Life with MSII

I have been away from home for a week and the rigor of transport is the only excuse I have for not blogging the last few days.

Today, I think it would be useful to talk a little about diet and MS. We are used to a loaded larder in America and why shouldn't it be - we won the War after all. I certainly grew up loving marbled steaks and unlimited butter on my corn. The first change I remember was replacing butter with margarine and eating breaded fish sticks and spiced crackers instead of real fish and vegetables - easier for mom and we didnt know any different, sitting close to our B&W watching cartoons.

There are books now available for those of us hoping to damp down our MS with diet. Some are poorly-written and not useful. The best one I have seen discusses the Paleolithic Diet, which simply turns our time back fifty years or so to when there was only butter and vegetables and free-range meat and no potato chips. Briefly, then, the Paleolithic Diet (an awful name) stresses fruit, vegetables, lean meat and fish, nuts and pure water. Frankly, it reminds me of the Adventist 'sinple foods, simply prepared' diet except that they eat no meat. The Simple Diet (better name?) has many advantages and few drawbacks. It involves meat, even beef without the fat, it is very delicious, it causes natural loss of weight and resumption of the weight we should have. This decreases the chance of atherosclerosis and essentially eliminates diabetes II, adult-onset diabetes, a Western disease of overweight. It is a Great Truth that if most diabetics (DMII) lost 10% of their weight the disease would vanish or be easily in control. Joel Fuhrman, MD has written a very readable book dealing with becoming a vegetarian, though after devouring it and even after a 21-day fast I decided the better part of valor was avoidance of all simple carbohydrates (breads, crackers, candy,icing,etc), simple fats ( marbled steak, most processed foods) and dairy (very hard for me) but a glance at books on the Paleo diet made me feel better as their recommendation was ice cream as a rare treat but not a staple. Over-strict dieting does not have a role at a Mandarin feast.

If you spend time reading about the role of diet in the control of MS you will probably run into stories about Roy Swank,MD. He had success treating MS with a Simple Diet with emphysis on elimination of simple fat and use of fatty acids and natural, healthy oils. I give no details here, only names and topics. Look 'em up.

I will continue this topic in future blogs, though why listen to me when books are available? Do, though... I will write on what I do, or plan to do as regards backpacking, hiking, whatever in the future. Take care and remember MS is not a death sentence and can be strongly moderated, if not eliminated. But I'll eliminate mine.