Diet for Hyperthyroidism

According recent researches 13 million Americans have a thyroid disorder and more than half of them are not aware of it. Twenty million people worldwide suffer from Hyperthyroidism and for 80% of them it is caused by Graves’ Disease.

One of the most important factors when treating Graves’ Disease or Hyperthyroidism with alternative methods is the Hyperthyroidism Diet.

Hyperthyroidism diet is not everything but counts for about 25% of whole healing process, to my personal opinion. I’ve been asked many times if Graves’ Disease patients have to avoid iodine rich foods. My answer is yes. Why to give your body something that it has already in excess? However, don’t go crazy about this- it’s not necessary.

Moderation is the key, plus, only hyperthyroidism diet will not cure you overnight, I guarantee you.

The following page provides a simple hyperthyroidism diet plan and also gives the iodine content in some foods.

Since the onset of Graves’ Disease is a combination of factors, one of them certainly is our nutritional habits. A lot of people are concerned about what they should eat and not eat, what diet they should follow, especially when it is known that the iodine content affects the overproduction of thyroid hormones in your body. It is highly recommended by doctors and endocrinologist if you have hyperthyroidism or Graves’ Disease to avoid foods that have a high iodine content.

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This is a list of some of the foods with their iodine content to help you determine what to include in your hyperthyroidism diet/ Graves’ Disease diet and what not:

Some of the vegetables are also rich in iodine:

If you would like to share also a diet, or you have a method that helped you, please, send me an email and I’ll make sure that it will reach other people suffering from Graves’ Disease mythyroid@gravesdiseasecure.com

Also my personal recommendation is to avoid fast food, over- processed food and try to include in your Hyperthyroidism 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.

There are a few things that need to be taken into consideration when determining a diet for hyperthyroidism:

1. Hamburger Thyrotoxicosis– Thyroid hormones are orally active, which means that consumption of thyroid gland tissue can cause thyrotoxicosis, a type of hyperthyroidism. Several outbreaks of thyrotoxicosis have been attributed to a practice, now banned in the US, called “gullet trimming”, where meat in the neck region of slaughtered animals is ground into hamburger. Because thyroid glands are reddish in color and located in the neck, it’s not unusual for gullet trimmers to get thyroid glands into hamburger or sausage. People that eat such hamburger can get dose of thyroid hormone sufficient to induce disease.

2. Avoid Aspartame. Aspartame is the technical name for the brand names NutraSweet,  Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure. It was discovered by accident in 1965 when James Schlatter, a chemist of G.D. Searle Company, was testing an anti-ulcer drug. But avoiding that one only can safe you a lot of health troubles, trust me!

I often receive emails from women, asking about this aspartame- the artificial sweetener usually used in diet coke and other products. I know we are often concerned about our weight and there is a steady tendency of substituting regular white sugar with artificial sweeteners. I personally, never did that. Partially because never had weight problems, and partially because I just don’t like the taste of the artificial sweetener.

The exact mechanism of acute reactions to excess free glutamate and aspartame is currently being debated. As reported to the FDA, those reactions include:(5)

     * Headaches/migraines

    * Nausea

    * Abdominal pains

    * Fatigue (blocks sufficient glucose entry into brain)

    * Sleep problems

    * Vision problems

    * Anxiety attacks

    * Depression

    * Asthma/chest tightness.

3. Avoid drinking Diet Coke or any other diet products, if you suffer from Hyperthyroidism– they cause more harm than benefits, because of the chemicals and artificial substances in it. As this is a chemical substance, the body doesn’t know how to process it and stores it in the system..How good is that for you?

In general about Hyperthyroidism diet- keep it simple, go green- as much as you can, avoid chemicals and don’t freak out about iodine!

To learn more about Hyperthyroidism diet, hyperthyroidism diet recipe and all you want to know about diet and hyperthyroidism, check my book below:

Goitrogenous foods & Cruciferous vegetables- will they help your hyperthyroidism? 

Many patients suffering with thyroid problems believe that eating the right foods or avoiding the wrong ones will bring them cure. But is that true?

Let me tell you a secret: no matter how much broccoli you will eat the next 24 hours it will not cure your hyperthyroidism overnight! But truth to be told, maintaining a proper diet in a long-term run can cut a lot of your symptoms, can help your immune system, and also can adjust the levels of the overactive thyroid gland.  Basically, it will improve in a natural way the performance of your thyroid! That’s for sure!

The question about goitrogenous foods and cruciferous vegetables, if they are helpful for hyperthyroidism or not, is still debatable all over Internet. And I just hate when doctors say: “Your diet has nothing to do with your disease, you can eat everything and as much as you want”. Really? Because junk food is not a healthy food! And some scientific research has indeed shown that goitrogenic vegetables affect your thyroid gland and thyroid hormones: it was found for example that  “after chronic radish feeding, increased weight of thyroid gland, decreased thyroid peroxidase activity, reduced thyroid hormone profiles and elevated level of thyrotropin were observed resembling a relative state of hypoactive thyroid gland in comparison to control even after supplementation of adequate iodine.”

Chandra AK, Mukhopadhyay S, Ghosh D, Tripathy S. Effect of radish (Raphanus sativus Linn.) on thyroid status under conditions of varying iodine intake in rats. Indian J Exp Biol. 2006 Aug; 44(8):653-61. PubMed PMID: 16924836

The role of goitrogens is to “inhibit naturally the excessive thyroid hormone” and to help the adjustment of the thyroid hormone levels in the blood stream. My personal experience and research in the past 11 years show that yes, goitrogens are good for us! Let me tell you how and why!

Food is very powerful- it can make you sick, or it can nourish you, we all know that.  People say that “you are what you eat” and I can not agree more with that statement! As Hippocrates said: 

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

So let’s go back and find out what food can act as medication and why!

What are goitrogens? 

Goitrogens are foods that act very much like the most popular anti-thyroid medication (PTU or Methimazole let’s say). They have two major substances that appear to affect the thyroid function. These substances are called isoflavones and  isothiocyanates and apparently, they reduce thyroid function by blocking the thyroid peroxidase hormone, thus, naturally decrease the thyroid hormone overproduction. 

Isoflavones are typically found in their highest quantities in legumes and especially soy products,  including tofu and soy milk. The chemical structure of isoflavones is very similar to that of estrogen, and they also have antioxidant properties. However, soy and soy products are not generally recommended for hyperthyroidism diet, as they could be genetically modified, and may cause more harm then benefit.  

Isothiocyanates, on the other side, can be found in the so called “cruciferous vegetables”. Cruciferous vegetables (or Brassica vegetables) are also called “crucifiers”. Isothiocyanates are derived from the breakdown of glucosinolates—sulfur-containing compounds found in cruciferous vegetables like kale, broccoli, and cabbage. They also contain Vitamin C, folates, selenium, potassium, carotenoids, chlorophyll, fiber, flavonoids etc., to name just a few of their useful substances.