Best Foods for AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE

3 July 2025


Best Foods for AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE



What foods trigger autoimmune symptoms and which provide relief? A look at the science of autoimmune disease and nutrition with a focus on symptom improvement. Several diets have been studied in the context of autoimmune disease, including low fat, low carb, fasting, vegan, vegetarian, paleo and many others.

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References:
1-https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12016-011-8293-8
2-https://ard.bmj.com/content/62/3/208
3-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1955146/
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9-https://academic.oup.com/rheumatology/article-abstract/33/7/638/1782008
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Disclaimer: The contents of this video are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor to replace medical care. The information presented herein is accurate and conforms to the available scientific evidence to the best of the author's knowledge as of the time of posting. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions regarding any medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of information contained in Nutrition Made Simple!.

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0:00 Intro
0:51 What are Autoimmune Diseases?
1:49 Mediterranean Diet
3:40 Food, guts & joints
4:42 Fasting
7:07 Low Fat
8:19 Elemental diet
10:00 Triggering foods
12:23 Science & Social Media
15:45 Anti-inflammatory diet
18:00 Autoimmune protocol (AIP)
19:51 Vegan
20:36 Gluten free
21:13 Elimination diet
22:09 Diet vs diet
25:44 Supplements
28:08 Individual Variability
29:33 Reversing intolerances

we got a lot of requests to go over the science 
on autoimmune disease and nutrition so we finally did, and we found a lot. dozens and dozens of 
studies spanning at least the last four decades or so looking at a lot of different diets, from 
low fat to low carb, Mediterranean, paleo, fasting and a lot of others. since this is our first video 
on this topic, we´ll give you a general sense of what research exists. big picture. we're not going 
to go over every single study that we analyzed, it would be a 12-hour video, but we will give 
you the key takeaways that I would like to have if I had autoimmune disease or a family 
member or a loved one. we'll also look at the experiences some viewers report that may seem to 
be at odds with most of the evidence and we'll try to make sense of what's going on there. 
autoimmune disease, as the name indicates, is a set of conditions where your immune system 
turns against your own body and attacks your own tissues, and depending on the specific tissue 
involved the symptoms, the manifestations,   can vary, and in fact there's many different 
types of autoimmune disease, over a hundred have been described. some common ones you might have 
heard of are rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and Hashimoto´s thyroiditis. there are some treatments 
available, some medications have been developed, but they're not 100% effective so a lot of 
patients still have some symptoms, quality of life is not 100% and so there's a lot of interest 
in what else they can do, especially at the level of lifestyle, like nutrition for example. and the 
evidence, as you're about to see, indicates that the foods we eat do play a significant role. 
so one example is a trial conducted in Sweden where patients with rheumatoid arthritis were 
split randomly and put on either a Mediterranean diet or a usual Swedish diet. now, Mediterranean 
diet in nutrition science refers to the classic Mediterranean diet, so low in ultraprocessed 
foods, olive oil, fish and seafood, whole grains, unprocessed fruits and vegetables. not whatever 
people are eating nowadays, McDonald's and whatever else. so over the course of 3 months 
the participants eating the Mediterranean diet reported an improvement in their symptoms, their 
physical function improved as well and their sense of vitality also increased. the participants in 
this intervention group also lost some weight, this is a common observation in a number of these 
trials, not all of them but it's pretty frequent. now, since this type of intervention changes 
the entire dietary pattern we can't really tell which food exactly is responsible for the 
benefits, it could be the Omega-3s in the fish, we know Omega-3s are anti-inflammatory, could 
be the lack of junk food, it could be the fruits   and vegetables, it could be the olive oil with the 
polyphenols or it could be the weight loss playing a role as well. or it could be a combination of 
several of those. so there are several of these trials published looking at a Mediterranean-style 
diet in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, there are some on looking at MS as well, multiple 
sclerosis, and most of these trials find benefit, improved symptoms. not 100%, I've seen one or two 
where there's no statistically significant effect but the majority find some improvement. next we'll 
we take a look at trials that use fasting as the intervention, just a quick note that it might seem 
odd or interesting to some viewers that the food in our gut affects how our joints feel, or even 
our nervous system in the case of MS. in fact, it's common for patients with rheumatoid arthritis 
to also have some gastrointestinal issues and it's also known that patients with RA, rheumatoid 
arthritis, have some differences in their microbiome compared to healthy people and these 
differences have been hypothesized to play a role in triggering RA. we know the composition of our 
microbiome can affect the Integrity of our gut wall, what's called the intestinal permeability, 
and this can allow some molecules present in the gut to get into the gut wall. that can lead to 
an activation of the immune system locally or it can even lead to some systemic manifestations 
affecting other tissues, like our joints or our skin. studies in this field even refer to this 
concept of the gut-joint axis, basically this connection, this bridge between the two worlds. 
okay, let's look at fasting interventions, and one example is a trial, also randomized controlled 
trial, where they took patients with rheumatoid arthritis as well and they put them on a fasting 
regime for 7 to 10 days. it wasn't a 100% fast, it's what they call a subtotal fast, so 
eating a very low amount of calories, specifically 2-300 calories a day. just some tea, 
some veggie broth and vegetable juices. and the patients reported a number of improvements, their 
pain level, stiffness, joint discomfort, swelling, all reduced. of course you can only do an extreme 
fast like that for so long, at some point you got to start reintroducing foods, so that's what 
they did. they reintroduced foods one by one,   every 2 days they would add back a single food and 
if the patient tolerated it, that food would stay, if they had a reaction the food would come out 
again and they would try that same food later on   in the process one more time. this reintroduction 
stage lasted for about a year, so fairly long, and during the first 3 months they completely 
avoided some foods that the investigators thought might be more triggering, so foods containing 
gluten, meat, fish, eggs, dairy, refined sugars, citrus fruits, coffee and alcohol. and after the 
initial 3 months, for the remainder, for the other nine months, they also tried to reintroduce gluten 
and dairy. during this reintroduction phase there was a bit of a rebound, some of the symptoms 
bounced back a little bit but overall they held on to a substantial improvement over the course 
of the trial compared to before. they also had a reduction in their inflammatory markers, and there 
was some body weight loss as well. and the authors ran a statistical analysis and it doesn't look 
like the weight loss explains most of the effect, of the improvement in symptoms. another really 
cool thing about this trial is they looked at the microbiome of the participants, and the 
responders, the participants who reported an improvement on the intervention, had a different 
microbiome composition than the non-responders, so the authors hypothesize that this may mediate 
the effect. so fasting is another strategy where we see improvements pretty consistently across 
a number of studies. next we'll look at low fat interventions, and a number of studies use 
it. there's one in patients with rheumatoid   arthritis as well, and they report a number of 
improvements in several symptoms, like pain, joint tenderness and swelling when they were 
eating a diet with less than 10% of calories coming from fat. now, this was a single arm study, 
no control group, so that reduces our confidence a lot. we don't know if the effects are because of 
the diet specifically or if it's placebo effect or just the effect of changing diets or something 
about being in the study. there are also a couple trials with low fat diets in patients with MS, 
multiple sclerosis, with actual control groups, reporting some improvement, less fatigue and lower 
risk of relapse. in one trial the comparison, the control group, had no intervention and the 
low fat group saw an improvement. in another trial the comparison was a higher fat diet but both 
were interventions and both improved. so it's possible that it's less about how much fat they're 
eating and more about just cleaning up the diet, which most interventions tend to do. another 
strategy used by some trials is the elemental diet. it's a diet designed to contain all the 
essential nutrients in their simplest form, so it contains no proteins per se, only the 
individual amino acids. and that makes it hypoallergenic because the vast majority of 
allergens are proteins. it also contains some fats and some carbs, all in a simple form, and 
some vitamins and minerals added. all of this is a liquid solution, so it's a liquid replacement 
meal, kind of like that soylent but also designed to be hypoallergenic. the researchers tested 
this liquid replacement meal but they found that most participants didn't tolerate very well 
just drinking that and eating nothing at all, no solid foods, so the design of their trial was 
a bit of a compromise, the participants got the liquid replacement meal and they were allowed 
to eat a few foods: some chicken, fish, rice, carrots, beans and bananas. and the control 
group also got the liquid replacement meal, on top of their normal diet. so it's a bit of 
an unusual design. and the participants, all of whom had rheumatoid arthritis, those who were 
in the intervention group, so that simpler diet, liquid replacement meal and a few foods, lost 
some weight and they reported some improvements to their symptoms and their grip strength increased 
as well. after a month of this intervention they   entered a reintroduction phase that lasted a 
few months, they started adding foods back, but in this trial food reintroduction eliminated 
all the improvements. now, in this trial they reported something really interesting, which 
specific foods the participants complained triggered symptoms. the most mentioned one was 
red meat, which is interesting because we have viewers who say this is one of the only foods that 
doesn't cause problems and that they can tolerate. and there are some surveys of patients in this 
condition published. so this points to an aspect   of individual variability and we'll circle back 
to this. other foods were less surprising, like dairy or cereals, probably because of the lactose 
and gluten or wheat intolerances. some people also reported intolerance to vegetables, caffeine, 
eggs and a few others. number three on the list was actually tap water, which I found surprising, 
so maybe it's the additives like chlorine. so this got me really curious, I didn't read too much into 
it because the number of patients in this study, that reported this list, was very small, 
small sample size, so I looked for larger   analyses getting at this type of information. 
I found one analysis of over 700 patients with autoimmune disease, and between 30 and 40% said 
that food affects their symptoms. red meat was again the most common food worsening symptoms and 
alcohol, coffee, sweets, citrus fruits and apples were also mentioned. then I found another analysis 
that provides even more information because they report both foods that trigger symptoms and foods 
that help. the most mentioned food that helped was blueberries, then fish, strawberries and spinach, 
and on the triggering side, sugary soda was the number one enemy, then desserts, beer, then red 
meat, and then eggplant, diet soda and tomatoes. notice that the percentage is not very high for 
each food so many other participants did not   report these foods, again pointing to individual 
variability. now, here's the fascinating part, every one of these foods had some people reporting 
improvement and some people reporting worsening. even the blueberries made things worse for a small 
number of patients and even the soda was good for some people. this analysis and this figure I 
thought were fascinating because this explains a lot about the social media messages that we 
see around autoimmune disease and nutrition, which tend to be very extreme. some influencers 
telling people they have have to eliminate all   animal products from their diet and it's the 
only way, someone else telling them they got to eliminate all the plants and eat nothing but 
meat. and this is very confusing for the public, I get a lot of messages, people asking me, what 
on Earth is going on? is someone lying? no. it's right there in the figure. what probably happened 
is, one person couldn't tolerate red meat, and maybe other animal products, as we saw 
that's not rare statistically, so of course they're going to feel better on a vegan diet or 
on an all plant diet, and now they start saying that's the solution for autoimmune disease and 
they back rationalize that all animal products are unhealthy for humans. not supported by the 
scientific evidence but that's their personal experience. at the same time, another guy couldn't 
tolerate some vegetables or maybe all vegetables, and red meat improved his symptoms, so he's in 
this bar over here, so he starts saying this is the solution for autoimmune disease and he back 
rationalizes, “oh, so vegetables are toxic for all humans, everybody should stop eating them”. not 
supported by the scientific evidence at all but that's how it legitimately felt to him. so their 
audiences are self-selecting. I try this diet, works for me, I line up behind this Guru. doesn't 
work for me, I try the other one, that one works, I line up behind this guy. and both are completely 
convinced the other one's wrong because the diet didn't work for them. each Guru is preaching to 
the crowd that matches their experience. when we zoom out and we look at a population that's not 
self-selected, it's not a forum, it's not a diet community on the Internet. it's a number of people 
with the disease that went to a specialist so it's not selected by diet. we see the big picture, 
both intolerances exist. and this is probably a simplified picture as well, there's likely all 
kinds of gradations and variations, some people with extreme intolerances can only handle like 
one food or a couple foods, we have some viewers in that position, and then other people with more 
partial intolerances, can handle a bunch of stuff, maybe a couple foods that are no bueno and 
maybe some others that they can eat a little   bit but if they go overboard they feel it. now, 
of course the role of science and medicine is to understand what's going on behind these different 
intolerances and find some solutions case by case. so we have to believe people when they report 
these difficulties and not give them a hard time,   but of course we don't extrapolate from a group of 
people with an intolerance to all of humanity now needs to avoid this food. it's silly, it's 
not scientifically serious, and it doesn't help anyone. it doesn't help the people with the 
intolerance because it doesn't provide a solution and certainly doesn't help everybody else because 
they just get a confusing message. all right, that   was a long detour but I think this is important. 
we'll come back to individual variability, right now let's keep going through other dietary 
strategies. another diet I've seen used in some   trials is the anti-inflammatory diet. one version 
of it is used for example in the context of IBD, inflammatory bowel disease. they even call it 
the IBD-AID. IBD, inflammatory bowel disease; AID, anti-inflammatory diet. and IBD-AID has 
five components. the first is reducing some types of carbohydrate, like lactose and refined 
carbs. the second is supporting the microbiome, trying to restore microbiome health and function, 
and this is done by providing both prebiotics and probiotics. prebiotics is essentially food for our 
microbes, so for example foods containing soluble fiber like leaks or onions. and probiotics 
means microbial species themselves, alive, so fermented foods is a common way to do that. 
the third component of IBD-AID is fat type, and it favors unsaturated fats oversaturated. the fourth 
component is identifying specific intolerances and addressing them, and the fifth component is 
modifying texture, so for example by blending or grinding or cooking foods. the idea is to improve 
nutrient absorption and also to break down fiber, to kind of chop it up to make digestion easier 
for people with this condition and this difficulty processing complex carbohydrates. some examples 
of foods in an IBD-AID diet: lean meats, poultry, fish, omega-3 rich eggs, select fruits and 
vegetables, flours (mainly non-grain-based flours), and then probiotics: aged cheese, yogurt, 
kefir, miso. some honey, and then some examples of prebiotics as well: banana, oat, blended chicory 
root, flax meal. one example of a trial using such a diet in IBD patients had a pretty good 
result, 60% of patients reported a good or very good response and many were able to discontinue at 
least some of their IBD medication. now, caveat, this trial was not randomized so grain of salt, 
but there's a suggestion that IBD-AID type diets can help. another interesting strategy used 
in some trials is the autoimmune protocol or AIP. it's a modified paleo diet, so it avoids 
grains, even whole grains, dairy, eggs, legumes, nightshades, nuts and seeds, alcohol, coffee, oil 
and food additives, so basically ultraprocessed foods. that is a lot of restrictions but this 
is the elimination phase, then there is a reintroduction phase later on. here's an example 
menu of an AIP, autoimmune protocol type diet: one meal is fish with vegetables, another sweet 
baked potatoes, another beef stew with vegetables, Etc. basically a lot of whole foods, some meats, 
some vegetables. there are several studies using AIP, the autoimmune protocol, in patients with 
IBD, MS, rheumatoid arthritis and also Hashimoto´s thyroiditis, which is an autoimmune disease that 
affects the thyroid gland. the results are pretty encouraging, symptoms generally improve. some 
trials more compelling than others as always, some single arm, some randomized controlled, 
but overall some indication that AIP might be helpful at least for a subset of patients 
with autoimmune disease. next we'll look   at interventions with vegan diets, obviously 
we're summarizing each of these chapters a ton, we're just giving you the juice, but if this is a 
topic of Interest we can make more content in the future and dive into the details of each diet for 
example, and go through the studies one by one, or look at specific autoimmune diseases, or we can 
try to bring on specialists, rheumatologists for example with a lot of clinical experience and 
research experience to give us more insight. there are several studies looking at vegan diets, 
although they usually make other changes as well, like give the participants a probiotic drink, a 
fermented drink, or use a gluten-free vegan diet, so hard to know exactly which factor is 
crucial for the benefits but several of these interventions have been shown to improve symptoms 
of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. now, that's average of all participants, so 
as usual a lot of individual variability, some patients report improvements, some no 
change, we can even find some that are worse   off. more patients than not report improvements, 
that's why the average goes in that direction, but at an individual level, a lot of scatter. 
there's also some evidence that gluten-free diets may be helpful for patients with psoriasis, which 
is an autoimmune disease affecting the skin. it's not uncommon for patients with psoriasis to have 
other immune conditions, including celiac disease, so as we saw before, a lot of links between all 
this. in fact, gluten-free diets seem particularly helpful for psoriasis patients who also have 
gluten intolerances or elevation of antibodies against some of the gluten proteins, so the 
gluten-free diet improves their gastrointestinal symptoms and improves their skin condition as 
well. okay, some studies use what's called an Elimination Diet, basically another restriction 
diet. no Dairy, eggs, meat, fish, sugar, wheat, corn, nuts, citrus, fruits or coffee. and they 
report improvements in rheumatoid arthritis, like the number of tender joints and inflammatory 
markers tend to come down. so you can see that   there's a number of similarities between these 
different dietary strategies, there's also some differences, this one for example avoids fish 
whereas many of the others favor it. so a number of diets show some pretty promising results, 
with some uncertainty, with some open questions, for example, the comparison, the control group 
is often times no intervention or is just regular diet so it's possible that the benefits we're 
seeing are mainly due to just the removal of the standard Western diet. so what about trials 
comparing two different intervention diets? one study looked at patients with MS and it compared 
a modified paleo to what's called the Swank diet. it's a diet that favors unsaturated fats and it's 
high in whole grains and fruits and vegetables. and the modified paleo was 6-9 servings of fruits 
and vegetables a day and 6-12oz of meat a day, with also some fish and organ meats. and no 
grains, no eggs, most dairy was cut and legumes were also out. both of those diets improved 
symptoms, improvements were reported by 40 to 70% of patients. the primary outcome was fatigue and 
it was reduced similarly in both diets, and then the secondary outcomes were metrics of quality of 
life and also a walk test and those were reduced more strongly, were improved more strongly, by 
the modified paleo. I wondered if it was maybe the gluten that got removed, maybe the lactose 
that's removed as well, or maybe it's the increase in Omega-3s, I was looking for information 
on this but unfortunately this trial does not report actual nutrient intakes on the diets so 
I couldn't confirm it. regardless, I think it's an interesting result, a bit of a grain of salt 
as usual being an isolated trial but interesting information that I'd like to have if I had MS and 
I was trying to figure this out. another trial compared a low-fat diet to a Mediterranean diet 
in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and again, both diets improved most parameters, like pain, 
quality of life metrics, Etc, with one parameter, physical activity, improving only on the the 
Mediterranean diet. another trial compared fasting to a low carb diet, it was this modality 
we talked about, the subtotal fast, where people are getting about 200 calories a day, and the 
people in the fasting group had a reduction in inflammatory markers and Joint tenderness. the 
other group ate a normal amount of calories, 2,000 to 2500 a day, but very low carb, in fact 
they were in ketosis, both groups were in ketosis, the fasting and the low carb, similar levels 
of Ketone bodies but the low carb group did not experience the same improvements so there does 
seem to be something different about fasting, and in fact in this trial in the refeeding stage, 
after fasting they added foods back on and the improvements disappeared. also caveats to this 
study, there's always some caveat, not randomized and small sample size. there are other trials that 
indicate that a ketogenic diet can deliver some benefits, like for example a reduction in morning 
stiffness in patients with RA, with rheumatoid arthritis. it just seems less effective than 
fasting over these short time frames so it might just be a temporal thing, the low carb diet might 
take a little longer to kick in since fasting is a stronger stimulus. another trial compared fasting 
to a Mediterranean diet, and again fasting came out on top. in fact, in this one only the fasting 
group saw significant clinical improvements. and another trial compared a Mediterranean diet to an 
exercise program and they found that the exercise had a stronger benefit for rheumatoid arthritis. 
next we're going to quickly go over evidence for supplements in autoimmune disease, and there is 
some evidence that omega-3 supplementation can help in rheumatoid arthritis, and again we know 
that Omega-3s are anti-inflammatory so it makes sense. most studies used fish oil and there's 
evidence of some benefit starting around a gram of EPA/DHA per day, and then stronger benefit at 
even higher doses of 2 gram a day and even higher up to six grams a day. also some evidence for 
vitamin D supplementation in rheumatoid arthritis, mainly in patients who have low levels 
of vitamin D to begin with so this may be   mainly rectifying low vitamin D. a couple other 
things have some evidence suggesting benefit, more sparse, like one trial for each, but just 
so you have all of the info: borage seed oil, I saw at least one trial where people getting 
1.4 gram of gamma linolenic acid from borage seed oil improved rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. 
and I don't sell any of these supplements, I don't have a deal with supplement companies, 
just sharing what's published. another trial   indicates that black currant seed oil, 10.5 grams 
a day, can help with rheumatoid arthritis as well. and then a couple of probiotics, lactobacillus 
casei 01, a capsule with 10 to the 8th power Colony forming units, CFUs, per day, this 
is just a measure of how many bacteria are in the supplement, in the capsule. another one, 
lactobacillus rhamnosus GG. in one trial people got capsules with at least 5 * 10 to 9th power 
CFUs per capsule, so that's 5 billion bacteria, that's what that number means, and that's per 
capsule and they took four capsules a day so 20 billion CFUs a day. and finally ashwagandha 
extract, there is a trial, technically not an autoimmune disease but patients with knee pain. 
the trial lasted for 12 weeks and the patients got either 125 mg or 250 mg supplements twice 
a day, and both doses reduced symptoms with the larger dose having a stronger effect. so 
that's the information on supplements. now,   I wanted to give you some final thoughts on this 
individual variability, we see promising data for a lot of different dietary patterns, we see people 
reporting improvements on widely different diets, what's going on here? one common theme is weight 
loss, which is common in a lot of these trials and in most elimination diets. and we know that weight 
loss is a powerful anti-inflammatory stimulus so it probably does play a role, it's a factor. 
does it explain all the observations? I don't think so. there are some trials without weight 
loss reporting clinical improvement and some people have intolerance to single foods within 
a matter of days of eating it so that can't all be explained by putting on a bunch of weight. 
another common theme is ultra processed foods, junk food. all of these elimination diets reduce 
it or get rid of it and we know that cutting out ultraprocessed foods helps people lose weight, 
probably improves the microbiome and it gets rid of a lot of preservatives and additives that 
can trigger reactions. so I think junk food is a factor. again, I don't think it explains 
everything because as we saw, some people have intolerance to some whole foods as well. so 
it's pretty clear that there are specific types of allergies and intolerances, some people can't 
handle gluten, others dairy, others red meat, and others some types of fiber. can these intolerances 
be reversed? that's the million dollar question. the billion dollar question. so I've seen two 
interesting ideas that may help us move in that direction, and this part is more speculative, 
we're just kind of thinking out loud, which is okay to do as long as we're clear that that's 
what we're doing. the first idea is that some intolerances are reversible via gradual, careful 
reintroduction of problem foods. reintroduction is a pretty standard procedure in gastroenterology 
in the context of some of these gastrointestinal conditions and I've seen it work very powerfully. 
this might be related to microbiome deficiencies, we know that westerners tend to have low 
microbiome diversity, whether it's the exposure to the standard Western diet with a lot of junk 
foods and low fiber or whether it's the antibiotic exposure or infections like food poisoning, 
all these things can really rock our microbiome so carefully ramping up these problematic foods 
can in some cases restore tolerance, possibly by cultivating the right microbial species back up in 
our gut, so they might be impoverished and feeding them the right foods might allow them to grow back 
up. note of caution here, I am not saying that if you have an allergy to soy or peanuts or seafood 
you should go cram those foods to get tolerance. all right? please don't do that. this is very case 
by case, ideally work with your doctor or with a good qualified registered dietitian. the other 
idea is fermented foods, there is some evidence that people who have difficulty breaking down 
some foods, like high fiber foods for example, experience improvements when they're given 
fermented foods. and again, this might be because   the probiotics restore the defective microbiome 
species, so for viewers who have autoimmune diseases, I´d be very interested to hear if you've 
tried fermented foods and what was the result. we covered this idea of the fermented foods in a 
previous video so check that out for details,   and here's more on food reintroduction and gut 
issues. and let me know in the comments what other questions you'd like to see covered next on this 
topic. thanks for watching, I'll see you next time

#Foods #AUTOIMMUNE #DISEASE

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  1. Love your videos and factual information. Please do a video on foods containing high oxalates and the effects these have on many people. Sally Norton wrote a book called Toxic Superfoods which I’ve read and she is very convincing on what oxalates are doing to our bodies. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

  2. Is it applicable for autoinflammatory disease as well?

  3. I agree 100% that individual variability and food sensitivities play a huge role—especially with autoimmune issues. I do think there's a lot of negative stereotyping around red meat and animal products in general when it comes to health. The narrative often ignores the bigger picture—like overall dietary quality, lifestyle, and what actually works for that individual.

    Honestly, labeling any one food as universally “bad” can backfire. That mindset alone can trigger symptoms—or relief—thanks to the power of the placebo effect. For me, even some so-called “healthy” foods like beans, legumes, and certain veggies cause issues. And while I can’t do dairy, some animal proteins have actually helped me feel better.

    This video shares great principles for managing autoimmune conditions, but like with most things—there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Appreciate the thoughtful info, Gil!

  4. Best diet for autoimmune disease is hands down a lectin free diet also known as the AIP.

  5. I have a chronic eczema primary on my hands and since 2 months I have also a seborrheic eczema in my face (nose and cheeks). A few months ago I was in Thailand and Laos for one month and everyday I ate streetfood there. I don't know if it was the reduction of stress or the climatic change or the food but in this whole month I had only ONE little eczema attack. I was so surprised about that. After I came back to germany it was like before. Is it possible that the change of food was the primary factor for this? There I ate practically everyday soup or curry with meat, vegetables and noodles or rice. and tropical fruits.

  6. Best summary of various diets in one video! ❤ Thank you! 😊

  7. I have ultra rare Urticarial Vasculitis, Anklelosing Spondylitis, most probably Sjogren’s and others. Can you address these at some point. Thank you.

  8. Some people experiencing improvement isn't very usefull. Dr Brooke Goldner has published cases of auto immune disease complete reversal. Forget the rest.

  9. I think this is the most well explained AND validating video about diets I've seen. Thank you for explaining the science and also for believing us. I appreciated this so much in the video about your mom, too. It can be so demoralizing to not know something is wrong, but not know why and not be able to get any answers from the people who are supposed to be able to help. Seeing someone in the medical science community understanding this nuance is just awesome.

  10. I'd like to learn more about data drilling down on on gluten. Thank you for another thought-provoking episode!

  11. I wish I would have found your channel several years ago. It would have spared me the ravages of trying EXTREME diets from semi raw vegan to keto, to the "no salt no sugar no oil" starch diet to carnivore diet!

  12. Please make more videos on autoimmune diseases. Specifically Graves Disease, if possible. Thanks so much.

  13. AIP worked great for reducing my overall body inflammation , joint pain , rashes, fatigue. It includes so much more than just diet that’s why it’s called the Autoimmune Protocol , looks at ways to reduce stress , gut health , her book is amazing , eg looks at how different nutritional deficiencies can impact health , how medicines can interact with digestion an more . Lots of bone broth was great for helping joint pain and gut health

  14. Drop all "diets"!' So American. Go to locals in Morocco, Japan, Poland, etc. Cultural practices local knowledge are the key! Authentic local people would laugh at us and the very idea of "dietS".

  15. In auto immune conditions, you can use arogyavardhini vati, gandhak rasayn and giloy capsules by planet Ayurveda.

  16. I recently had an ANA test and I may have lupus. The first thing I did was get a food sensitivity test. Then, a Dutch hormones test. I am sensitive to tomatoes, wheat, scallops, olives (oil), strawberries and a few others. My hormones are in the tank. I got colonics, electrolymphatic treatments, ozone treatments, I did a 15 day parasite cleanse, changed my diet, stopped alcohol, bought supplements and books. I'm going to kick lupus in the ass.

  17. As much as I love beer, it causes inflammation in me after a couple weeks of enjoying just a few here and there.. Horrible Gout
    I also feel great eating a more Mediterranean style diet but when I go meat heavy, my joints start getting painful

  18. I just subscribed because I like this video. I like listening to you talk because you remind me of Blues Clues. ❤❤😂. I will watch most of your videos. Thank-you 💙

  19. i would like you to discuss these videos about Hashimoto's. lately youtube has been posting tons of videos making claims about "curing" it or reducing symptoms. I have Hashimoto's and the thyroid meds seem to be enough for me. why do some people have such extreme symptoms and some just seem to deal with it? all of them say not to use salt with iodine because it makes it worse. I have always used it and my symptoms are nothing to call home about. can you do a whole video on hashimoto's?

  20. I would love video's going into more detail. The gut-immune axis seems huge to me – it may explain why many people report needing to eliminate so many (otherwise healthy) plant foods, for instance. For my personal journey I would love an overview on the role of specific fats in (possibly) healing auto-immune. From this rough overview, I would guess saturated (usually animal) fats are to be avoided, while plant-fats and omega 3s are possibly healthy.

  21. Would love your take and analysis on Wahls protocol, a modified Paleo. Wahls offers that healthy fats are necessary to protect the nerves in MS and in general feeding the mitochondria.

  22. Please would like to get information on Raynaud’s Syndrome. I have never seen seeing informational videos on this weird syndrome.

  23. Hello there doctor, it's been a year I have diagnosed with myesthenia gravis, with double vision and i can hardly say a word .i am a pure vegetarian also I have changed my diet,no diary products no gluten no caffeine no sugar as well . But still I see no improvement in my condition. Can you suggest me anything else than this …I really really need it this time
    Thank you !

  24. This video is the greatest proof of your commitment to just sharing scientific literature and not spread diet based dogma. You managed to be very neutral and unbiased in your assessment of these diets and not belittling anyone. I wish more people did this

  25. Thank you so much for this video. Have been advised to treat auto immune through diet and have been really confused up until now. Thank you again.

  26. weight loss makes my RA much worse

  27. Please revise if animal protein in general is inflammatory for most people.

  28. I have asthma and psoriasis. Those two conditions seem to go together oftentimes. I would love to get information on diet and psoriasis or diet and asthma if possible. I love love love love love love your channel😊

  29. Your channel is amazing! Thank you so much for doing this channel I'm going to recommend it to everybody. I love the science❤

  30. Would like to see you specific examining nutrition for people with MS. If it can be with Dr. Brandon Beaber, I would appreciate a lot 🤗 .

  31. Your videos are so informative! So well balanced ! Valuable! Thanks so much….definitely will subscribe ! I especially like that you do not moralize or demonize….and I agree that individual sensitivities, reactions….are paramount to understanding. I also like that you give fair caveats & do not automatically exclude smaller studies ! SO WELL DONE (this is my 2nd video) I feel I can trust you, your information, your judgment….which is hard to come by these days ! 😍

  32. Great video as usual. I've had ulcerative colitis for 15 years and tried elimination diets and nothing seems to work. From this video it suggests that there is not one or two common problematic foods but it's more like certain foods may trigger certain people. And yes, it seems obvious that cutting out all the garbage will make people feel better and some symptoms make be go away.

  33. I had severe psoriatic arthritis for 20 years. I was already underweight and ate a relatively healthy diet (not much added sugar or processed foods). I tried several diets including gluten-free, vegetarian and elimination diet. No noticeable change with any of them.
    My advice is don't drive yourself crazy trying to treat the disease with diet. I'm fortunate to be a high responder to the biologics (quickly went completely clear.) Don't waste time getting a disease that negatively affects your life under control. Then experiment with diets. And if you don't have the disease, don't tell someone suffering about some diet or alternative medicine that you heard about on youtube. We've given it a lot more thought than you have.

  34. can you explain why the Seahawks, in Superbowl 49, threw the ball on the one yard line, eventhough they still had 1 timeout left, not to mention one of the best running backs in the league?

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