What are the taboos on the thyroid diet?

In fact, there are no uniform dietary taboos that apply to all thyroid problems. All taboos must be determined based on your specific disease and your own iodine nutritional level. Following the trend of taboos may lead to problems.

Think about it, the thyroid is like a small processing factory that relies on iodine as raw material to produce hormones. Different problems correspond to different operating conditions of the factory. How can one set of rules govern the world? Let’s talk about the iodine intake that attracts the most attention. If you are diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, you must strictly limit iodine. This is currently not controversial. A while ago, I met a young girl born in 2000 who was just diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. She usually likes to drink kelp soup and eat salt-baked shrimps. After she was diagnosed, she thought it was okay to eat some seafood, so she continued to eat every meal. After half a month, her thyroid function index was twice as high as when she was first diagnosed. I was so panicked that I couldn't even climb two floors without gasping for breath. Later, I replaced the iodized salt at home with iodine-free ones, stopped all high-iodine foods such as seafood and seaweed, and took medicine. After a month, my indicators dropped a lot when I checked again, and the symptoms of panic were basically gone.

However, if it is a problem such as Hashimoto's thyroiditis or benign thyroid nodules, there is currently no unified conclusion in the academic community on whether to limit iodine. Some doctors will recommend appropriately reducing high iodine intake to avoid excessive iodine stimulation and exacerbating the increase in thyroid antibodies. Some doctors believe that as long as the urine iodine test is within the normal range, it is perfectly fine to eat iodized salt normally and occasionally eat seafood. My best friend is Hashimoto. I read online posts two years ago and was so scared that I didn’t even dare to touch iodized salt. Six months later, the urinary iodine test was much lower than the normal standard. The symptoms of hair loss and fatigue were more severe than before. Later, I adjusted back to eating iodized salt as normal, but I didn’t go out to eat an extremely high-iodine diet that showed off several bags of seaweed at one time and drank seaweed soup every day. After more than half a year, my antibodies were very stable and my symptoms were much lighter.

There is also a widely spread misunderstanding that people with thyroid problems should not eat cruciferous cabbage, broccoli, and radishes. In fact, it is not that exaggerated. Only if your own iodine intake is insufficient and you eat several kilograms of raw cruciferous vegetables at one time will it affect the thyroid's absorption of iodine. Normally eating a plate of fried vegetables will not have any impact at all. Many friends around me who have thyroid nodules often eat broccoli, and after three or four years of reexamination, the nodules have not grown.

In addition to these, other taboos must also depend on the disease. For example, patients with hyperthyroidism are prone to panic and insomnia. Try to avoid stimulating things such as strong tea and strong coffee, otherwise it will only aggravate the discomfort.； If you have hypothyroidism and high blood lipids, your metabolism will be slower than that of ordinary people. You should try to eat less high-fat foods such as animal offal and fat meat to prevent blood lipids from rising too quickly.

Oh, yes, if you are really not sure about what you should eat, it is better to do a urine iodine test, and then take the report to your attending doctor to ask questions based on your specific condition. It is much more reliable than searching for those cookie-cutter taboo lists on the Internet. Don’t blindly limit your food and end up with malnutrition, which will only drag down your body.