Hi everyone, I’ve been vegetarian for most of my adult life and was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s a couple of years ago. I haven’t had any tests recently, but in previous tests, B vits and Iron have been on the lower end of the okay range (I’m due a test in the next couple of weeks so will post all my results then). I’ve been gluten free for a year but removed dairy at Christmas to see if my gut issues improved. They did but only marginally. So now, I’m basically vegan but eat eggs. Recently I’ve been craving meat. Very strange for me because it usually repulses me 🤣, so I’ve decided to dip my toe in the water, starting with chicken and hopefully progressing to small amounts of beef. I’m wondering if anyone else has done this. Do you feel better eating meat? Did you gradually increase or just go for it? Do any of the more experienced members know of any evidence showing that meat eaters recover better from Hashimoto’s symptoms than vegans and vegetarians? Thanks in advance!
Transitioning from Vegan to Eating Meat. Experi... - Thyroid UK
Transitioning from Vegan to Eating Meat. Experiences Please!
Come back with new post once you get your vitamin results
Common to need to supplement with Hashimoto’s
On a vegetarian or Vegan Diet iron, ferritin and B12 are frequently low
And difficult to get adequate intake of protein
Two links discussing….
thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...
palomahealth.com/learn/carn....
Will do. Thanks for the links SlowDragon
I was vege for years. It started long before my diagnosis so I didn't know I was hypo. I just didn't fancy meat. I believe that happens to a lot of hypos due to their low stomach acid making it difficult to digest meat.
Anyway, at the time, I didn't have any idea what was wrong with me, didn't know I was hypo/Hashi's, so wasn't seeing a doctor for anything. But a few years after stopping meat - I won't say 'cutting it out/giving it up' because it wasn't a conscious decision, just following what my body told me - I started to become very ill: put on weight, fatigue, etc. But the main effect was mental: depression, mood swings, I became a very unsociable person - I'd chew you out as soon as look at you! Looking back, and going by what I know now but had no clue about at the time, I think I'd been low on B12 and iron most of my life - and magnesium! - but not eating meat made it ten times worse.
Long story short, I somehow got over that, got a less stressful job, moved to a less stressful environment, continued not eating meat until suddenly I had an overwhelming desire to eat it. So, I did. At a family BBQ I tentatively nibbled on a merguez. It was great! lol But, I'd heard about what happens to some vegetarians when the suddenly start eating meat, and their stomach isn't ready for it - something about lack of digestive enzymes - so I took it slowly. Just occasionally going full-on Henry VIII, tearing a roast chicken apart with my bare hands and throwing the bones over my shoulder for the dog. (Don't know if he really did that but it's an image I have in my head - probably fueled by Hollywood!)
And, all in all, it all went very well. No stomach issues, nothing. And my inner beast is satisfied. I'm not proud of being a meat eater but it does feel necessary at this point. When my ferritin and B12 were tested (all I could get here) they were low, but as they were never tested before I have no comparison. They were probably rock bottom. And even now, whilst eating meat, I still feel better for supplementing iron and B vits. But it's not just about vitamins and minerals, is it? There are other nutrients in meat that you can't get elsewhere. We are omnivores, after all. 
And even now, whilst eating meat, I still feel better for supplementing iron and B vits.
I feel the same as you, greygoose.
I feel better when I eat meat regularly, although I don't eat it every day. What I seem to crave is protein. If I don't eat protein fairly frequently I feel unwell, tired, and weak. Protein for me means meat, occasional fish, occasional seafood, cheese, eggs, milk and cream from cows.
I try not to look at food in terms of minerals and vitamins, although that is often how things end up. I think about macronutrients i.e. what proportion of my food contains fats, protein, and carbs. I try to keep the simple carbs e.g. cake and biscuits, to a minimum, but I do eat complex carbs like vegetables, and occasional pulses. I also try to eat the fats and oils that humans somewhere on the planet would have recognised 200 or 300 years ago i.e. ones that don't require a science degree to make.
One thing I did, that I now think was a huge mistake, was I gave up eating breakfast about 30 years ago, hoping to lose weight. I had also done this for quite a while as a teenager. At the time I was untreated for my thyroid problems, I was almost certainly very low in iron and ferritin, could have been anaemic, and may have been low in B12 and folate and I was permanently extremely depressed and anxious.
As a result of not eating breakfast for so long I now find it very hard to eat when I get up. I think giving up breakfast has added many pounds over the years because I feel the need to eat more later in the day. I have experimented quite recently with forcing myself to eat a high protein breakfast. It made a huge improvement to how much energy I had, and it seemed to do a good job in lifting the morning brain fog. It was hugely more successful than eating breakfast cereal or toast. I also lost about 10 pounds because I wasn't so hungry later in the day. But my body doesn't like eating at that time - I feel sick - and my experiment died quite quickly even though it was an early success. I must go back to my experiment, and try to keep it going.
I've had periods in my life when I didn't want breakfast, and periods when I wake up ravenous. No idea what causes what. But none of it made any difference to my weight, even though I found that not eating breakfast made me pee more! 🤣
I've never noticed an effect from eating breakfast of peeing more. I often feel some of my wobbly bits might be water weight rather than fat weight, but I don't know if that is wishful thinking. And I don't know if there is anything I can do about it that won't have unwelcome side effects. I haven't bothered to research this whole subject though.
I do have a vague memory that I read that dandelion is called "piss-the-bed" in some languages, and that the leaves are diuretic. But all the dandelions in my neck of the woods have probably been watered by dogs so I'm not going to try the fresh variety!
lol In France you can buy packets of dandelion seeds, so you can grow them in your own back garden.
But no, dandelions don't help the level of water-retention we hypos have to deal with. Nor do the diuretics you might possibly get from your doctor. You need industrial strength diuretics on drip feed, and I don't know where you'd get that! And, yes, it would have undesirable side-effects!
I can relate to the unwell, tired and weak bit!
You just triggered a blast from the past with your mentioning of merguez - I loved those and we used to go to Strasbourg and had them with a spicy sauce from one of the street vendors (long time ago, when it was still a bit safer to eat! 😅).
I have also tried to do vegetarian for a while (could never give up dairy or cheese!!), but like you I had strong cravings, especially for red meat, even though my iron was always excellent.
Reading your reply, I could really picture you devouring that chicken and throwing the bones .... thanks for making me smile! 😉👍😀
You're welcome. 
Gosh, thank you Greygoose! This sounds similar to me! I didn’t make a conscious decision not to eat meat but I just didn’t fancy it anymore. The thought came into my head at Christmas when I cooked a ham for the family. It looked delicious so I had a bit and really enjoyed it! Now I’m finding myself salivating when I see a roast chicken 🤣. There’s just something telling me I need more protein. There are only so many lentils and so much tofu one woman can eat. I’ve realised that, with no gluten and now no dairy, I’m just not enjoying food anymore. It’s time I started listening to my body. Thanks for sharing your experience
Tofu should be off the menu, too: unfermented soy is just not good for hypos!
To be honest, I never used to eat it and have only started since giving up dairy. My other options otherwise are just beans and lentils, which have more carbs than they do protein! Even more of an incentive to get that chicken in the oven 😂Do you eat dairy Greygoose?
Yes, I eat dairy - can't live without butter! And milk in hot drinks. Don't often eat cheese or yoghurt, but love cream with all sorts of things! Never had any sort of reaction to it, and cutting it out didn't help anything, so I eat it.
I don't seem to have a problem with being vegetarian (nearly 50 years), and now vegan (4 years). I wonder if that is because when I went veggie in 1977, I got a book called HMG Manual of nutrition, and read about combining different amino acids to make a 'complete' protein?
Last evening for instance I made a curry with chickpeas, green lentils, nutritional yeast and peas. Sadly a lot of people go vegetarian or vegan and just stop eating meat/dairy without understanding how to get the 'right' protein.
I definitely think there’s something in this. I eat a lot of quinoa for this reason, and I remember years ago Ian Marber used to write a lot about this. I must admit though, I don’t know enough about which proteins to combine. I’ll look more into this for the days that I’m not eating meat. Thank you
i was taught about this in cookery o level .... the following may be slightly flawed as my o level was in 1982 and i only got a 'c'
basically
pulses /beans/ legumes plus a wholegrain in same meal= "all 12 essential amino acids" = same as meat
so baked beans on wholemeal toast ...( or lentils / beans / pulses with wholegrain rice etc etc) ....gives you all 12 essential amino acids, making a very cheap form of complete protien~ obviously not as concentrated as a lump of beef would be , so you need larger quantity to get required daily amount of protien.
bakes beans on white bread ... does not .
( thank you Miss Doughty for teaching me that ...sorry i swore at you about the custard and no ~ i still cant spell protien correctly )
😂😂😂😂
my problem is, that if I eat too many grains and pulses together, I find that I have blood sugar dips, so I think even pulses are too high carb for me and need to be used as THE carb in my meals. Same for beans on toast. I do much better following the 25:25:50 ratio for carbs, protein and veg
This is a good place to start. veganfitguide.com/complete-...
Perfect. Thanks for this
Really curious to know what your nutrient levels look like because what you’ve just said is fascinating
I can't answer that one. But I can say that at nearly 75, I am healthier than I have bee previously , even in my youth, and fitter than when I was 40.
Way way back, in the early 80s, when I was at university and had no money (in Canada so no grants like you lucky Brits at the time) I went veggie because it was cheaper. I did it all properly (advantage of studying biology at the time).
And that was the time I was at my most unhealthy!
After I left I came over to the UK to work as a nanny and the family were meat eaters to I started back with meat. No problems, but I didn't over do it at first.
Interestingly, when I was on my period I used to crave liver. Loved a bit of lightly grilled liver. But by the time I was post menopausal I stopped craving liver. Now it is chicken.
It can be hard sometimes to listen to our bodies rather than the adverts and ramblings of people that are out to make money.
Totally agree about listening to our bodies cyberbarn ! It’s so easy to ignore the messages and just carry on. And there are so many ‘experts’ out there who’d make you believe they know best. Your story is very interesting. Thanks x
Graves or Hashimoto’s or something else?? 
Opinions on functional medicine doctors
Could really use some advice, bit if a weird one
Opinions or experiences please?
Hashimoto’s help!
