Anti-inflammatory salad vs. Multiple Sclerosis

HEY OUTLAW! What’s that 5-thing salad you eat when you’re NOT feeling well?

Commonly asked question about how/why I use food to manage MS.

Yooo. *straight face* I am shocked each and every time somebody contacts me and wants to know the magic behind my salad. To me, a salad is just chopping up vegetables and coating that mug with croutons, cheese, nuts and dressing it like a high class gigolo. *wink* I’ve always been a salad guy. Even before I changed to the Pescatarian Diet to combat multiple sclerosis, I would geek over a salad. Wanna know how real my fetish is for salad? Back in high school and college, when my elite squad of grown man friends, hungry AF, would bust in CiCi’s pizza for the cheap and filling $4.99 buffet, I made a big ol’ salad FIRST. *rolls eyes* I’ll wait for you to stop laughing, giggling, doubting, hating. *folds arms* You done? Cool beans. *winks*

When Making Your Salad

Usually, I make my own salad but that ain’t what you are wondering is it? Betcha wondering if I really put ALL that shit in one freaking salad. *LOL!* The answer is every time I can find something, I get everything I can afford. The GREENS are most important to fighting inflammation, followed the nuts and mushrooms. Stuff like tomatoes, carrots, croutons are there basically for flavor, crunch and pure fun. I am NOT a nutritionist so I will not even attempt to lace out the foundational properties and medicinal purposes of anything. I am a Multiple Sclerosis Outlaw, learning to squab with my disease using Eastern Medicine, diet, food, exercise, etc. My rule of thumb is simple as I steadily improve my knowledge and routines, the GREEN shit fights inflammation. Berries, mushrooms and nuts are anti-inflammatories as well, GOOD ones. As I grow with this, I’ve learned, experimented and testify to certain things, berries, mushrooms and nuts are examples of those testimonies. I cook the brussel spouts first. Well, my wife will cook them and add some kind of goodness to it. If she doesn’t cook the brussel spouts, I don’t include them. *dusts hands* Yes, I’m serious about my health buuuuut… I have my limits and raw, naked, brussel spouts are one of those limits!

Now, about the prepping and making of the salad, my daughters volunteer. *shrugs* Before the whole homeschool, quarantine gig, I struggled chopping all those veggies and tossing all that salad. *dirty wink* Da lil handicapped homie has the tingling and loss of movement/motion with his hands so chopping takes forever AND it is kinda dangerous. Enter my awesome daughters. My wife has made a priority of teaching a different kid a different dinner dish every night and now they all can cut vegetables, wash and clean fruit, even use the stove and oven. This is a huge help for me, to me!

Benefits of anti-inflammatory diet/foods

“Hey! You said you were a Pescatarian earlier. What’s up with the anti-inflammatory diet?”

Yup. I am. To clear things up, Pescatarians eat fish, seafood and vegetables. The anti-inflammatory diet is heavy on veggies, fatty fish and certain oils. BOOM. Together, the two are damn near siblings. I avoid the inflammatory foods, devour TF out of the anti-inflammatory stuff and next thing I know, it’s been months and I haven’t had a relapse, attack, nothing that I can’t manage quickly and discreetly.

We put all the leafy veggies in one bowl, lettuces, cabbages, kale, arugula, spinach, etc. One BIG ass bowl for all of it. The other veggies are diced and keep in the containers with compartments. Believe it or not, SOME of my kids are bougie and refuse to eat mushrooms, tomatoes, etc.

The salad is instrumental in my recovery after a MS relapse, managing my UC and preventing the common inflammation and chronic pain associated with Spondylosis. It gives me energy AND there no ‘fat guilt” for overeating. I have fresh salad 1-3 days/week and when I say 1-3 days, I mean I eat salad the entirety of those 1-3 days. I go crazy with my water intake because I’m paranoid about ruining recovery meals and days.

Previous Related Post: Why I am a Pescatarian