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In a nutshell, the typical diet theory goes something like this. MS seems to be more common in areas with a high consumption of saturated fat, dairy produce and grains. MS also varies geographically - it's more common in areas with little sunshine and high latitude, places where it's hard to make vitamin D (the "sunshine vitamin"). At these latitudes, some people with a genetic susceptibility and a certain type of diet have a high level of "auto-immune" diseases like MS.

Now there's a new kid on the diet block. This one's called The Best Bet Diet, and there's a bit of a stir about it in the MS world. It's been billed as "the best way yet to treat MS". Some people have been even more enthusiastic - the words "fantastic", "unbelievable" and "incredible" have been used. So what's it all about?

The Best Bet Diet is a little like the song from The Singing Detective: "Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative". Eating the wrong food leads to a lack of the nutrients that help to keep your immune system in control, and the wrong food can also cause the immune system to attack your body. Therefore, what you have to do is cut out the wrong stuff (eliminate the negative) and add some of the right stuff. The diet is dairy-free, gluten-free and egg-free. It's also yeast restrictive, sugar restrictive and low in saturated fat. There's a list of supplements you're also advised to take to accentuate the positive. Frankly it sounds hard, but I've spoken to people with MS who say how much better they feel - less tired and fewer relapses. And if you look on the positive side of things, it could actually be quite palatable - lots of white meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. Someone has told me that tequila is OK too.

Over the next six weeks, I'm going to use myself as a human guinea pig to test out the Best Bet Diet. I'm going to lock myself in my Birmingham home and survive by eating things like gluten-free bread and drinking rice milk. But before I head off to the local health food store there's something else I have been told to do - take a blood allergy test. The thinking is that in addition to things like dairy produce and gluten, you may also have problems with other foods. So you've got to find out what these foods are. At a cost of just under £90, the ELISA blood test checks you for allergies to 93 different foods, from apples to yeast. I took a small sample of my blood, posted it off and waited.

The good news is that I'm OK with 42 of the 93 foods on the list. Of the rest, I've been told to reduce my intake of 28 and eliminate 23 altogether.

The three foods I'm most allergic to are cauliflower, potatoes and something called a cola nut. God knows what that is. All I can say is that I have never knowingly touched a cola nut. Of the 23 pulses and vegetables on the list I've been told to eliminate seven, and reduce my intake of another eight. Even lettuce is out. Good job I'm not a vegetarian. Fish, which is big on this diet, is surprisingly a bit of a problem. Of the eleven fish on the list, three are out and I've been told to reduce my intake of six other types. That just leaves two white fish - cod and plaice - that I can eat without any problem.

I think the person who carried out the test has probably realised the gravity of my situation because scrawled on the bottom of the allergy results form are the encouraging words: "Concentrate on the positive foods." Like what? Millet, venison and string beans? But no one said this was going to be easy. No pain no gain, I suppose.

So talking of gain, how will I measure the success of this diet? I have to be scientific and objective. If it's to achieve anything it could be two things - prevent relapses and make a difference to existing symptoms. Of course, proving relapses don't happen is impossible. "You can't prove a negative," as they say. So I'm going to concentrate on the positive, like the allergy tester suggested. Eyesight problems, bladder problems and spasms are three things I've had problems with, and these are the areas where I will look for improvement.

I've just been signed off from the Birmingham and Midland Eye Hospital after a major attack of double vision. There's still some peripheral double vision left. Perhaps the diet will help here. There are two other troubling problems: leg spasms and a "two in one" bladder problem - wanting to urinate but being unable to. Think about it. It can make life hard. I'm hoping that the diet might also help here.

I'm off to the loo now, and then on to the health food store to stock up on rice milk and gluten-free bread. I'll let you know how I get on next week. "Tara a bit," as they say in Brum.