Nutrition Facts for MS with Dr Michael Greger | S5E20

2023-07-12

Welcome to Living Well with MS, where we are pleased to welcome Dr Michael Greger as our guest! Dr Greger is a physician, New York Times bestselling author, and internationally recognised speaker on nutrition, food safety, and public health issues. He speaks to Geoff about gluten and MS, how to get enough iron from food and how to ensure you don’t get a leaky gut. Keep reading for the key episode takeaways and Dr Greger’s bio. Make sure you sign up to our newsletter to hear our lates...

Welcome to Living Well with MS, where we are pleased to welcome Dr Michael Greger as our guest! Dr Greger is a physician, New York Times bestselling author, and internationally recognised speaker on nutrition, food safety, and public health issues. He speaks to Geoff about gluten and MS, how to get enough iron from food and how to ensure you don’t get a leaky gut.

Keep reading for the key episode takeaways and Dr Greger’s bio.

Make sure you sign up to our newsletter to hear our latest tips and news about living a full and happy life with MS. And if you’re new to Overcoming MS, visit our introductory page to find out more about how we support people with MS.

Selected Key Takeaways:

Fibre from whole intact grains and legumes will decrease intestinal permeability AKA “Leaky Gut”
The most important thing to decrease intestinal permeability or [to] seal up a leaky gut is [to get enough] short-chain fatty acids that our body makes from fibre and resistance starch. These prebiotics that we eat are turned by our good gut bacteria into what are called ‘post-biotics’. What are the most concentrated sources of fibre in the diet? Number one, whole intact grains and legumes including beans, split peas, chickpeas and lentils are the most important sources of fibre.

There are many health benefits to eating ground flaxseeds
I'd rather people get their flaxseed oil within their flaxseeds, so from ground flaxseed (that's part of my daily dozen). Just because, in addition to getting the short-chain Omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid in those flax seeds that are found in the oil, you also get a nice low soluble fibre [and] most importantly the lignans which are cancer-fighting compounds which are not found in oil.

Vitamin C improves the absorption of plant-based iron sources
To get enough iron from plant-based sources, you combine sources of iron like legumes and whole grains with Vitamin C-rich foods. Vitamin C actually improves the absorption of plant-based iron. Vitamin C-rich foods [are foods such as] citrus, tropical fruits, broccoli [and] bell peppers. You just want to have it all in your stomach at the same time and that will improve your absorption.