The MS Recovery Diet by Ann Sawyer and Judi Bachrach

The long awaited arrival of the MS Recovery Diet book is officially here. Ann and I are so glad that the vehicle for spreading the word about the diet can now find its way to so many more people. For those of you who have visited this website in the past both with and without the benefit of using early chapters from the book we are grateful. We hope that if you choose to read the completed version you will find even more answers to your questions or perhaps have even more questions. We welcome them and envision this forum becoming a dynamic environment for support and exchange for anyone who wishes to learn more about the diet and for those who take the plunge and start on the diet. There are many aspects of recovery addressed in the book so there are many topics in this forum for people with or without MS to share their thoughts, questions, suggestions and perceptions. We wish all of you success on your healing journeys. We look forward to meeting you one day should we happen to come to your town for a future presentation.

A quick and easy cool weather meal is to roast a whole chicken in a large pan surrounded with chopped vegetables that also taste delicious when roasted.

Roasted Chicken and Roots

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Rinse a small whole chicken, 4-7 lbs., and remove giblets to cook later if you wish. Remove any extra fatty skin with a sharp knife- especially around both cavity ends of the bird. Place chicken in the pan upside down- this is so the juices drain into the breast meat to make it soft and tender- on rack if it has one. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive or sunflower seed oil over skin. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and either, 3-4 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs-- any combination of sage, rosemary and thyme, or 2 tablespoons dry herb or poultry seasoning mix. If you have sprigs of fresh herbs, you can fill the breast cavity with them (same herbs as above and/or including parsley) or with a peeled small onion or apple, or washed unpeeled orange.

Put into hot oven on middle rack and cook for 1 hour. While it is cooking, prepare vegetables for roasting. Use a mix of washed, unpeeled white potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, fennel, onions (these you must peel) or leeks (white bottoms only), and green beans or broccoli. Chop into bite sized pieces. Count on 2 cups of vegetables per person.

After 1 hour, remove bird from oven and turn the temperature up to 350 degrees. Flip the bird over with 2 large forks or whatever you have that can grab it. Add all of the mixed chopped root vegetables around the bird. Save the green beans or broccoli until the final 15 minutes of roasting. Drizzle the pan drippings over the vegetables and sprinkle with salt. If the bottom of the pan is dry, add ½ -1 cup of water in the bottom of the pan. If the bird is not yielding any juices, drizzle 1 more tablespoon of oil over the vegetables and salt them. Roast for another hour or hour and a half or until an instant read thermometer in the breast reads 160-165 degrees F, or in the leg, touching no bones, reaches 170-175 degrees F. Add the green beans or broccoli for the last 15-20 minutes of cooking. The bird should be browned all over, juicy when stuck with a fork, the legs ready to fall off the bone, and the vegetables browned and soft.

A completely satisfying one-pot meal that needs little ongoing attention. Enjoy!

Where I live in upstate New York it is mostly fall weather now. As my mother used to joke, “fall has fell.” We will probably have some more hot and sticky days of summer weather before freezing temperatures set in. But crisp clear skies by day and cool nights already accompany the turning leaves visible in many trees. It is a great time to get out and walk if you are able. The cooler weather does not deplete the energy system for those of you affected by hot and humid conditions. If it is still hot where you live, try to get out either very early or late in the day. Swimming is also great whole body exercise. Even if you are in a wheelchair, try sitting outside in the sun for a short time every day. Vitamin D is important for those of us with MS.

Meanwhile, it is a good idea to start exercising indoors as practice for those very cold days of winter that lie ahead. Now is the time to get into a routine before your fall schedule gets filled up leaving exercise at the bottom of your list of things to do. No matter what your level of disability is, the process of recovery needs you to start challenging yourself to move. Our book contains many exercises for all stages of recovery. The brain is able to rewire itself and repetitive movements make and strengthen new neurological connections. If you are exercise phobic, start by breathing deeply whenever you think of it. Our muscles need oxygen to do their jobs. Sitting or walking outside may help you to change your relationship to exercise.

The final copy of the book is printed, moving from warehouses to get distributed to bookstores for the Big Day when it goes on sale: September 20th!
Ann and I very happy with the end result and hope that you have pre-ordered it from Amazon Books, Barnes and Noble or Borders, or asked your local bookstore to be sure to have a copy for you.Some of you have only heard about the diet, working on information you have gotten by word of mouth. Some of you were lucky enough to read one of Ann's original booklets (as I did) and have gotten the basics from that. Many more of you are waiting for the book to decide whether or not the diet is believable and will work for you.We are extending an invitation from us and The Golden Notebook Bookstore to hear us speak about our journeys with MS, the diet and the book on the 30th of September in Woodstock, New York, at 4:00 pm. We will be in the Kleinert/James Arts Center, 34 Tinker Street. Coming from route 375, it is past the village green on the right, the second building on the right past WAA, the Woodstock Artist Association Gallery, and it is across the street from Joshua's Cafe on the corner. Any of you who live within range, please join us and we will be happy to sign your book.

We celebrate this moment as a way to spread the word to a much larger audience than ever before and count on you to help us in that endeavor. The more of us who become "walking ambassadors of hope" the more that others will begin to see for themselves, that this diet really works to reverse MS symptoms. Our thanks to all of you who have already started even before they held the book in hand and to those who are already experiencing the joy of turning more folks towards this healing path through their own example. Watch for future postings about our schedules for lecture presentations, seminars, workshops, conferences, and book signings in your area. If any of of you have a suitable venue in mind for any of the above, please let us know here, and we will do our best to follow up with your information. Thank you in advance, Judi

Today Ann and I spoke with someone who has been on the diet for several months now. She experienced many gains that convinced her that the diet is the right approach for her. She has her energy, her digestion and her cognitive functions restored. Yet she was also experiencing some reversals in muscle strength on her weaker side. She was losing ground. Ann and I are always adding to our store of knowledge and were concerned to find out if we could help this dedicated woman in any way. Since she was strictly observing her food needs, it became clear that her body was saying, “ I am healing as fast as I can but- I still have residual inflammation. Please stop exercising me. I am telling you I need to stop moving around and rest.” Ann was reminded when she first began her recovery that she returned back to work too soon and also saw reversals in her previous gains.

Since the MS profile often includes a healthy dose of stubbornness, (yep, that’s me!) it is sometimes hard to accept that actual ongoing rest is a necessary part of the healing process. Exercising is just the wrong prescription for most inflammatory conditions. If you have a sprained ankle, you can’t start moving it around too soon because of the swelling that is there to protect the injury that is inflamed. Rest and icing is part of how to address the ankle. Similarly, cooling down by not pushing yourself is taking care of the inflamed nervous system.

There are times when we need to push ourselves just a little bit and exercise even when we feel weak. There are other times when your body is showing signs of too much strain and then the biggest challenge for many of us is to REST! Hard work, but somebody has to do it to take care of you.