Anti-Goitrogenic Diet for Hypothyroidism

Goitrogens are foods that suppress thyroid function by interfering with the uptake of iodine. In healthy people, consuming such foods is perfectly safe and doesn't lead to thyroid disease. But if you already have a thyroid condition, you may need to change the amount and form of these foods in your daily diet.

Considerations

• If you're a thyroid patient, you should always check with your physician before making any sudden or major changes to your diet, since these changes may affect the dosage of your thyroid medications. Although people with thyroid disease need to be concerned about goitrogenic foods, most of these are also among the healthiest foods in general with anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties, so you shouldn't avoid them completely. It's the excessive use of such foods that can trigger or exacerbate a thyroid problem. Therefore, always make sure your diet contains a variety of foods and you don't eat the same thing over and over. Another practical tip is that cooking can inactivate goitrogenic isoflavones (commonly found in soy foods) and goitrogenic isothiocyanates (found in cruciferous vegetables). In fact, with a cruciferous vegetable like broccoli, as much as one third of the goitrogenic substance may be deactivated when broccoli is boiled in water.

Goitrogenic Foods to Eat in Moderation

• The first category of goitrogenic foods to consider is soy products. This is a difficult category to monitor, since soy is hidden in food labels as textured vegetable protein (TVP) and other variants. Fortunately, you can partly turn off the goitrogenic activity of soy isoflavones by cooking the foods or by eating fermented soybean products such as tempeh, soy sauce, miso and natto. You can also reduce the goitrogenicity of soy by pairing it with products containing iodine such as kombu or nori seaweed.

  Another goitrogenic category of foods are those from the brassica family, including many of the cruciferous vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, bok choy, cabbage, mustard, kale, turnips, kohlrabi, rutabaga and rape seed (canola oil).

  Gluten is another family of foods to watch. Gluten sensitivity contributes to a variety of autoimmune diseases including autoimmune thyroid disease. If you have Hashimoto's Thryoiditis, you might consider limiting or avoiding altogether gluten-containing foods like wheat, barley, and rye. You might even need to be screened for celiac disease, since it's one reason patients continue to have hypothyroid symptoms despite higher doses of thyroid replacement hormone.

  There is a miscellaneous group of foods that have a small goitrogenic component, and again, these foods have important vitamins and minerals, so instead of eliminating them entirely, consume them in moderation. They include pine nuts, peanuts, millet, peaches, strawberries, radishes, spinach and mustard.