How To Eat Your Way To A Healthier Thyroid

I always encourage patients to find an integrative and functional medicine practitioner to get the right kind of help and perspective for a thyroid condition. Here are a few tips on what to avoid if you're looking to improve your thyroid health:

Try to make sure you're getting about 30 grams of brassica a day and not any more. Steaming or cooking these foods briefly to reduce their goitrogenic effect is a good idea, too, instead of eating them raw. For those who enjoy juicing, be mindful about how many different cruciferous vegetables are in there.

Carbs do get a bad rap, but some people may not be getting enough. To my paleo and ketogenic friends, you can actually worsen your thyroid function when you strictly limit your carbohydrates. Your body perceives you are in starvation mode and the thyroid is the first hormone that becomes jeopardized. Just remember you need to eat all food groups in moderation. Excessively limiting carbs has its consequences on your thyroid.

Isoflavones found in soy may hinder thyroid function. Large amounts of soy products can aggravate hyperthyroidism and iodine deficiency in adults. My vegetarians get in trouble with this when they replace meat with numerous soy products: soy milk, soy yogurt, tofu this, tofu that. After a while everything is processed and can slowly negatively affect your thyroid if you already have genetic predisposition. If you are on thyroid medication, be sure to take it on an empty stomach and make sure if you do eat, wait 30 minutes to an hour.

I encourage eating fresh ocean fish, seaweed, and sometimes even supplementing with iodine if needed to my hypothyroidism patients. However, excessive iodine in supplement form can cause havoc to your thyroid. This is especially important to my moms who are pregnant or trying to get pregnant; you need some iodine but not a lot! There's a quick test that can be done by a doctor to see if you are iodine deficient.

I have personally seen patients with thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TBO) improve symptoms and actually feel much better after following a strict gluten-free diet. It's much easier be gluten-free today than it was 10 years ago. Everything is readily available and there are tons of apps to see whether something has gluten in it. Just be mindful not to overindulge in too many gluten-free processed products as they can cause a spike in your sugar levels.