Broccoli- good or bad?!

[Polly91]

Hello everyone

I was having a chat with a fellow hypothyroid friend yesterday and she was stressing how bad broccoli was for us- in particular raw broccoli.

Now I had read over the last few months that cruciferous veg (think that’s the term?!) are only bad if your under active thyroid is due to goitre or deficiency in diet but NOT if your thyroid under activity is autoimmune ie Hashimoto. In the case of the latter it’s things like gluten & casein & other potential allergens that get into the blood stream through a permeable gut (leaky gut) and stimulate the immune system to attack eg thyroid. So foods like broccoli don’t actually affect us.

Can someone put me right ?

Thank you Polly

[greygoose]

What you're talking about is goitrogens. And there's a load of rubbish talked about them all the time due to not quite understanding how they work.

Veggies termed 'goitrogens' contain a substance that impedes the up-take of iodine by the thyroid gland. So, theoretically, they can make you hypo to the point of causing a goitre - a goitre is a swollen gland that has increased its surface area in order to absorb more iodine. However, you would need to eat an awful lot of goitrogens to get to that point. More likely that they would just make you feel a bit more hypo if you ate a lot.

However, not all goitrogens will affect all people. Some people are sensitive to some and other people to others - some people aren't affected by any of them - and the list is long! Not just cruciferous veggies. Also, if you are on a full replacement dose of thyroid hormone replacement - or if you don't have a thyroid for some reason - they aren't going to affect you at all.

The exception to all that is soy, because soy isn't just a goitrogen. It also affects you at a cellular level, impeding the uptake of thyroid hormone by the cells. So, that is to avoid completely. But, with the other goitrogens, just adopt the idea that if it agrees with you, eat it. If it doesn't agree with you in any way, don't eat it. Simple as that.

[Polly91 in reply to greygoose]

Thank you! So if you are on replacement then regardless of how much of these foods you eat it shouldn’t be a problem?

When you say agree with you? I guess you wouldn’t necessarily know ? Or would you?

Thx

[greygoose in reply to Polly91]

Oh, you would know, yes.

But, I'm curious, just how much broccoli are you planning to eat? It's never a good idea to eat too much of any one thing. A varied diet is much better, if you can.

[Polly91 in reply to greygoose]

Ok good. It’s brocoll sprout powder for Lyme disease. So I think it will be quite concentrated.

[greygoose in reply to Polly91]

You'll just have to monitor your reactions and symptoms as you go. It's not going to do you any harm if it does anything at all, just make you feel more hypo - you might need an increase in dose.

[Polly91 in reply to greygoose]

Ok thanks - I will Watch out. Don’t really want to up my dose.

[Angel_of_the_North]

Broccoli is wonderful. Full of DIM (look it up) that is protective against breast cancer among other things. Only slightly goitrogenic if you eat a lot of it raw. A few pounds. Enjoy your veg; the benefits far outweigh the possible harms.