26 Cruciferous vegetables & goitrogenic foods, recommended for hyperthyroidism 

The following is a list of some vegetables and fruits, considered helpful for hyperthyroidism:

• Broccoli
• Brussel sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower

  

• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Mustard greens
• Rutabaga***
• Turnips
• Millet
• Radishes
• Spinach***
• Mizuna
• Garden cress
  
• Water cress
• Daikon
• Wasabi
• Bok choy
• Komatsuna
• Rapini
• Strawberries***
• Peaches***
• African Cassava
• Babassu
• Pears***
• Carrots***
• Sprouts of any kind (useful due to other reasons)

*** Those are found to have the highest goitrins among all, all in raw condition. Rutabaga will lose its properties if cooked.

How to cook goitrogens and cruciferous vegetables?

Needless to say- don’t, whenever you can! Better consume all of them raw, instead of cooked. Although research studies are limited in this area, cooking does appear to help inactivate the goitrogenic compounds found in the above vegetables. Both isoflavones (found in legumes) and isothiocyanates (found in cruciferous vegetables) appear to be heat-sensitive, and cooking appears to lower the availability of these substances. No surprise, right?

In the case with isothiocyanates in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, as much as 1/3 of this goitrogenic substance may be deactivated when broccoli is boiled in water. The same pertains to all other leafy vegetables.

My goitrogenic salad 

I personally prefer to use the leafy vegetables in a salad and the greener they are, the better. I also like to follow the rule of 7: when I make my salad for the day, I try to use at least 7 vegetables in it. This is an example of what you can include in your salad:

1 leaf of kale (finely chopped for better digestion)

1 small cucumber

Radishes

Carrots (preferably shredded)

Some red peppers/ or orrange (for color);

Cauliflower- a few florets;

Spinach- as much as you want;

Broccoli- a few small florets

Celery

As per the dressing, the only things I use are extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and salt (and occasionally black pepper for flavor). Instead of caring bottles with the above, I will put the dressing at the bottom of a jar, then arrange the vegetables on the top. When ready to eat, just turn the jar upside down, shake it well and your salad is ready! I assure you that it’s not so complicated as you may think! Also, you can prepare a few salad jars at a time and keep them refrigerated, ready to go.  The jar lid will keep them fresh for a few days.

I know that some of vegetable names above sound really “exotic”, but when I googled them to see how they look like, or I just went to the local food store,  I thought: “yes, here they are, I just didn’t know the names, or how on earth they are cooked (or not!)”.

The purpose of using the above food products is also to cure your mindless eating and mindless shopping and to improve the disbiosis of the digestive system (a condition where the bad bacteria in the gut outnumbers the good bacteria). The standard American diet, sadly,  is high in sugar and sodium,  full of preservatives, high in fat and preservatives, and loaded with hormones in meat, eggs and fish. No surprise why it leads very often to leaky gut syndrome and intestinal permeability, which is one of reasons for the impaired immune system. 

Consuming goitrogenic foods and vegetables will not only affect the thyroid levels, but will lead to healthier digestive system, which is one of the prerequisites for healthy auto-immune system. My other personal recommendation is also to avoid fast food, over- processed food and to include in your  diet as much raw food as possible. The reason is that the raw vegetables and fruits contain a lot of vitamins and minerals which helps our immune system to recover, especially if you have condition like Graves’ Disease.

More research on the subject, a lot of recipes of these products what foods also to avoid are included in one of my books: “Ultimate Diet Secrets for Graves’ Disease and Hyperthyroidism”.  Enjoy and Happy eating!