What are the dietary taboos for hypothyroidism?

In fact, there are no foods that are 100% untouchable for hypothyroidism. Most of the "absolute taboos" uploaded online are amplification of special circumstances into general rules. The core principle is to control intake based on the cause of the disease, which is far more reliable than one-size-fits-all taboos.

I just met a 28-year-old girl from Hashimoto with hypothyroidism a while ago. After reading online reports, she changed the iodized salt at home to iodine-free. She even didn’t touch the kelp and seaweed. Even when eating out, she had to rinse the water first for fear of bringing in iodine. As a result, her thyroid function was checked again three months later. Her TSH was 2 units higher than before, and her thyroid antibodies had also increased a lot. When I asked her, I found out that she lives in an iodine-deficient area and seldom eats seafood. Complete avoidance of iodine will cause insufficient raw materials for thyroxine synthesis.

In fact, there are different opinions in the industry about iodine intake. If it is endemic goiter caused by iodine deficiency and accompanied by hypothyroidism, it is necessary to supplement iodine appropriately, add iodized salt, and appropriate amount of seafood. There is no problem.； If it is hypothyroidism caused by Hashimoto's thyroiditis, you must avoid eating large amounts of iodine-rich foods for a long time, such as eating seaweed every day or eating kelp as the main dish. Otherwise, it will aggravate the autoimmune reaction of the thyroid gland. However, there is no need to completely avoid iodine. There will be no problem if you eat iodized salt normally and eat seafood occasionally.

Many people also say that people with hypothyroidism cannot eat cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, cabbage, and radishes. This is actually an exaggeration. A retired aunt heard that cruciferous vegetables can fight cancer, so she drank a large glass of raw broccoli and celery juice every morning. After drinking it for two months, she went for a review. She found that the hypothyroidism had indeed worsened. Later, she stopped raw juice and cooked the vegetables and ate them normally. After the review, she returned to the previous stable level. To put it bluntly, only when a large amount of raw cruciferous vegetables are eaten in a short period of time will the thiocyanate in them affect the iodine uptake function of the thyroid gland. If we usually eat half a plate of cooked vegetables, it will not reach the amount that affects thyroid function. There is no need to kick these nutritious vegetables off the menu.

Other than that, there are no special taboos. At most, patients with hypothyroidism have a slow metabolism and are prone to problems with high blood lipids and weight gain. Therefore, don’t be greedy for too much fatty meat, animal offal, and fried food. For example, if you are craving for fried skewers or an elbow on the weekend, it is perfectly fine. If you eat like this every day, your blood lipids will rise quickly, and your symptoms of drowsiness and fatigue will be more obvious, which is not conducive to recovery.

Many patients with hypothyroidism that I usually interact with are very anxious at first, and they dare not eat or touch anything. In the end, they become malnourished, their immunity decreases, and their thyroid function fluctuates even more. In fact, diet is only an auxiliary part in the treatment of hypothyroidism. You don’t need to be too tight. Adjust it according to your own cause. Eating comfortably and with balanced nutrition is the most important thing.