Middle England Meeting Forges Best Bet Diet

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I returned home from my two week Psycho-Social course at Iiris Eye Center for the visually disabled late Friday evening.This has been my second 2 week course and the staff all fully trained in each of their disciplines were once again caring,committed and openly showed a warm,loving environment.As I have stated,my main disability is Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis,an immune disease of the central nervous system.My actual visual disability is a direct result of MS as the nerve between my eyes and small brain at the back of my head has been stripped of its protective layer of Myelin.This in effect renders any signals being transferred from the retina to my brain arriving scrambled and so confusing the brain.Hence my vision problems.

The Meeting of Middle England

But not all was lost as I have been supplied with aids to assist me to use my Desktop and a really great thing happened on arrival at Iiris two weeks ago.There was another Englishman that had been placed on the course with me.This in itself was wonderful but to put the icing on the cake so to speak was that he and I were born and grew up in the same areas in Birmingham & Wolverhampton.There was an immediate and almost electrifying exchange of humor and the following two weeks went on to seal a new friendship that I am sure will last longer than our eyes.

In a world that had for all intents and purposes that had become murkier,again life showed one of its peculiar tendencies,that of bringing together two ill-fated souls.

It truly was like a breathe of fresh sea air wafting in from a distant but familiar land.I am to receive another piece of software nor my Nokia Mobile Phone which enables my phone to talk to me and read out my SMS text messages plus a host of other applications.The trick here is to not loose the phone as I did with countless others I have owned.

Looking to the future with Multiple Sclerosis 

I try to be active on the MS forums to which I belong and as there is no cure for the disease as of now I follow the best I can where the current fields of research are leading.Stem Cell Therapy has some time to catch up after Bushes ban on fetal Stem Cell Research some 20 years ago,However life as shown above with the meeting of Middle England,has some peculiar surprises in store for each and every one of us.What we do not see now does not necessarily mean it is not there.Being positive and living every hour,minute or second to its full goes a long way to grinning at the harshness of life.I have been tempted to try one of two diets put forward for Multiple Sclerosis Sufferers.

They are The MS Recovery Diet and The Best Bet Diet.Actually without knowing I have been closely following the Best Bet Diet for the last 18 months.Whilst I can feel some form of stabilization in my physical condition or a  lessoning of the effects fro being a MS sufferer,the one big point for me is having a positive attitude and daring to push the borders further physically and emotionally.Whoever built a wall or fence,built it in my belief to be scaled and conquered.

I personally enjoy the little conversations I have had with my Psychologist and like seeds laid down for next years harvest so new seeds are are ready to burst forth with the ever light days of summer in Finland

The Best Bet Diet

What follows is a guide for those considering following this diet.I believe that most if not all people,fit or ill would see a marked change in their physical and emotional Health if followed.There are many web pages well documenting the positive effects of the best bet diet.

DIRECT-MS has a large collection of Journal Articles where one could spend countless hours reading up on research and offers a downloadable Cookbook.

Best Bet Diet Nutritional Protocol:
1. Eat fruits and vegetables for carbohydrates and micro-nutrients
2. Eat fish and skinless breast of chicken and turkey, for protein
3. Eat extra virgin olive oil for fats
4. Avoid all dairy, grains (except rice), legumes
5. Avoid all allergenic foods, which are identified by skin and ELISA tests
6. Avoid all red meat and margarine

Daily Supplements:
1. Grape seed extract 2 capsules
2. Vitamin D3 2000 IU in summer and 4000 IU in winter
3. Calcium 1200 mg
4. Vitamin A 5000 IU
5. 10 grams salmon oil (3 grams of Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids)
6. Vitamin B-complex 50 mg
6a. Folic Acid 1 g
7. Vitamin B-12 500 mcg
8. Vitamin C 1000 mg
9. Vitamin E 400 IU
10. Magnesium 600 mg
11. Zinc 25 mg
12. Copper 1-2 mg
13. Selenium 200 mcg
14. Manganese 20 mg
15. up to 5 g of evening primrose oil or borage oil
16. Acidophilus 4 capsules
17. Enzymes 4 capsules
18. Lecithin 500 – 1000 mg
19. Ginkgo biloba 120 mg
20. Co-enzyme Q10 60 mg

The Best Bet Diet Group
The BBD support group is hosted by Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre, a charity in the United Kingdom.  This website contains a great deal of information regarding Ashton Embry and the Best Bet Diet, including a forum for patients on the diet who share support, information, and recipes with each other.  (Note: The website is currently under reconstruction as of August 24, 2009.)

Basically, Ashton Embry’s Best Bet Diet (BBD) works on two fronts.
1. To stop, or at least restrict, the consumption of foods whose molecular structure is so similar to the myelin in our own bodies that they could ignite the autoimmunity process and cause an attack on the myelin in the CNS. These “suspect” foods are as follows with recommended replacements:

• Dairy – Avoid all animal milks, and all butters, cheeses, and yoghurts made from them, and all products that contain them. Where appropriate, replace in the diet with rice milk or low fat coconut milk, both of which are widely available on the supermarket shelves these days.
• Gluten – Avoid all wheat, rye and barley, and all products containing them. It is advised that oats are also avoided despite new research suggesting they contain no gluten. For our purposes, they are still regarded as a “modern” grain, added to the diet only in recent times, and the chances of avoiding autoimmune reactions is greater without them. These “suspect” grains are replaced in the diet with rice, corn, quinoa and a whole range of other grains/flours that are both gluten-free and widely available these days.
• Legumes – Avoid all beans, peas and pulses, especially soya, and all products containing them. All other vegetables are allowed, in particular the green leafy ones, like spinach and broccoli that are high in omega 3 EFA.
• Refined sugar is also avoided, wherever possible, because it can make the leaky gut worse and can also adversely affect the immune system. More acceptable alternative sweeteners are honey, maple syrup, fruit sugar (fructose) and stevia.
• Eggs and Yeast are both allowed in limited quantities as long as the individual shows no specific allergic reaction to them.

In general, those following this approach enjoy a diet based primarily on the breast of chicken or turkey, fish, game meats and beef from cattle that have been fed exclusively on grass. The diet is also low in saturated fat and aims to achieve a far healthier balance of omega 6 – omega 3 fats than is normal in today’s western society, where the condition is now rife.

As I said;following the Best Bet Diet has certainly not worsened my disabilities and most of all it has sown to improve my general state of alertness and alleviated the continual fatigue I used suffer with every day.Finally my visit to Iiris Visually Disabled Clinic can not only be considered a worthwhile two weeks but more a Psycho-Social victory over MS
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