Nutrition is a powerful allie when recovering from ME/CFS. A question I get asked a lot as a Nutritionist is “What should I eat?” In this article I will explain the best foods to eat for healing ME/CFS.
Firstly, let me tell you what I ate when I was ill with my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
My Story
Step 1: Junk Food
When I was a university student living away from home and first became ill with ME/CFS I used to eat a diet of junk food such as:
- Microwave ready meal lasagne.
- Pasta in creamy sauce
- Beef burgers
- Microwave ready meal salmon and broccoli in creamy sauce.
- Microwave chips and fish fingers.
- Pop tarts
- Sugary Cereal
- Pizza
- Prawn mayonnaise sandwiches
- Baked potato with tuna mayonnaise
- Chocolate bars
By eating all these junk foods in excess I destroyed my health.
I now know that when you microwave meals it denatures the structure of the food so it is not the same food that went into the microwave!
Step 2: Gluten-Free in Recovery
After a positive Coeliac IgA blood test result from my Doctor in May 2009 I removed wheat from my diet and cooked things such as:
- Rainbow trout with wild rice, steamed broccoli and carrots.
- Sea bass with gluten-free pasta and steamed vegetables in a creamy sauce.
- Sausages, wild rice and steamed vegetables.
- Gluten-free pasta in tomato sauce.
- Steamed egg ramekin.
- Gluten-free sandwiches
- Rice pudding
- Oat porridge with blueberries
- Spaghetti Bolognese with gluten-free pasta
- Oat flapjacks
- Gluten-free pasta bake
- Fish pie
- Homemade pork burgers
- Lamb shanks
These are the foods that I was eating during my recovery from 2010-2011. then helped me to regain my health.
Based on what I have learnt in my 3 year nutrition course, the best foods to eat for healing ME/CFS are:
- Rainbow trout – high in CoQ10, a nutrient which helps to get energy into cells. It is also high in protein and vitamin D to boost the immune system.
- Walnuts – also high in omega 3 and good fats.
- Free-range eggs – a good source of protein and vitamin D to boost the immune system.
- Blueberries – an antioxidant to protect your body from free-radical damage while it is fighting off viruses and Candida.
- Broccoli – a good source of CoQ10, vitamin C and it supports the sulphation detoxification pathway in your liver.
Photo by <a href=”https://unsplash.com/@sebastiancoman?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText”>Sebastian Coman Photography</a> on <a href=”https://unsplash.com/s/photos/trout?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText”>Unsplash</a>
If you would like to find out more about diet for healing ME/CFS, book your free 15 minute fatigue breakthrough call.