The Study
Nutrient Composition Comparison between the Low Saturated Fat Swank Diet for Multiple Sclerosis and Healthy U.S.-Style Eating Pattern
This study is like comparing two recipes to see what ingredients they have. It tells us what nutrients are in each diet, but it doesn't show if either diet actually helps people with MS feel better or get healthier.
Analysis score
Maximum 44 for a cross-sectional study.
Where the score came from
This study checked if a special diet for multiple sclerosis has enough vitamins and minerals.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 520 / 100
Quality score
Snapshots of a population at a single point in time, or descriptions of small groups. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine cause and effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1The diet is mostly healthy but misses some key nutrients, and may have too much salt if not careful.
- 2Diet scores 93.2 out of 100 for healthiness, similar to standard healthy diets, but lacks fiber, potassium, and choline.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Nutrients
Year
2019
Authors
C. Chenard, L. Rubenstein, L. Snetselaar, T. Wahls
Related Content
Claims (6)
The Swank diet provides almost all the vitamins and minerals people need, just like the standard healthy US diet, but both diets fall short on fiber, potassium, and choline.
The supplements given with the Swank diet help fix low levels of certain vitamins and minerals like vitamin D, vitamin E, folate, calcium, and iron, but they don't help with getting enough fiber, potassium, or choline from food.
This means that the Swank diet is rated almost as healthy as a standard healthy American diet for adults in their 30s to 50s, and both diets are expected to lower the risk of long-term illnesses about the same amount.
A special diet for people with multiple sclerosis gets a very high score for being healthy and follows the same good eating rules recommended for all Americans.
When people actually eat the foods on the Swank diet, they might get too much salt, especially women under 50 and men of any age, even though the diet plans look okay on paper.
The Swank diet keeps saturated fat very low—less than 15 grams a day—no matter how many calories you eat, which matches its own rules and health experts' advice for lowering cholesterol.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.