Diet taboos for patients with hyperthyroidism

It is absolutely forbidden to eat high-iodine foods during the acute phase. Try to avoid irritating, high-sugar and high-fat foods that will aggravate nerve excitement and metabolic burden. You can basically eat other foods as long as you are not allergic. There is no need to put too many unnecessary dietary restrictions on yourself.

I have a friend who has been suffering from hyperthyroidism for 3 years. When he was first diagnosed, he was so scared that he didn’t even dare to order takeout. He only ate plain water and boiled vegetables. As a result, he lost 8 pounds in less than half a month, and his thyroid function index fluctuated even more. Later, when he went for a follow-up consultation, he was scolded by the doctor, and he realized that he had stepped on the trap of "excessive food taboos".

Let’s talk about the most uncontroversial core red line first: iodine. After all, iodine is the core raw material for the thyroid to synthesize thyroid hormones. Hyperthyroidism is inherently an "overworking" of the thyroid. The more raw materials you send to the production line, the more hormones it produces, and the indicators will naturally become unstable. Don’t believe it. There was an aunt in the outpatient clinic before. After taking medicine for almost half a year, her indicators were about to become normal. She drank hot pepper soup with seaweed in the morning for three consecutive days. During the reexamination, the thyroid stimulating hormone dropped to 0.01. It took another two months of adjusting the dosage of the medicine to bring it back. It should be mentioned here that doctors of different schools actually have different definitions of "iodine-containing foods": old-school doctors will require that all seafood cannot be touched, and even iodized salt must be completely avoided. ； But now more and more young doctors are recommending layered taboos: algae such as kelp, seaweed, and wakame, which contain dozens of times higher iodine content than ordinary sea fish, must not be touched. Ordinary seafood such as shrimp and hairtail are not a problem for patients whose thyroid function has been stable for more than half a year, as long as they do not eat it often. As for eating iodized salt occasionally when eating out, there is no need to be overly anxious. This dose will not cause any trouble at all.

When many people were first diagnosed, they only knew to avoid iodine. In fact, there are two types of food, and many people fell into this trap. For example, coffee, strong tea, high alcohol, and particularly spicy food are not to say that these things will directly affect the synthesis of thyroid hormones, but patients with hyperthyroidism are in a state of sympathetic nervous excitement. Usually, the resting heart rate may be above 100 beats per minute, and they are prone to insomnia and irritability. If you drink two cups of strong coffee, it is equivalent to pouring another bucket of oil on the engine that has stepped on the accelerator. The heart rate will soar to 120, and it is common to keep your eyes open until dawn. Of course, if you don't get enough rest, your thyroid function will not be stable. Of course, it doesn’t have to be a one-size-fits-all approach. My friend still drinks a cup of light American with half sugar every week. As long as he doesn’t feel flustered or shake his hands after drinking it, and it doesn’t affect his sleep, the doctor also said it’s totally fine and he doesn’t need to make himself look like an ascetic.

Oh, by the way, there is another pitfall that many people have not noticed at all: a large amount of high-sugar and high-fat foods. Patients with hyperthyroidism have a fast metabolism and get hungry easily. Many people often order milk tea and cakes to fill their stomachs. However, hyperthyroidism itself will cause accelerated glycogen decomposition and easy fluctuation of blood sugar. Ingesting a large amount of high-sugar drinks with fructose syrup will cause potassium ions to be quickly transferred from the blood to the cells, which can easily induce a common complication of hyperthyroidism - hypokalemic periodic paralysis. A young man in his 20s was admitted to the emergency department before. He was just diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and didn't take it seriously. He drank two or three cups of iced milk tea every day for three days in the summer. When he woke up in the morning, his legs were so weak that he couldn't stand up. He was carried to the hospital by his roommate. It took him a long time to replenish his blood potassium. As for foods that are too oily, such as eating fatty meats and fried skewers every day, patients with hyperthyroidism have fast gastrointestinal motility and are prone to diarrhea. Eating too much oil will only increase the burden on the gastrointestinal tract, and the nutrients eaten will be expelled before being absorbed, which is not conducive to recovery.

Finally, I would like to mention that "you cannot eat cruciferous vegetables if you have hyperthyroidism" that is widely circulated on the Internet. This is really a rumor that spreads farther than the truth. The glucosinolates in vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and cabbage will indeed be converted into goitrogenic substances in the human body, but this is only for people who are deficient in iodine or have hypothyroidism. As long as patients with hyperthyroidism do not eat two or three pounds of raw broccoli every day, the content will not be affected at all. On the contrary, these vegetables have high vitamin content, which is very suitable for patients with hyperthyroidism who metabolize quickly and consume a lot of food.

To be honest, the dietary control of hyperthyroidism is really not that strict. The core is to "grab the big ones and let go the small ones": use high-iodine algae and adjust the rest according to your physical condition. You don't have to worry for a long time just because you took a bite of wontons with dried shrimps. After all, the impact of mood swings on thyroid function is much greater than the iodine content of that bite of dried shrimps.