So many people have written us via our email and we want to start sharing some of these questions and answers in our blogs. Here is an answer I gave to a vegetarian (although she has started eating a little fish) from England:
Legumes (all soy products) can be a possible trigger for the symptoms of MS. Nuts and seeds contain unsaturated fats but also saturated fats, so ingesting large amounts of them to supplement your protein intake can be tricky. Fish is good, and to increase your Omega 3 oils, I would also suggest having flax seed oil as well. If legumes are not a trigger food for you then eliminating dairy, eggs, yeast, and continuing to avoid grains containing gluten may supply you with enough protein and also enough experimentation for you to see how much you can improve by just avoiding the other foods for now. However, if you do not see your recovery happening, then you may need to experiment with avoiding legumes as well. Our book has the complete description of how and why we believe that the food triggers work- reading it will inform you on how to make your own decisions for your protein needs and your recovery needs to work in harmony.
Sugar and saturated fat is also suspect for many people. Since our food responses are very individual, it may be that legumes are not the problem for you. On the other hand, they might be, and remaining a vegetarian may pose a problem if you are one of those people who have their symptoms triggered by legumes. (even the Dalai Lama now eats meat on the advice of his doctor for his own health reasons.) If eliminating your MS symptoms is your primary goal then try to have an open mind and see what will work best for you.
I was a vegetarian for many years myself- now I am a vegetarian in my mind, but not my body. I have found that eating poultry was necessary for me as I realized that I could not digest most legumes properly. As I am now in a process of recovery from 40 years of MS, I know that regular ingestion of legumes was contributing to my illness, although after 2 years on the diet, I find that I can eat a small amount of soy and goat dairy products now without having a negative reaction in my body- rotating and moderating foods allows me to eat some of the foods that I could not before. The immune system can stop finding those foods objectionable after some time has lapsed.