Reduce Parkinson’s Tremors Naturally: Foods to avoid

Tremors are one of the most noticeable challenges in Parkinson’s, but many people don’t realise how much diet can influence them. Research shows that certain foods can worsen or ease tremors by affecting inflammation, dopamine function, and blood sugar balance.

In this first post of our “Nutrition & Parkinson’s” series, we reveal the #1 food to avoid to help reduce tremors, explain why it matters, and share simple, actionable changes you can make today.

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Reducing Parkinson’s Tremors Naturally: Why Your Diet Matters

Whilst the cause of parkinson’s of course is unknown, we know that Inflammation is part of the disease picture, and that it can worsen tremors. When designing a diet plan for Parkinson’s patients, the ultimate goal is to reduce symptoms, making your life not only more pleasurable but also your disease more manageable.



The Number 1 Food to Avoid in Parkinson’s

Research has found that aflatoxins - a common mould-toxin that often lives on peanut crops, can upregulate the disease process in PD, increasing inflammation in the Brain. This is overall a bad idea, as this has been seen to:

  • Reduce function of dopamine nerves (yikes - obviously not what we want)

  • Trigger abnormal clumping of synuclein protein - part of the PD disease picture

  • Decrease dopamine in the brain by depleting nerve fibres



Should everyone be worried?

Because aflatoxins are toxic and carcinogenic to everyone, there are rules and regulations in place to keep levels nice low in the UK and EU. Legally, these levels must not be above a specific level. For a healthy person, eating in moderation may be advisable, but in a Parkinson’s person - you can't afford to be accidentally consuming this toxin.

How we monitor and adhering to the rules however is not straight forward. The responsibility lies with the grower to test and provide safety evidence, often in a far away land, perhaps rife with corruption, and often by a farmer who could not afford to loose a crop.

A study commissioned by the BBC uncovered Tesco Peanut butter found to contain twice the permitted EU amounts of alfaxtons! Last year, 30 out of 250 shippings at the border were condemned, but not every batch is checked. The make the problem more challenging, aflatoxins occur unevenly. One jar can be too high, whilst another in the same batch may be fine.

Why do we have this problem?

Peanuts aren’t dry when picked - and they dry rather slowly - and of course harvests and weather is unpredictable business. If food is kept in even slightly moist conditions in the long and arduous journey to the EU, mould can quickly worsen.

Having such a world-wide food chain presents us with problems. There’s no farm to table when it comes to peanuts in the UK, which could have helped identify and manage the problem by the individual consumer.

In Parkinson’s, given that the objective is to protect your brain, slow your disease progression and improve your day to day wellbeing - generally avoiding ALL levels of aflatoxins where you can may be sensible.

Now. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that easy. In fact, aflatoxins don’t JUST exists in peanuts, but because peanuts aren’t essential in anyway - we recommend replacing.

What to eat if you have Parkinson’s

If you’re eating peanuts, it’s likely you’re enjoying it as a snack - or as peanut butter on your toast.

Here’s what to replace it with if you’re dairy free:

  • On Toast: Replace with another nut butter + sliced banana

  • Savory topping: use avocado in its place. Simply cut a ripe black avocado in half, scoop out a bit of the flesh and spread it as it if was butter! Add a little salt, squeeze of lemon or chopped parsley :)

  • Salted peanuts: You’ll love our delicious roast nuts & seeds recipe:

Roasted nuts and seeds

Mix circa 200g of flax seeds, sesame, pumpkin seeds and roughly chopped almonds. Add a tablespoon of kirkkoman or tamari soy sauce and a tablespoon of raw honey. Roast in the oven on 100c (i.e very low heat) for circa 40minutes.  Keep stirring from time to time. Store in an air tight container. Yum.


We’re curious, have you noticed a worsening in your Parkinson’s tremors after consuming peanut butter regularly?

tell us about your experience

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More Information and Resources

References and studies available on request!


Linda Albinsson

With almost 20 years in the nutritional therapy industry, Linda combines science-led functional medicine with her life-long experimentation of food and diets, in helping her clients achieve their health goals.

https://www.Advancednutritionclinic.co.uk
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