We hear a lot about gut health, but how specifically is your gut affecting MS? How does the food that you eat impact your brain and your ability to manage the progression of MS and its many symptoms? Having a real understanding of this makes your food choices so much easier. And the more consistent you are with the right choices, the better and sooner you'll get results. And that's really what we're after. We want to feel better.

Let me ask you a question: Someone were to ask you right now, 'How can your diet affect MS? How does the food that you eat affect MS?' Can you give them an honest answer? I mean, what exactly do berries, sauerkraut, or olive oil have anything to do with MS? It's an honest question. and one that you might get asked a lot if you're talking about your MS diet. And it's easy to get tripped up in answering the questions. And then you walk away feeling ridiculous and like you have no idea what you're talking about and feeling like you lost all credibility. I don't want to go down a rabbit hole of having to justify our food choices to anybody because that is not what this is about. What you eat or don't eat is nobody else's business. However, I do want you to have an understanding of how food affects your body.

Podcast episode over on Alenebrennan. com. So if you're a big note taker like me, get your notebook and pen ready. Or if you just want to sit back and listen, go for it. And then you can head over to Alenebrennan. com for the blog post. Okay, so where do we start? I think we need to start with a basic understanding of how the brain and the gut are even connected in the first place. I mean, they're not exactly next to each other in the body. The brain is all the way up at the top and your gut is kind of like, I don't know, like middle, lower torso. So how are they connected? The connection is called the gut-brain access, and it's an actual physical connection from your brain to your gut through the vagus nerve.

And again, I'm sure you've heard all of these terms tossed out before, but I want you to have a good understanding. Like I want you to know what they are so that you feel more knowledgeable about what's going on in your body, but also more knowledgeable about how food is affecting your body because it just makes those decisions so much easier. So the vagus nerve starts at your brainstem and runs down through your neck, your chest, your abdomen, and then it branches out to a lot of different organs. So this physical connection that connects your brain to your digestive tract, specifically your stomach, small and large intestines, is called the vagus nerve. And it basically sends signals to and from your brain all day long.

It's like they're just sitting there texting one another all day long. What are they talking about? A lot of things. It could send messages about your emotions, your hunger level, stress, and this information then influences your mood, your behavior, things like eating, sleeping, working out, and it can influence your cognitive functions. So basically this gut-brain access is a physical connection from your brain to your digestive tract that enables your gut and your brain to talk to one another. And while that's a really cool fact and like interesting thing to learn about your body, it also leads us to the next question of what does this have to do with MS? It's relevant as we're talking about food and MS because what we eat can significantly impact this communication system.

The types of food that we eat can influence the bacteria living in your gut. And that impacts the quality of communication from your brain to your gut and vice versa. You need to have a good balance of bacteria in your gut to have a healthy communication system between your gut and your brain. So if you're eating a crappy diet, lots of sugar and processed foods, pretty much the standard American diet, that will help the bad bacteria to grow, which can negatively impact this communication system, which can in turn drain your energy, mess with your emotions and impact your ability to just think straight. But more specifically to MS, this gut-brain access can really have a strong influence

Two, neuroinflammation, the level of inflammation in your brain. And number three, the production of neurotransmitters. And that's really important for brain function and mood regulation. So I know we're tossing around a lot of different terms here, and I'm just going to pause for a quick recap. We know that the gut and the brain are connected through the vagus nerve. They talk back and forth all day long, sending information about stress, hunger, energy, mood, as well as any potential infections or inflammation in the gut. And having a healthy gut microbiome, having more healthy bacteria in your gut than bad,

So that's kind of like the lay of the land, how food and the gut impact your brain and specifically your experience with MS. So let's break this down more specifically to talk about the foods that best support that gut-brain access and promote a healthy gut microbiome. Basically, we want to focus on the foods that support the growth of good bacteria and keep the bad bacteria in check.

But wait, there's more. Four ways in which you can support a good, healthy gut microbiome. All right, here we go. The first of four. Number one, high fiber foods. There is a reason why the Wahls protocol is built upon nine cups of vegetables a day. Fruits and vegetables help to promote the growth of beneficial bacteria in your gut. Now, you may not be doing the nine cups a day,

two cups of leafy green, two sulfur-rich, and two deeply colored. You still need to have that balance of the different types of vegetables throughout it. But my point is not counting cups right now. I just wanted to emphasize that there is a very good reason why the foundation of that is to increase more vegetables into your diet on a day-to-day basis. So let's just table the concept of the number of cups that you're eating. Can you just eat?

Can you add a handful of spinach or frozen cauliflower to your smoothie? What if you ordered a side salad to your dinner next time you're out at a restaurant? Or can you roast your favorite veggies for dinner? Broccoli and Brussels sprouts are my personal favorites, and they're so easy to roast. You just put them in the oven, drizzle a little fat on them, some salt, pepper, you know, doctor it up, however you like it. And you put them in the oven until they get nice and soft and delicious.

Number two, fermented foods. Listen, these are daily condiments in many cultures. Here in America, we just simply don't think of them very much. They kind of got pushed to the side. And honestly, when I talk about fermented foods to many of my clients, they immediately think that they have to eat like an entire cup of sauerkraut. Ah, no, that does not sound appealing to me. I'm not feeling this one. Can we skip over this? Listen, if you need to skip over it, you skip over it. However, it is really beneficial to your gut microbiome. And I also want to emphasize, you should not start with one cup of sauerkraut or any fermented food all at once. You start with just like a tablespoon, like start small, and then you let your body get used to it. If you're eating too much all at once, it can be too much of an adjustment on your body.

Of gut bacteria, and that is going to ultimately help your brain health. So number one, eat more high fiber foods, specifically veggies and fruit. Number two, eat fermented veggies, such as sauerkraut and kimchi. Number three, polyphenol rich foods. So polyphenols are antioxidants, and they can help to combat oxidative stress in the body by neutralizing free radicals,

The antioxidant properties in these foods help to support a healthy gut microbiome. So again, let's break this down to what this means to you on a day-to-day basis. Can you add berries into your salad? Can you use olive oil as your salad dressing? Can you add some nuts and seeds as like an easy on-the-go snack? Or another snack idea, could you add some nut butter to sliced apples or bananas? Or could you have a bowl of berries topped with some coconut cream for an evening dessert? You've heard me say it before, but I always want to encourage you to not just keep consuming more information, more lists of foods, more do's, more don'ts. That's overwhelming because then it just feels like you're like drinking from a fire hose. You're like, okay, now I have to do this.

Try to identify just one step. Which of those foods do you like the most? Berries, nuts, seeds, or olive oil? And what is one way you can start adding them in? Okay, again, a refresher, high fiber foods, fermented veggies, polyphenol rich foods, and then last but not least, omega-3 fatty acids. We talked about these in our last episode, which was all about reducing inflammation, but they apply here too. And that's why I think this is so helpful when you start to like see the connection, you're like, oh, I need to be eating more foods that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Salmon is a fatty fish and I like salmon. So that's something that I'm gonna add in and that's helping to reduce inflammation as we learned from our last episode, but it's also helping to support brain health. And oh, by the way, the fat in there is gonna help to stabilize blood sugar. So a lot of these lists overlap. When you eat one food, you're not just staying in a silo of, okay, when I eat salmon today, this is just helping to reduce inflammation. And then tomorrow I'm gonna focus on foods

You can get it through flaxseed, chia seeds, walnuts. So out of this list, which foods do you like the most? Some fatty fish like some salmon, some sardines, mackerel, flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts, which pique your interest? And how can you start incorporating them into your diet? And again, you can layer these recommendations by adding a tablespoon of omega-3 rich chia.

So you can help to alleviate some of these symptoms and feel better in your body, feel better on a day-to-day basis so that you can do the things that you want in a day that you can live life the way that you want to. You have the energy and the health to do the things that you want on a day-to-day basis. Oh, baby, do I get passionate about this? All right. So again, I don't want you to walk away with just like another food list. I want you to walk away with ideas for specific meals and snacks because that is what your brain will think of when you're hungry. Next time you walk into the kitchen and open the pantry,

into meals and snacks and things that you eat on a day-to-day basis, whether you're at home, on the go, traveling, or in a restaurant. We make it work for your lifestyle. So just send me a DM or an email, and I can share more of the details about it if that's something that you feel like would be helpful for you. Now, I also want to take a quick minute to talk about foods to avoid that can potentially worsen brain health and your symptoms.

Foods that are high in refined carbohydrates and sugars, such as white bread and pasta, and pastry, and sugary drinks, all spike blood sugar levels, and that contributes to inflammation, and potentially can worsen MS symptoms. So all of those high-sugar foods, are not supporting your body. Now, I'll be the first to admit, I love baking and I have not completely eliminated sugar from my diet. I don't even know that I will get there eventually. I don't even know that that's like a definitive goal for me because I want that little wiggle room. Like, as I said, I like to bake and I do like having an occasional sweet for a celebration or a holiday or something like that. Do I have it on a daily basis? Absolutely not. I used to.

I used to have a dessert every single night after dinner and I'd have some sweets or candy or like something, you know, sugary during the day. But since switching over to my MS protocol, my cravings for that stuff has just gone away. And that has been so helpful. Like I think back and I remember how much of a struggle it was. It felt like it was like this constant willpower that I had to have. It was like me versus the sugar. And I don't feel that way anymore.

Because then I can control what sweetener is put in there. And I'll choose coconut sugar over white sugar. Or I'll choose dates or applesauce. Like there's a lot of different things that you can add in there. So it's not pure sugar. But my point is refined carbohydrates and high sugar foods are doing you no favors. You don't have to get like militant about it. I mean, I have ketchup and barbecue sauce and they are loaded with sugar. And I have scaled back on the quantity that I have used.

Many of the processed foods, the packaged and bagged foods, have a lot of additives and preservatives and artificial ingredients that can negatively impact gut health and promote inflammation in the body. So again, same with sugar. Is it saying that you can't ever have like a processed food? No. It can be really hard to live in a world where you have to eat whole foods all day, every day. You probably would feel amazing if you can maintain that,

go down to that. And then I look at the ingredients of that particular food. And does it have like high fructose corn syrup? Does it have a lot of the artificial colors and ingredients in there that mess up your gut? If it does, I'm leaving it in the store. I'm not buying it because nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels. Nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels. Always remember that. So how can we eliminate or at least minimize refined carbohydrates and sugars as well as processed foods? Now, the other two are very common or popular foods to eliminate in managing MS and other inflammatory conditions, which are gluten and dairy. Now, let me just note on gluten for a second, because a lot of people get confused by this.

You eat gluten doesn't mean it's not creating inflammation and damage in your body. I feel like gluten is like that sneaky food that gets in your body and you likely don't have an immediate or noticeable reaction to it. It's kind of like flying right under the radar and it's wreaking havoc in your gut and then therefore in your immune system and then throughout your body, but you don't notice it because it's so subtle.

Maybe that's a little bit more likely because that is more associated with like a bagel or pasta or like a hoagie roll. I'm a Northeast girl, so we do hoagies around here. But you get my point. You likely don't have an immediate or severe reaction to it, but it doesn't mean that it's not creating inflammation or damage in your body. The best way to determine if it's affecting you is to eliminate it for 30 to 90 days and see how you feel.

Like I said, to things like elimination. Are you pooping any better? Are you sleeping any better? Is your mood better balanced? Are you less gassy, bloated? Is your skin better, less aches and pains, less headaches? These are all of the things that not only just food in general, but gluten specifically can affect. Because ultimately, gluten can create leaky gut, which allows substances to cross the gut barrier that shouldn't be in your bloodstream. It allows them to

I hear you. So if that's one that you can't part with, don't start with that one. Start with gluten. Or if you've done gluten, you're like, wow, I'm pretty humbled by the results. Then what if you just tried dairy for 30 to 90 days? Don't think of it as a forever. Just look at it as a temporary experiment. Because let me tell you, if you get the results of feeling better, you're far more likely to eliminate it because you just look at it and you're like

, 'dairy, see how your body responds.' But in all of my years of coaching clients with MS and other autoimmune diseases and chronic illness, I will say that these lists that I've shared with you today, both the beneficial foods, as well as the foods to like ideally eliminate or avoid are pretty consistent across the board. Like it's pretty consistent that these foods are the ones that help people to feel better.

And having a healthy gut microbiome helps to maintain the good communication between the gut and the brain. If you have poor gut health, the communication between the gut and the brain could be weakened or disrupted, potentially affecting your ability to manage stress, control appetite, maintain balanced energy levels, and ultimately making it harder to keep MS in check. The foods that you want to focus on eating, number one, high fiber foods, specifically veggies and fruit. Number two, fermented veggies such as sauerkraut and kimchi. Number three, polyphenol rich foods such as berries, nuts, seeds, and olive oil.

Reach out to me and let me know what your first step is that you are taking, because I want to cheer you on. And quite honestly, I have a lot of resources that might make your journey a little bit easier. So if you have any questions or need support in getting started, let me know. Again, send me an email, send me a DM on social media. I love hearing from you. Well, my friend, we've reached the end of this episode. Pick one lesson from today's discussion and put it into action now. It's time to reclaim your body, mind, and life from multiple sclerosis. And for more resources, events, and programs, head over to AleneBrennan. com. See you on the next episode of my MS podcast.