Vegan diet and thyroid health

[Nora3]

I am vegan, I consume NO meat nor eggs, no dairy etc. I eat very clean plant based foods. I do consume legumes maybe 1 or 2 x per month. I do consume hemp seeds and almonds.

I eat a ton of fruit and veggies.

I do supplement b 12. I have my iron and ferritin etc tested every year and it is excellent.

Are there any concerns with being vegan and thyroid health.

I am on 30 mg of ndt at the moment. Raising doesnt come easily for me. I am very sensitive.

I wasnt always plant based, I was actually keto, then low carb, but I have been paleo for about 10 plus years. Never felt well eating meat, so went plant based for over 2 years now. During this journey my adrenals were never well, but have been improving more so being plant based.

[NWA6]

Do you feel well? I don’t see how a vegan diet would be harmful. If you eat a balanced diet with the Vegan way then I’m sure you’ll be fine, just do your home blood checks a couple of times a year and take supplements if you need them. Same as vegetarians and meat eaters. Any of us can struggle to truly balance our diets.

[loisbrucie]

You have an auto immune disease. I used the Functional elimination diet to cut out inflammatory foods , then carefully reintroduce them to find out what has caused the problem. It is different for many people. I used a private Functional doctor who first sorted out my thyroid problem , with a battery of tests supplements and T3. Then she sorted my Rheumatoid Arthritis and a my very virulent vasculitis disease with this diet. The senior of my 5 NHS consultants agrees that this diet worked, where my chemo and autoimmune therapy had failed. The book the autoimmune solution by Dr Amy Myers I found to be a great help.

[BadHare]

Just make sure to avoid unfermented soy, & be aware of the effects any other goitrogenic foods might have on your thyroid hormones.

I’m veggie, though most meals are vegan. I tried eliminating then reintroduced lots of different foods, but it seems soy is the only one that affects me. I eat tempeh & tamari with no issues as they’re fermented.

[Nora3 in reply to BadHare]

I do not consume any soy products. I have pondered over the fermented tempeh and tamari. Thanks for sharing.

[JumpJiving]

Don't forget iodine and selenium, for which I have Itsu nori sheets (I like the one with wasabi) and brazil nuts.

[Nora3 in reply to JumpJiving]

Thanks for the reminder. I do do this....but will admit i sometimes forget! I need to remember to do it a.fee days a week. Thank you.

[silverfox7]

Usually when someone says they can't raise NDT then the advice is to test Vit D, B12, folate and ferritin and supplement if not optimal. Don't know how this would sit with your specific diet but might be worth checking.

[Nora3 in reply to silverfox7]

Iron and ferritin are great. I beleive my b12 is to low sitting at 350 with a range from 300 to 700. I started supplementing. Vit d I am.not sure because i cant get test any where. I need to pay for it. So that's my next step. I do have VDRtaq as a genetic disposition and I so not do well when I try and supplement vit d. It makes me anxious and sick.

[Cooper27]

I don't mean to be asking how you get your protein (I know that's an eye roll question!), but I'm wondering whether avoiding legumes, means your eating a lot of soya and/or gluten to get your protein instead? These are often trigger foods for people with thyroid disease, so I'd be more inclined to limit these and eat legumes more often. Legumes are really beneficial for our gut bacteria, and we want to keep those guys healthy when we have autoimmune disease.

I was told about 2 days ago that with thyroid disease, it's important to get your omega 3 in the DHA form, which mostly comes from fish. I haven't had time to read into it yet, but I thought I'd mention it. It'd be worth looking into. Supposedly the form from linseed/chia seeds etc, isn't as beneficial for the thyroid.

[Nora3 in reply to Cooper27]

Thank you for sharing. I do try and take fish oil a few days a week. I am vegan but I am not a die hard who refuses important supplements. I do not consume red meat chicken etc. But I will take a supplement if my body needs it. Heck my thyroid medication is NDT.

I do consume legumes 2 to 3 days a week. And I do hemp seeds etc. I get plenty of protein. Surprisingly a lot of veggies are packed with proteins. I do not consume soy nor gluten. I eat all whole foods. Except the odd time I do legumes. I started sprouting recently so this will replace the canned beans. Thank you for your input.

[Cooper27 in reply to Nora3]

Good, I'm glad you're getting the supplements you need!

I'm glad you're also managing to avoid soya and gluten. It's tough when you're having to be so restrictive, but I think it's getting easier at least

Sprouting sounds like a great way to shake things up a bit. I did see something on TV a while ago about the risks of salmonella doing it yourself, so please just make sure you've read into it (you might have already, but it's just in case you haven't)

[Angel_of_the_North]

As long as you supplement B12 and check iron and vitamin D regularly. Should be no problem. Only concern is that to get balanced protein intake (enough lysine) vegans are usually told to eat soy, which is not a good thing if you are hypo. Interestingly enough many of the symptoms of low lysine look like hypo: anxiety, dizziness, fatigue, nausea, bloodshot eyes

[Nora3 in reply to Angel_of_the_North]

I actually have a lysine supplement o take 2 to 3 days a week. Thanks for the reminder because again I sometimes get lazy with supplements!

[HLAB35]

A lot of people with pyroluria (look it up) find it hard to digest meat and protein.... there are 'probably 10%' of us according to some sources that have this and it is rarely diagnosed. Only problem is that pyroluria makes you lose a lot of zinc, b6 and magnesium. Magnesium levels are likely to be a lot better on a vegan diet, but zinc will be worse. Zinc competes with Copper and Copper is high in a lot of plant based foods and nuts in particular. Zinc is needed for adrenals, sex hormones and helps with thyroid hormone conversion... so I would definitely consider Zinc.

drjockers.com/pyroluria-com...

And regardless of whether a person has pyroluria*, this article is going to be helpful to any vegan - she seems like a useful source being a vegan herself.

susanmacfarlanenutrition.co...

* As you struggle with animal protein it made me wonder if this could be a problem..

[Lozzapug in reply to HLAB35]

This is really useful information for me - I'm not a vegan but I have Hashimotos and enough of the other symptoms to make me think I should look into it. I had never heard of this condition before, so I'm really grateful to you for posting about it!

[HLAB35 in reply to Lozzapug]

I honestly wonder why these things are kept under wraps, because they could be a root cause of many debilitating symptoms.

[Nora3 in reply to HLAB35]

I tested for pyroluria and I do not have this. Some suffer eating meat due to histamine issues.

[HLAB35 in reply to Nora3]

I agree about the histamine - it is another piece in the puzzle that can bring about autoimmune illness. It can be extremely problematic in some.

[MsMAF]

I'm vegan and I started taking essential amino acids, zinc, b12, essential fatty acids from algae(a company called iwi makes a really good one).

[Nora3 in reply to MsMAF]

Thanks for sharing this I will look it up.

[kym46]

I went vegan two months ago. I use nutritional yeast for B12 and still take b12 and D vitamins daily. I eat a lot of beans and pluses and absolutely no white carbs! Only whole wheat and rye bread but limited to 2 slices per day. I switched coffee to green tea and have a half a small bottle of kombucha daily. So far it’s been life changing, my mood has changed, I have more energy, I’m regular, slim and my bones and joints don’t hurt as much. My skin is also great and I’m not depressed.

I suffer from severe migraines so am hoping over time they improve from the diet. I’ll keep you all posted. In fact, if things continue to go well I’ll write an article.

Forgot to mention that my blood test results improved across everything. I had high cholesterol and that’s normal now too.

[Nora3 in reply to kym46]

Fantastic news ! Congrats !