Hi, I am new on here and I haven’t managed to put a picture up yet as it says it has to be a certain size and I don’t know how to do it. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone notices a change in symptoms depending on what they have eaten or is it my imagination.
Hi Ricksmum, Welcome to our little group. I know some people are affected by what they eat but I can’t say that I notice any difference. My MS nurse always suggests if there’s something like that worrying you that the way to be sure is to keep a food/symptoms diary for a few weeks …that way you can look back and check what foods cause which reactions…if any. Nice to see you on here, I hope you’ll come back often. By the way don’t worry about photo…loads of us don’t have one on here. Hope you have a very happy Easter, Ninax
Hi Ricksmom and welcome to our little gang. You couldn’t have found a better place to find support, friendship and advice… or anything really. Can’t say I’ve noticed food affecting my symptoms, although I know that some people stay on very low fat diet for MS… but have to say I tried it for a few days and felt terrible. Even worse fatigue than usual. As Nina says, you could try a food diary… might help… just beware of keeping a diary for too long and writing every symptom down. It can become a bit negative… but does help if you do it for a while. I tried loads of photos before one would fit… it was really trial and error… suddenly I found one that worked. Very glad to have you with us… and Happy Easter! Pat xx
Hi Ricksmom, and welcome.
I would advise against a too high protein diet, as although it helped me lose weight it did give me acute gout. I’ve had PPMS for about 6 years, and although still fairly fit I find that any problems, such as gout, I’ve experienced have often been due to too much meat. I’m a moderate drinker, but often dodge the salads. I find that eating lots of fruit&veg keeps things in check: my gout disappeared after giving up red meat and doubling my fruit intake for a fortnight. My range of movement is now sooo much better.
Food for thought…as they say.
I always said chips constipated me but now I must take movicol but in all honesty anything blocks me up. Indigestion is my biggest problem now I need gavescon intravenously. It can really make me proper poorly. I think the diary or a journal is brilliant it is something I tell everyone to do but never do it myself. Don.
Cant really say any foods make my symptoms worse, or should I say, cant think of anything, but definitely I appear to get lots of indegestion.
Pam x
Hi and welcome
Sonia x
Thankyou all for your response. I have started keeping a food diary because some days I feel better and I’ve noticed it’s when I’ve eaten less. Gotta find out if any particular foods are helping or if it’s the lack of certain ones. I can certainly say I’m not letting the MS beat me, I wont go down without a fight. ha. I have been told by my doctor that my attitude is positive but I do have bad days and worse days. I’m at the stage where I use elbow crutches to get about and that’s a comical sight in itself. I will try again with a picture but in the meantime I will keep visiting the site.
If you’re doing a food diary, one to watch out for is if it’s hot or cold meal - I’m sure I’ve seen comments before from people badly effected by Uthoffs feeling that a hot meal made them feel worse.
Good luck with your diary, I eat gluten occasionally but on the whole I avoid it, I’m pretty sure fatigue would be harder to cope with if I did let it back in.
Sonia x
I’ve noticed that it’s important to eat my greens. If I eat plenty of spinach or cabbage, I notice two things improve - my mood is much more buoyant, and my fatigue is much less overwhelming.
Both spinach and cabbage are tedious to prepare, but I have two tips to make things easier:
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Finely chop and steam half a cabbage, serve with a knob of butter, some black pepper, and grate some cheddar over the top. Very tasty!
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Supermarkets sell bags of frozen nuggets of chopped spinach. Throw a few nuggets into whatever you’re cooking (but only if you think the flavour will match! - I try to avoid gross mismatches ). I use 4-5 nuggets with a small jar of pasta sauce, and stir the mixture into my pasta when I want a quickie meal.
I have some cabbage and Kale, which is also good, so might cook those today. Yesterday I felt like I could do more chores than normal but today I struggled to get out of bed, worst yet. I will eat better today, fruit and veg and see what I’m like tomorrow. I might be fooling myself into thinking it’s that simple. 
Hi Ricksmom
I don’t think diet affects my ms but different foods can have effects on a few symptoms eg pastry and bread make my heartburn worse and not enough fibre, fruit and veg leads to constipation which causes discomfort, sluggishness and urine retention. I think a food diary is a good idea or I wouldn’t have figured those things out but I believe that a balanced diet is best. I personally know that some things aren’t recommended like my tea consumption, I’ve compromised and moved to decaf but I refuse to cut down as I enjoy it and I’m still well above the recommended fluid intake. Life’s still got to be pleasurable. Good luck.
Cath xx
Hi again, reading Cath’s post above, I’m just going to play devil’s advocote here … I actually find caffeine really helpful. If i didn’t have my 2 cups of real strong coffee (I use one of those little Italian perculators) in the morning I would probably never get out of bed… and possiblly have the worst constipation known to womankind. After that I drink full-on Yorkshire tea during the day… at around 6pm I move onto Red Bush tea which is naturally decaf… so that I can sleep. I’m sorry I just don’t go along with the anti caffeine thing… I’d rather get my bit of energy from coffee and real tea than from another drug. Cath… not sure if giving up real tea has helped you or not … but just wanted to say that I don’t think it’s bad for you… or necessarily bad for symptoms. Hmmm time for a cuppa I think… Pat xx 
Pat you’re so lucky. I found that caffeine causes me to go into urine retention. If I have more than 2 cups of normal tea in a day I need to self cath but if I avoid caffeine I’m okay. We’re all different aren’t we? Life would be so much easier if we all responded the same way. I’m still reasonably new to this ms road and learning but after really struggling with my water works I discovered what set me off. I’m sorry now I didn’t explain my reasons for avoiding it before, I still forget that it won’t affect everyone, so thanks.
Cath xx
Oh no wonder you’ve given it up Cath! Yes if it causes a problem then who wouldn’t. What I meant was more generally it’s just something that peope say… my MS nurse said to give up caffeine… which I did for a while… but found no benefits at all… except that I was more tired than usual and going to sleep about 9.30 at night and then awake before 6am… so for me it’s a real advance using caffeine. As you say, we’re all different. It’s all trial and error really… work out what works for us. It’s really good you found what was making water works worse! Take care hon and hope you’re doing well. Gorgeous and sunny in London. Pat xx
Meant ‘it’s a real ADVANTAGE using caffeine’… NOT advance!!! Pxx