Why broth and meat week? Is it feasible?
I feel awesome right now. Far away from Multiple Sclerosis. I still get trace reminders of my symptoms, but none of the scary ones. And only when I eat foods I am reactive to more than once. Believe me I have broken down and eaten 2 slices of pizza. Thrown my hands in the air and said ‘is it really the worst thing in the grand scheme of things?’ And it’s not. But the next day, I do it again. And that is the worst thing. Slippery slope my friends. So I don’t do it often but when I do, I feel it with MS symptoms. Tingling, some blurred vision. And it doesn’t happen right away, It happens late the next day, sometimes the day after that. Which tells me my digestion is still slow and not optimal.
Let’s put things back in perspective. I am raising 2 boys, crossfitting, maintaining my size 4, working full time, creating this web site, researching, reading novels (not 1 a week anymore since this site, 1 a month now), half heartedly training a new GSD and doing it all with a smile. And I am happy, loving life. So that makes me think my flirtations with gluten, especially since I don’t get the lower GI distress any more, are not devastating. And let me be clear that I am talking about 2 slices of pizza every 3 or 4 months, a traditionally breaded chicken parm 3 months after that. Please don’t let these statements serve as justification for your own indiscretions. If you are in the 30 day elimination period or a reintroduction phase you’re not ready for the slippery slope yet.
I’m getting to the broth part, I swear. But first more self justification. I also struggle with sugar. I found out very quickly that sugar doesn’t effect my MS. I am whole heartedly addicted to it. I play all the mind games, all the typical addiction games with myself over it. And broth and meat week just may be a part of that game. I believe if I can pull off broth and meat week, I can be done with sugar. I can be satisfied with a honey sweetened something every quarter. Instead of every day.
Broth and meat week will help my MRI? Is that ludicrous? I have no study to cite, I have no references. But I have been reading and reading, the blood brain barrier, gelatin, digestion, GAPS, WAPF, fermentation, neurotransmitter repair, broth. It’s all telling me to try broth and meat and then reintroduce vegetables.
*update* It has been a few years since I wrote this blog post. I have since found out that fasting benefits MS and I use fasting all the time as a diagnostic tool. Most notably when i am not feeling well on whatever level, MS, irritable, too much PMS, bloating pretty much everything leads to three day broth fast to see if I feel better taking food out of the equation. So far, I have felt better every time I’ve tried this. I usually follow up with blood tests or a session with Laura Schoenfeld, the ancestral RD.