Hypothyroid symptoms – Gluten

If you continue to feel the symptoms of your hypothyroid such as - severe exhaustion and fatigue, your hair being dry and brittle, weight gain you can't explain, your skin being very dry – even after higher and higher doses of hormone replacement, the culprit could be gluten.

Gluten is a common protein found in grains such as wheat, rye, and barley, and it is commonly found within our day-to-day food items. It is a potential goitrogen best known from Celiac disease.  Gluten sensitivity can cause inflammation in your body, and has been found to have a connection to other autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, and autoimmune thyroid disease.  
Autoimmune disease is when a person produces antibodies that attack the body's own tissue, including the thyroid tissue.

If you have autoimmune hypothyroidism you may seriously want to consider cutting back on your gluten intake, or eliminating it all together.  After a few weeks of lowering your gluten intake you may notice you start to feel better.

If you don’t notice a change, you may have to eliminate it completely, and then see how you feel.

Most processed foods and the obvious grains - wheat, rye, barley contain gluten.  I know some of you are thinking “I can’t give up my bread”, there are plenty of grain alternatives out there.  Quinoa, rice noodles, corn, and gluten free breads are all great alternatives. Lundberg rice chips are a great gluten free snack food also, and they come in different flavors.  For the best gluten free handbook Go Here

If you start to make simple swaps like using lettuce leaves to wrap a sandwich, it starts to get easy, and pretty soon you won’t even miss it.

If after a couple of weeks you think you feel better, but your not sure if it made a difference, you can start to add back a little gluten at a time, and see if you start feeling worse again.  The odds are you are going to feel better when you limit the amount of gluten, or take it out of your diet completely.

Hypothyroid symptoms – Goitrogens

The symptoms of hypothyroidism such as - feelings of severe exhaustion and fatigue,

weight gain you can't explain, your hair being dry and brittle, your skin being very dry and sometimes scaly - may not go away with just medication alone.  You may still feel a lot of these symptoms due to the foods you are eating.  You think you are doing better by making healthy choices never knowing that some of these foods can be counter-productive to your thyroid health.

Many healthy foods contain what are called goitrogens.  Goitrogens are substances that naturally occur in food. They are mainly found in the cabbage family, and in soybeans

Eaten in large amounts, especially if eaten raw, these foods can interfere with your thyroid function.  They inhibit your thyroid from absorbing and processing iodine. 

Cruciferous vegetables that contain goitrogens such as kale, broccoli, cabbage, turnips, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, cauliflower and spinach all can be steamed and then eaten. 

Cooking these vegetables deactivates the goitrogenic compounds in them so they can be eaten and not slow your thyroid function. 

Steaming is best to get the most health benefits that the vegetables have to offer. 

Other foods that you want to eat in moderation or avoid altogether are strawberries, peanuts, peaches, millet, radishes, soy beans and soy products. 

The best thing to remember is everything in moderation.  The health benefits of all these foods are too important to eliminate completely.

Pay attention to how you feel when you eat these foods.  That will give you a better idea of which foods affect you more.  You need to find your balance and what works best for you.