66. MS CAN BE CONQUERED

Dear Grandma Donna: Verda has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). She thinks it is incurable and that she will have to be on medicine the remainder of her life. Is this disease a death certificate? Love, Savana 

Dear Savana: Kim Hoffman’s story should encourage Verda, because she has recovered from MS.  She had her first attack when she was only 21-years-old. An electrical wave washed over her from her neck to her feet leaving a numb feeling, which remained for about a week. After a time she decided she had pinched nerves, went to a chiropractor and after a few adjustments, she felt back to normal.

These “pinched nerve” attacks continued off and on for about six years, all the while her symptoms were becoming progressively worse—greater numbness, muscle weakness, balance and stamina failure, and memory, hearing, sight and speech issues. After a hospital stay, she discovered she had MS. Like Verda, she was told she would never recover and could expect to be in a wheelchair, bedridden or dead in ten years.

Kim immediately started researching. The first information she found was from Dr. Roy Swank, who had begun teaching the value of a very low-fat diet to heal MS in l948. He had discovered that patients with MS living in Western Europe during World War II improved because they could no longer afford their animal products diet. They ate grains and vegetables. Dr. Swank put his own patients on this low-fat diet with remarkable success.

In the ensuing weeks, he soon discovered that those who cheated on their fat intake had a corresponding increase in MS attacks. To arrest the disease, the patient had to eat a diet containing 7 percent fat. Those who refused did not get well.

Kim immediately embraced Dr. Swank’s low-fat diet, while she continued her research. This time she was led to Dr. John McDougall, who was a protégé of Dr. Swank. Dr. McDougall went a step further in his diet reform. Whereas Dr. Swank allowed low-fat dairy products and low-fat meat, Dr. McDougall omitted all animal products. Kim immediately converted to a starch-based diet with no animal products, then attended McDougall’s 10-Day Live-in Program.

Today, six years later, Kim continues in remission. She gives full credit to Dr. McDougall’s starch-based diet for stopping her MS in its tracks. Since getting her health back, she has become a plant-based health advocate. She writes Healthy Huff, a health and wellness blog dedicated to the vegan lifestyle. She has published a plant-based, oil-free cookbook and is a certified health coach dedicated to helping others beat MS.

Kim’s story needs to be told far and wide. Anyone who is diagnosed with MS will be immediately put on expensive drugs with awful side effects to supposedly control the disease. “DRUGS ARE DEADLY—A STARCH-BASED DIET CAN HEAL MS!” Love, Grandma Donna

RAINBOW SALAD
3 c cooked brown rice
1 15-oz can kidney beans drained and rinsed
1 15-oz can garbanzo beans drained and rinsed
1 15-oz can black beans drained and rinsed
1 c frozen corn kernels thawed
1 c frozen English peas thawed
1/4 c ch red onion
1/4 c ch pimentos
2 T ch black olives
2 T fresh ch cilantro
1/4 c oil-free honey mustard salad dressing
1/2 t Tobasco sauce
salt to taste
Combine rice and beans in a large bowl. Add corn, peas,
onion, pimento, olives and cilantro. Toss well to mix.
Combine salad dressing and Tabasco in mixing cup and
whisk until smooth. Pour over salad and mix well.