a supplement or a medicine. Sip on a cup of that bone broth as you would like a cup of tea or a cup of coffee just to get that boost of collagen and a little protein, a little extra protein.

MELANIE: Yeah, it's great. One of the go to dinners I recommend for my clients is the Minnesota Turkey Wild Rice Casserole . You can find it on our website. It makes great leftovers for the week. I'll tell them to add some bacon to it for extra protein, healthy fat, and of course, bacon adds joy.

BRANDY: Yeah, so much flavor.

The importance of healthy fat consumption for MS & avoiding refined oils

MELANIE: Everyone loves it. Now, if you dig a little deeper into MS, the MS diet, it's very important to consume adequate natural fat because our myelin sheath or the insulation of the nerves is made up of healthy fat. So I want to talk about the fats to use and the fats to avoid. The fats to use would be butter, coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, nut butters, avocado mayo, or olives, for example, I mean, yummy, delicious.

BRANDY: Fat is flavor.

MELANIE: My favorite: bacon fat.

BRANDY: Right. And you know what I like to do with the bacon fat is I'll make like a batch of bacon over the weekend, and I'll just save that fat that's rendered off and use it in my cooking all week long. You just want to use like an organic bacon.

MELANIE: Right. No nitrate. I used to put that, I would cook off a bunch of bacon and I would put it in the freezer. And my adult daughter and her fiancé came over one time and they were eating frozen bacon out of my freezer and I'm like, what are you doing? She's like, it's like bacon chips. It's so good. So I learned to hide it. Got to hide it.

BRANDY: Yeah. Well, that natural fat is so important for the health of that myelin sheath that we really do want to be intentional about incorporating a serving of fat with every meal. So when I'm working with a person with MS, I recommend eating those natural fats that you mentioned, Mel: butter, olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, bacon fat.

And in reality, when you focus on only these natural fats, you're essentially cutting out most, if not all processed foods, because I would say like 99.9 percent of processed foods will contain some kind of processed refined oils. There are a lot cheaper, you know, than those natural fats and that's why they're using them. So, if you cut out refined oils, you're getting rid of a lot of processed foods.

MELANIE: And seed oils are very tricky because it sounds like they're natural oils when you're reading safflower and sunflower oil, they sound, soybean oil. It sounds natural. But I would say we want to eliminate seed oils, which are omega 6 oils and highly refined.

BRANDY: Exactly. And what I've learned about those refined oils is that they actually contribute to inflammation in the body. You know, we consume so much of those omega-6 fats through refined oils, at least in the standard American diet that it is causing a lot of inflammation in the body. And that's the kind of inflammation that can damage the myelin sheath and progress the MS disease.

MELANIE: Yeah, that's a really good point.

BRANDY: So we want to avoid those refined oils because once that myelin sheath is damaged, it's going to expose those nerves. which is basically shorting your electrical signals to your brain and it's going to cause those neurological symptoms.

What you want to add are the essential fatty acids, the omega-3 fatty acids, especially DHA. So DHA is a specific type of essential fat that actually makes up that myelin sheath. I may actually suggest to my clients that they take DHA as a supplement. So I usually recommend about 400 milligrams of DHA three times a day. So over the course of the day, we're talking 1200 milligrams.

MELANIE: Yeah. Sounds like a hefty load, but it's a hefty disease.

BRANDY: Exactly. But when you do that, you are supporting the healing of that myelin sheath. And the goal is basically we want to prevent any additional damage or lesions. You can get DHA from foods too, right? So you can choose pasture raised eggs. They're a really great source of DHA.

Also salmon, all those fatty fish, salmon, mackerel, sardines, really great source of DHA. So you could make like a salmon salad with wild caught canned salmon, maybe throw in some avocado oil, some seasonings, really simple snack or lunch idea.

MELANIE: I just recently tried the salmon patties. We have on our website. Yeah. I don't know why. I just never thought they sounded appealing, but oh my gosh, they're so good and you can freeze them.

BRANDY: Yeah. They freeze really well.

MELANIE: Do you make those a lot?

BRANDY: I do. I, I talk about salmon patties almost every time I'm on the show.

MELANIE: Yes. That's right.

BRANDY: They're really, really good.

MELANIE: They are really good.

BRANDY: So try that recipe. But just to drive home how important this DHA is, DHA is a crucial nutrient that's added to just about any prenatal vitamin because it is so important for the development of a baby's spinal cord.

MELANIE: Yeah.

BRANDY: And neurological function, the nervous system.

MELANIE: Brain, yeah.

BRANDY: So anybody that has concerns about their nervous system needs to be thinking about getting enough DHA into their diet.

MELANIE: So as a nutritionist, and dietitians, we recognize MS is a very complicated chronic disease and most clients need that ongoing education support to adhere to a very healing MS diet. We find people are more successful when they make monthly appointments, and get the encouragement, support with shifting, all of these changes.

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BRANDY: Yeah.

MELANIE: You need that support from a well-educated and caring dietitian or nutritionist.

BRANDY: Makes all the difference.

MELANIE: And I think that we're nice folks.

BRANDY: I think so too.

MELANIE: So, there isn't one special diet or eating plan for every client who experiences MS. Some clients need to be dairy free while others can enjoy yogurt and cheese without it being damaging to their immune system. And it may take some experimenting as long as the foundation of the diet is still using real healing foods.

We recommend working with someone individually to make sure you're having the best healing diet for your individual needs. I don't like my clients to get bored. So, I'm always giving them new recipes, ideas, how do you travel, how do you eat out, how do you manage a holiday.

Eating real food is life changing and during the past 20 years, we have helped many clients with MS and have helped them to be in remission without additional lesions showing on their MRIs. It's possible with the help of eating real food.

Again, our goal at Nutritional Weight & Wellness is to help each and every person experience better health through eating real food. It's a simple yet powerful message. Eating real food is life changing. Thank you for joining us today.