Highlights
- •In this survey of people with MS, diet was similar to the general population.
- •Calcium intake was less than recommended and declined with age in men.
- •Following a special diet at some point diet since diagnosis was relatively common.
Abstract
Introduction
Dietary approaches to management of MS has been proposed for several decades, yet
very little is known concerning dietary composition or adherence to specialized diets
in people with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Methods
We conducted a survey of participants in the North American Research Committee on
MS (NARCOMS) registry assessing diet composition and the prevalence of 19 different
diets. We characterized prevalence of different diets and compared diet composition
with estimated intakes from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
survey respondents and across demographics and MS clinical characteristics.
Results
Among the 7639 (68%) responders, 6990 provided sufficient information on diet to be
included in the analysis. Compared to NHANES participants, responders tended to have
comparable intakes of fruit, vegetables and legumes (mean [SD] 2.5 [1.0] servings/day)
and whole grains (0.9 [1.3] servings/day) and consume less added sugar (NARCOMS: 9.7
[6.0] vs. NHANES: 18.5[13.5] tsp/day; P < 0.001) and more red meat (NARCOMS: 0.50
[0.47] vs. NHANES: 0.35 [0.97] servings/day; P < 0.001). Of the 3120 (45%) participants
who reported any history of following a specific diet, commonly-followed diets were:
low-sugar (n = 642), low-carbohydrate (n = 508) and low-calorie (n = 475). Those with
no history of following any specific diet were more likely to have progressive MS,
be more obese, have worse overall diet quality, not participate in physical activity
and smoke (all P < 0.001).
Conclusions
In this large survey, we found that diet composition in MS patients may vary by demographic
and disease characteristics.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 27, 2018
Accepted:
February 13,
2018
Received in revised form:
January 17,
2018
Received:
June 7,
2017
Footnotes
☆Support: NARCOMS is supported in part by the Foundation of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers. The study was supported by a fellowship grant to KCF from the CMSC's NARCOMS postdoctoral fellowship.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
