Why Mostly Vegetable and Whole Foods? Diet for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
ALS Diet Pages
Whole foods means you choose foods as they are in nature, whole, nothing added, nothing taken away. To do this using the low arginine foods you simply utilize your list of acceptable foods, buy them organic, and mix and match in any way you desire. Many meals can simply be two foods you like, like a plate of beans and sweet potatoes. Or you can have a whole organic apple, and organic mozzarella cheese. You can have an organic yoghurt or two. One of your most substantial meals will be a huge organic salad with lots of greens, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, carrots...any organic vegetables and drizzled (or drenched for extra calories!) in organic extra virgin olive oil and an organic vinegar. Use organic herbs and pepper to season. If you use salt, use an organic mineral salt, like "Real Salt®" that you can obtain in a larger health store or on line.
Nature hasn't given us apple juice, but has given us whole apples with all the fiber, vitamins and minerals necessary to delay(for one thing) the natural (and beneficial) sugars from entering the bloodstream. In the section on supplements, we list some of the nutrients that have specifically been found to be beneficial in neurodegenerative diseases, and in particular ALS. Because new information is being generated daily, you need to keep the "bottom line" (factors that cause ALS) in mind, along with the fact that you are now consuming a whole, pure, organic diet that will supply much of the nutrients that may have been missing, in order to carefully plan a supplement regimen with the help of your personalized regenerative medical doctor.
Again, the real danger has been already elucidated: Imbalance or the opposite of homeostasis. We were meant by Nature to consume foods in their whole, natural state. Even with organic foods, it is dangerous (especially if you are fighting a deadly disease) to consume foods that have been altered and refined. You could eat organic all day long, and be doing the wrong thing: Consuming juices, fruit leathers, jams, tofu and other altered foods. Fiberless sweet foods are way too high in sugars (a glass of orange juice, for example, would have the sugar of 4-8 oranges...you could never eat that many oranges!) and are without the protective fiber nature put there to properly handle the inevitable elevated glucose. Elevated glucose and it's "up and down rollercoaster" have been the issue of much study with regard to weight gain, diabetes, heart disease and more. It appears, as well, that glucose is a direct precursor to glutamate!
An animal study in 1974 determined that glucose is a major precursor of glutamate and related amino acids. The researchers "tagged" glucose (14C) and observed it gaining access to a large glutamate pool, and that it did so at a higher level of activity that glutamine or other amino acids like aspartate, GABA, serine or leucine, for example (Starr MS). This is a major point for consuming a whole foods diet, and not allowing yourself to stray into thinking that as long as it's "organic" it's acceptable. And this brings us to the Ketogenic Diet which observed (in the 2-3% of ALS patients with SOD enzyme mutation, or familial ALS) that a diet without glucose stopped the progression of ALS. The first study that showed that the ketogenic diet alters the progression of ALS (in mice) was completed in 2006. We don't have long-term results of whether humans could even follow such a diet without horrific other side effects for any length of time (it's quite reminiscent of the Atkins diet). Children with epileptic seizures who have tried the diet were treated with it first in the hospital. Some of the side effects were dehydration, constipation, and even complications from kidney stones, and gall stones. Admittedly, doctors say they don't know precisely why a diet that mimics starvation (as does the Ketogenic diet, by removing all carbohydrates and only allowing proteins and fats - which on other levels, like cardiovascular, would be quite dangerous) but with both ALS patients (familial) and children with epileptic seizures, it "works". I propose it is because of the absence of glucose, and the lessening of the glutamate in the brain which is the first, foremost and powerful factor in neuron excitation leading to neuron death. But there are other , long-term ways to accomplish the same thing, and that is by only consuming whole, natural carbohydrates with all the fiber nature gave them. Where most people get into trouble is thinking that if apples are good, then so is apple juice, or apple leather.
A whole foods, organic diet will also, especially because of a lack of pesticides, contribute to healing the gut of bacteria and yeast overgrowth (producing endotoxins or toxins your own body makes) leading to inflammation, permeability and resultant liver poisoning, resultant allergies, inability to process foods properly as well as to the inability to manufacture needed toxin-clearing enzymes. And of course, while on a diet free of pesticides, and cleaning up your environment of solvents and other toxic chemicals, you can take "probiotic" supplements to assist in the more rapid return of the gut to a healthy flora.
Many people who try to kill off intestinal fungus with a diet free of all carbohydrates, including fruits. What is ignored here, is that in order to reach homeostasis, we also must feed the good bacteria and allow them to proliferate so the gut can return to a healthy flora (good bacteria) that naturally keeps the fungus population down and will ensure long-term success. The natural carbohydrates in whole, fibrous foods, including fruits not only feeds the good flora, but if adhered to strictly, is the ticket for helping you succeed on the right diet. No, you can't have that piece of cheesecake, but enjoy a big, juicy, Fuji apple and it can amazingly eliminate the craving that threatens to completely destroy your efforts at eating properly. Again, you'll be feeding the beneficial flora in your gut as well. There are better ways to get fungus and pathological bacterial under control.
Indeed, a 2006 study once again proved that fresh, raw garlic destroyed with 100% efficacy every form of fungus (they listed 87 strains) including Candida, that was exposed to the garlic. In fact, the garlic worked as well as the drug ketoconazole. Garlic has other beneficial properties that have been the subject of many studies, including garlic's beneficial effect on blood pressure. Ketoconazole, on the other hand, like all drugs, has a rap sheet of side effects and potential dangers. All to say, eat lots of fresh, raw garlic on your salads (you should be having a big salad every day) and kill off the gut fungus that way. If you have any outward signs of fungus (like fingernail or toenail fungus) you'll be pleased to watch them disappear! Don't worry about the smell, you can wear a sign: "Pardon the smell, fungus-fighting in progress."
Unfortunately, because of not having a more complete picture of the cause of disease (glutamates, pesticides, heavy metals), health food stores as well healthcare practitioners have made a good living selling you "bandaids" in the form of supplements and special diets. If they had warned you of the deadly danger of the aforementioned poisons you were unknowingly being injected with, slathered on or fed, I bravely state, you would likely not be suffering with a neurodegenerative disease today. Neurodegenerative diseases have risen side-by-side with the world's use of glutamates, pesticides and heavy metals. But again, there is hope.
ALS Diet Pages
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Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Please click the PDF icon to the left to read or download the entire 36 page Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Diet by Dr. David Steenblock
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