What are the taboos on the thyroid diet?

In fact, there are no absolute dietary taboos that apply to all people with thyroid problems. All taboo options must be determined based on your specific condition and current status of thyroid function. Many "universal taboos" spread online are actually mostly one-sided misunderstandings.

Last week I met a 27-year-old Hashimoto girl with hyperthyroidism in the outpatient clinic. She came with a "Thyroid Taboo List" from a certain health care website. She said that she had not touched iodized salt for three months, and she did not even dare to drink the seaweed and egg drop soup sold downstairs with minced seaweed. However, the thyroid function index was still floating, but it was found that thyroglobulin was abnormally elevated due to iodine deficiency. To put it bluntly, it was just a random taboo.

Regarding the issue of whether thyroid patients can take iodine, there are two clear views in the industry. No one is right or wrong, but it is suitable for different groups: if you are in the acute stage of hyperthyroidism, or are found to have thyroid nodules combined with high-functioning adenomas, you must strictly limit iodine in this situation. Try not to touch high-iodine kelp, seaweed, and wakame. Daily salt can also be replaced with non-iodized salt to prevent excess iodine from "fueling an overactive thyroid".”； But if your thyroid function has stabilized within the normal range, or is just an ordinary benign thyroid nodule, or even a patient in the hypothyroid stage, there is no need to completely quit iodine. The daily intake of 120 μg of iodine for ordinary people is just what the body needs. If you don’t touch it at all, it will cause compensatory swelling of the thyroid gland, which will aggravate the original problem, especially pregnant women. Even if you have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, as long as your thyroid function is normal, you cannot stop iodine casually, otherwise it will affect the intellectual development of the fetus, which is not a trivial matter.

In addition to the iodine controversy, the most widely circulated statement on the Internet is that "cruciferous vegetables must not be eaten". There are really more people who fall into this trap. I once had an aunt in her 50s who banned broccoli, cabbage, radish, and cabbage after being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s. She didn’t even dare to touch the cabbage and pork dumplings made at home during the Chinese New Year. Over the past six months, she suffered from vitamin deficiency and suffered from recurring angular stomatitis, which was completely unnecessary. Cruciferous vegetables are said to be bad for the thyroid because the glucosinolates in them will be metabolized into thiocyanates in the body, which will competitively inhibit the thyroid's absorption of iodine. However, this effect is quantitative - you have to eat two or three kilograms of raw cruciferous vegetables every day for one or two months to achieve the effect on thyroid gland. The dosage of glucosinolates is to stir-fry half a plate of broccoli at a meal. Blanching it before frying can also remove most of the glucosinolates. This intake will not have any impact at all. Unless you live in an iodine-deficient area and eat raw cruciferous vegetables every day, then you need to control the amount a little.

Of course, this does not mean that there are no things to pay attention to. For example, patients who are in the stage of hyperthyroidism have fast metabolism, fast heart rate, and are prone to insomnia. Try not to drink too strong tea and coffee, and do not eat too much spicy food, otherwise the symptoms of palpitation and inability to sleep will be more obvious.； If you are going to do iodine 131 treatment, you must strictly abstain from iodine for 4 weeks before and after treatment, otherwise it will affect the absorption of iodine and reduce the therapeutic effect. This is uncontroversial.

There is really no need to worry about what you eat by comparing one by one with the online list. Next time you go for a review, just write down what you often eat in the past week and ask your attending doctor. Everyone's indicators and conditions are different. How can there be any taboos that apply to everyone?