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Healthy eating

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Like everyone else, people with MS benefit from a healthy diet.

It’s also an aspect of life which you can control to suit you and your needs.

Eating nutritionally balanced meals helps the body work to its full potential, which is particularly important for people living with long-term, unpredictable conditions like MS. It can improve quality of life and sense of well-being.

A healthy diet, combined with the right exercise, can help:

  • control weight
  • decrease fatigue
  • maintain regular bowel and bladder function
  • minimise the risk of skin problems
  • keep bones healthy and strong
  • maintain healthy teeth and gums
  • strengthen the heart
  • improve muscle strength and range of motion
  • increase flexibility

A healthy diet

A healthy diet contains a balance of the major food groups:

  • Proteins – for growth and tissue repair
  • Carbohydrates and sugars – for energy
  • Fats – to absorb certain vitamins and for essential fatty acids
  • Fibre – for healthy digestion
  • Vitamins and minerals – for numerous processes in the body, including tissue repair, bone strength and the absorption of other nutrients
  • Fluids – for optimum working of the body. Water carries nutrients around the body and is used in the various chemical processes happening in our cells.

These food groups contain nutrients with specific roles and a lack of any of these may cause health problems directly, or affect how other nutrients are absorbed by the body.

Five a day

Frozen, dried, fresh and tinned fruit and vegetables all count, but the five portions need to be varied, as different fruits and vegetables contain different nutrients.

Include some fresh produce in the five portions, as levels of certain vitamins, including vitamin C, are lower when tinned or dried.

Starchy vegetables like potatoes, do not usually count towards the five portions per day.

One portion might be two or three heaped tablespoons of spinach, an apple or a glass of fruit juice (150ml). However, because juice has less fibre than the whole fruit, it can only count as one portion per day, however much you drink.

With smaller fruits, like apricots or plums, two fruits make up a portion.

Find more on the NHS Eatwell website.

Supplements and vitamins

Vitamins and minerals have a number of vital functions in the body.

Certain drug treatments can lower levels of vitamins and minerals in the body and a doctor or dietician may suggest supplements. But a balanced diet usually provides a sufficient supply for most people and there is no evidence that high doses benefit people with MS.

Excess vitamins and minerals can sometimes be harmful.

Food allergy and intolerance

Research does not support the use of gluten-free or other diets excluding specific foods to treat MS. However, just like anyone else, people with MS can react to particular foods.

If you think you may have an intolerance or allergy, your doctor or dietician can help you look into it further.

Reliable testing for food allergy or intolerance involves following a properly supervised exclusion diet. As this process can be time-consuming and costly, it is worth considering the pros and cons:

  • will following the diet be worse than the symptoms it could alleviate?
  • will you still be able to have a balanced diet and maintain a healthy weight?
  • how would such a diet impact on finances, shopping, cooking, family meals and meals out?