Webinar Highlights: Your opportunity to ask a qualified nutritional therapist about the Overcoming MS diet with Sam Josephs | S6E8

In this episode, we are sharing highlights from our webinar, ‘Your opportunity to ask a qualified nutritional therapist about the Overcoming MS diet’ with Sam Josephs. Sam is a qualified nutritional therapist and Overcoming MS facilitator. In this episode, she discusses fasting patterns, tips for Overcoming MS-friendly meals on a budget and how to prevent weight loss.

Keep reading for the key episode takeaways.

Topics and Timestamps:

02:40 Can fasting help you reduce inflammation?

05:58 How much calcium is safe for you with high doses of vitamin D3?

08:11 Comparing benefits: flax oil supplements vs Omega-3 rich foods.

09:40 Can you have coconut or meat in the absence of Overcoming MS-friendly options?

11:25 Vitamin D2 vs D3 in fortified foods.

13:40 The link between eating dairy and osteoporosis.

16:48 The different types of saturated fats.

19:11 Can you ever eat fast food or processed foods?

22:12 Can you eat egg yolk or meat occasionally?

25:59 How much vitamin K should you have to prevent calcium buildup?

27:16 Is there a limit to the number of egg whites you can eat?

28:18 Can you eat lean meat on the Overcoming MS diet when trying to put on weight?

30:12 What minerals can you take to help with spasticity and tight muscles?

21:46 Tips for cooking Overcoming MS-friendly meals with a busy schedule.

36:48 Snacks to help you prevent weight loss on the Overcoming MS diet.

40:23 Alternatives to flax oil for Omega-3 supplementation

41:59 The benefits of a variety of whole grains for your gut bacteria

44:20 Budget tips for cooking Overcoming MS-friendly meals

Selected Key Takeaways:

Highly processed foods have negative health implications.

20:11 “Highly processed foods sometimes irritate the gut lining, which can affect our friendly bacterial populations. We're only just starting to understand the detrimental effects of some of these unknown food chemicals, not to mention high levels of salt, and high levels of sugar, all of which on a metabolic level are not good for us. Salt can cause excretion of calcium, which we're trying to retain. The sugars can cause metabolic issues, things like becoming overweight and obese.”

A variety of whole grains is beneficial for the gut.

42:35 “It’s important not to rely too heavily on one grain or another. But to keep that variety because each grain has a different nutritional profile and will be broken down differently in the body. The more variety you have with your grains, the more you're encouraging healthy bacteria which indirectly calms MS activity so think about different rice: what about wild rice [or] the red rice? What about buckwheat? Have you tried quinoa yet?”

There are multiple intermittent fasting methods to suit your lifestyle.

03:05 “Some people do the five-two diet, which involves eating normally five days of the week, and then just eating dinner on two days of the week, consuming much lower calories. You could fast overnight for 16 hours and then eat your food in a much smaller window of eight hours. It could be done as a water fast where you don't eat anything at all, and just drink water one day a week or a couple of days a month.”

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More info and links:

• Sam Josephs has been featured on S1E3, S1E4, and S5E8
• Check out Overcoming MS-friendly recipes
• Create your Overcoming MS Meal Plan
• Read Sam’s bio
• New to Overcoming MS? Visit our intro