10 Foods that Affect Thyroid Health for Better or Worse

Food heals. And when it comes to foods for your thyroid, it’s all the more true. Diet often plays a key role in whether your thyroid is functioning properly, so it makes sense to start there when you’re aiming to restore the health of your thyroid. Food can be your friend or your enemy when you’re dealing with thyroid trouble, depending on which foods you’re focusing on.

Foods That Nourish the Thyroid

Coconut oil. For many people, the simple act of eating more coconut oil is enough to raise their body temperature and supply them with natural energy, which indicates the powerful role coconut oil plays in thyroid health. Buy high quality coconut oil online here.

Cod liver oil. The bioavailable vitamin A in cod liver oil (mainly the quality kind found here) is especially supportive of healthy thyroid function, because the thyroid depends on plenty of natural vitamin A.

Butter. With its plentiful supply of vitamin A and iodine, butter remains a thyroid food that nourishes the whole body.

Eggs. Similar to butter, eggs are a rich source of vitamin A and iodine. Plus, they are en excellent source of protein. Getting plenty of natural amino acids through protein is good for your thyroid.

Seafood. The richest source of natural iodine, seafood played an important role in traditional Asian cultures. These people ate soy (highly fermented, of course) on a daily basis, but also ate plenty of iodine-rich seafood to counteract soy’s anti-nutrients. Sea vegetables like kelp and dulce are especially nutritious, and so is genuine fish broth.

Foods That Damage the Thyroid

Wheat and other grains like rye, barley, millet and oats. There has been some evidence of the link between gluten-sensitivity and poor thyroid function. If your thyroid isn’t in great shape, you’ll probably be better off restricting your intake of gluten. Millet contains goitrogens, and should be avoided if you’re concerned about your thyroid.

Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, turnips, brussels sprouts and kale. These veggies are known for their thyroid-suppressing properties because they contain goitrogens. Thorough cooking deactivates these to some extent. You don’t have to eliminate these vegetables from your diet, but it would be wise to reduce your intake if you’re concerned about thyroid health.

Soy in its many forms. Soy is a powerful food. Even a small serving of soy each day is enough to suppress thyroid function. So give your thyroid a break and ditch the soy. 

Soy. Yes, I am including this one twice because it’s one of the worst foods for your thyroid. Don’t underestimate how damaging this food is to your metabolism.

Coffee. Caffeine overstimulates the thyroid and interferes with the absorption of nutrients that could benefit thyroid health. It's best to limit your consumption of caffeine-laden beverages like coffee. ***(UPDATE Dec. 2012: My original ideas about coffee and thyroid may be incorrect. As it turns out, coffee may be beneficial to thyroid health in addition to providing other important benefits. Read my latest post on coffee here.)

Remember that regardless of what you are or aren’t eating, not eating enough is a surefire way to interfere with natural thyroid function. Dieting and under-eating are top contributors to thyroid imbalances, so make sure you are eating plenty of real food for your activity level and lifestyle.

Need high quality resources for nourishing foods? Check out my Resources page!

Some of the information above came from two of my favorite books: Eat Fat, Lose Fat and The Mood Cure. To read my reviews of these books, check here and here.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.

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Frightening Food: Scary Soy Stories

I've talked about why we shouldn't be eating soy, but today I wanted to share some stories I've run across that really made it hit home for me. It's one thing to read about the science behind why we know soy is bad, but it's another to read how people have personally experienced it.

Complaints About Soy - This is the mother of all soy story collections. It may take a while to sift through all these, but if you need some convincing about the effects of soy, this is where you need to go.

Soy Stories - Taken straight from the Eat Fat, Lose Fat website, this collection of soy stories addresses nearly every problem soy can cause. I happen to love this one because Eat Fat, Lose Fat is one of my favorite books. (You can read my review of Eat Fat, Lose Fat here.)

One Woman's Story - I found this on the WAPF site. It's a detailed and moving account about how eating a diet full of soy can cause numerous health problems, including cancer.

Help! They're Trying to Poison my Baby! - This story at the Liberation Wellness blog is told by a grandmother about her family's fight to feed her infant granddaughter the right food after agonizing over the obvious side effects of soy formula.

Soy and the Thyroid - A collection of casual short stories about personal experiences with soy. These are submitted by anyone who has something the share about soy - pros and cons - but after reading through many of them, most experiences are about the "cons." No surprise there.

If you have a soy story to share, I would love to hear it and I'm sure many of my readers would, too. These personal experience stories are one of the best ways to spread the word about soy and help people learn why they shouldn't be eating it.

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Why Not Soy?

In spite of glaring reports from alternative circles, soy is still considered a miracle food by many people. Even the medical community - who should be aware of the real affects of soy - still recommend this food as a great vegetarian source of protein and nutrients. This, however, is not true.

I like to call soy an “anti-food.” That may sound harsh to some of you, but what soy does to us is so dangerous, so profound it deserves to be labeled harshly. Here’s just some of the things in soy that, in my opinion (and many other’s), make it an anti-food:

Phytoestrogens: These are essentially plant hormones. I know a lot of people who buy organic milk to avoid hormones, but don’t realize that soy products are actually even more dangerous. Phytoestrogens interfere with normal hormone regulation. This can really throw our systems out of whack, causing problems like PMS (premenstrual syndrome), cystic fibrosis and even breast cancer in women. In men, these phytoestrogens can cause high estrogen and a decline in testosterone production. This leads to fat weight gain, decreased libido and all sorts of other problems (I know you guys out there don't like the sound of that). We should also be concerned about the negative impact these plant hormones have on fertility.

Trypsin Inhibitors: Trypsin is important for protein assimilation, so these inhibitors interfere with protein absorption - ironic, considering soy is considered by many to be a valuable protein source. These trypsin inhibitors have led to stunted growth and pancreatic disorders (including cancer) in test animals.

Phytic Acid: Soy contains very high levels of phytic acid, which interferes with the use of valuable minerals like calcium, copper, iron, magnesium and zinc. The phytic acid in soy is also extremely resistant to soaking, sprouting and fermentation (which works to neutralize phytic acid in other foods like grains; Cheeseslave made a great post about soaking grains this week).

Soy can also cause problems with the absorption of other nutrients, like vitamin B12 and vitamin D - yet another reason why high soy consumption is causing rampant nutrient deficiencies in vegetarians and vegans. Soy can also damage the thyroid, which may explain why thyroid dysfunction is so common nowadays.

Furthermore, during processing soy takes on an even uglier face and forms neurotoxins like MSG. Processed soy also contains high levels of aluminum, a highly toxic metal linked to many health problems (like Alzheimer’s).

Experts like Sally Fallon Morrell, head of the Weston A. Price Foundation, are highly concerned with the amount of soy in our children’s diets today, often beginning with soy formula at birth. I was shocked to read this statement on the Weston A Price Foundation website:

"Babies on soy formula receive the estrogenic equivalent of at least 5 birth control pills per day."

Soy is just not meant to be eaten - at least, not the way we eat it today. Remember, traditional cultures ate only small amounts of highly fermented soy (i.e. fermented for six months). Fermented soy was often eaten with foods like fish broth, which would counteract some of the adverse effects like thyroid damage.

So, this is why I say no to soy. What has been your experience with this food?

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