Where do you start?

[pbjmilo]

Someone texted and asked ME? for advice.

I am the last person to give advice right now, my thyroid is so messed up, ( 0.2 TSH and no idea what foods I can or cannot eat, except gluten, sugar, most liquid milk, maybe not eggs, not all yogurts though, not all cheeses maybe, may or maybe not SOME nuts. I think I CAN have chicken, coconut products, pea protein, gluten free? oats and COOKED broccoli. That is all I have been able to determine so far. I am not even going to go into which and how much what vitamins or what tests who says to take of what

I have more notes than I know what to do with at this point, and the clincher is the advice to keep stress to a minimum during “thyroid”.com, .org, .gov, then “Dr’s” who look awfully young touting thyroid products, then, the more realistic working ones that say you actually have to work at it: get exercise, sleep, turn off the tv, iPad, relax so yes I gave learned something. But what to eat, food elimination diet, that is driving me insane, vitamins. right behind that. Medical help only tests for TSH, (more stress!). I am sorry I think I am just on a roller coaster,

[humanbean]

I am the last person to give advice right now, my thyroid is so messed up, ( 0.2 TSH and no idea what foods I can or cannot eat, except gluten, sugar, most liquid milk, maybe not eggs, not all yogurts though, not all cheeses maybe, may or maybe not SOME nuts. I think I CAN have chicken, coconut products, pea protein, gluten free? oats and COOKED broccoli.

I don't know where you are getting your food advice from or what conditions you are trying to treat or avoid.

If your problem is "only" hypothyroidism, then I don't know of any reasons for avoiding milk or eggs or yoghurt or cheese or nuts unless doing so makes you feel better. There are people with thyroid disease who avoid dairy because they feel better for doing so, but if you get no benefit then start eating animal milk products again. I don't know of any reasons for giving up eggs or nuts.

I'm hypothyroid, and the only thing I've given up is gluten. I still eat everything else.

[greygoose]

I agree with humanbean , your diet is now so restricted that you must be pretty low in nutrients. Which is going to make you feel worse, and isn't going to help your thyroid one little bit!

The gluten-free recommendation is usually for people who have Hashi's, because Hashi's people often have Coeliac Disease or are gluten-sensitive. Gluten is not going to hurt your thyroid, so, only give it up if it makes you feel better.

COOKED broccoli

Ahhh you've fallen into the goitrogen trap! But obviously don't know quite how long the list of goitrogens is. Strawberries and pears, would you believer? And peas and beans. But, the goitrogen myth is a complete red herring.

What goitrogens do is impede the uptake of iodine by the thyroid, meaning that the thyroid makes less hormone, but in trying to get enough iodine swells up into a goitre. If you are on thyroid hormone replacement, your thyroid doesn't need to make hormone. Goitrogens aren't going to affect your levo. And, even if you weren't taking exogensou hormone, you'd have to eat a hell of a lot of broccoli for it to have an effect. So, forget that, and eat your broccoli raw, if you feel so inclined.

The exception to what I've just said about goitrogens is soy. Soy isn't just a goitrogen, it also impedes the uptake of thyroid hormone by the cells. So, you can have a high level in the blood, but still be hypo because it's not getting into the cells.

It's also best to avoid artificial sweeteners and processed seed oils, like rapeseed oil, but that's true for everyone on the planet, not just hypos.

In other words, a little of what you fancy does you good. Eat what you enjoy. If you have a bad reaction to it, stop eating it. It's as simple as that. You really don't have to fret about what you can and cannot eat.

As for nutrients, the famous four that need testing for optimal use of thyroid hormones, are: vit D, vit B12, folate and ferritin. If you have results and ranges for those four, post them here and people will advise you one what to take, if anything. Just avoid mult-vits, that's all. It's all pretty simple when you break it down.