Transcription
Hello, I'm Dr. Mark Neumann, and I want to welcome you back. We've been talking about the thyroid gland, specifically addressing the nine best diet tips for Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Folks, I'd like to invite you back next week when we continue talking about hypothyroidism.
Let's review the thyroid gland. It is a small gland that sets in the front of your neck. It's responsible for every metabolic process of the human body. When it's not working well, your body doesn't work well. We told you that Hashimoto's thyroiditis is responsible for 90% of hypothyroidism. What does that mean? It means that the thyroid is not doing its job. It's not providing your body with the hormones it needs to function properly. You don't have enough octane in your tank. Commonly, when you have a problem with your thyroid gland, you notice things like weight gain and fatigue.
What's happened here with Hashimoto's thyroiditis? We have an autoimmune process that causes inflammation of the gland and suppresses its action. So, here's the good news: if you have a problem with your thyroid gland, it can be treated in many ways, oftentimes medication, supplements, and diet.
So, let's talk about diet. Number one important thing you need to do is eliminate sugar and processed foods. The reason being, these are empty calories, they cause weight gain. Well, we just got done saying that if you're setting out there, you can tell us and testify to the fact that if your thyroid doesn't work well, weight gain and fatigue are the most common symptoms you experience. So, if you're taking in these empty calories, you're just adding weight on, causing more dysfunction in your body. So, we have to clean the diet up first and foremost. That's your key thing.
Next, we want to minimize the sodium that you're taking in, and that can come from a lot of hidden sources, just like your sugar can. So, be very aware of the sodium. Reason being, it causes fluid retention. We just got done saying weight gain is a major problem with hypothyroidism. Also, when you add fluid and weight, the next problem you run into is an elevated blood pressure. So, now we've got a couple problems: we've got increased blood sugar, we've got increased blood pressure. Not a good situation to begin. So, those are the first two key things we want to take caution and clean out of our diet.
Next, let's talking about the foods that we eat. How clean should those foods be? For the vast majority of Americans, if we will eat organic fruits and vegetables and healthy fats, that's also going to make a huge difference in how our body functions. When you eat healthy fruits, vegetables, and fats, that's where you're going to get your fiber, your vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
Getting enough protein. For most Americans, if you will increase the protein intake of your diet, it will actually increase your metabolism. So, if you're struggling with hypothyroidism, there's the first thing that you could do that we'll talk about today: increase that protein. If you're not getting enough, then the option we always tell our patients is get a protein drink. Find something that suits your needs, that you tolerate well, and supplement with that. And you can take that throughout the day, every few hours, a small amount of protein that way. See if that doesn't help you out.
Next, you don't necessarily need to count the calories you're taking in. Here's one thing about the body: it has its own innate intelligence. When you treat the body properly through diet, exercise, and stress reduction, it will respond in kind. In other words, when you take in the right nutrients, your body will start responding. You won't necessarily lose weight, it will release weight. When you take in the right nutrients, remember we've already told you protein, eating organically clean food, decreasing your sugar, your processed foods. When you do that and you start taking in healthy, nutritious food, your body will respond properly. You'll start feeling better, you'll notice that it will let that excess weight go, your energy will improve.
What are some of the important points there? Some of the specific nutrients you want to make sure you're getting is enough iodine. Now, you can certainly supplement with iodine, but if you're looking for foods, then making sure you get some good healthy table salt or salt that has iodine in it. Number two, you could try some seaweed, seafood. Those are going to also help increase your iodine intake.
Next, selenium. Now, if you're a person that has a lot of problems with your thyroid and you've had thorough testing done, you might have elevated antibodies. Oftentimes, selenium supplementation will help decrease those antibodies. And remember, in the past, we've talked about the thyroid, its function, some of the teaming properties. Selenium, the highest concentration of selenium in the body is in the thyroid gland.
Zinc. Zinc is another mineral that will really help improve thyroid function. Again, you can get it through food or through supplements. So, those are three major minerals that you want to make sure that you're getting into your diet if you're suffering from Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and it's almost certain that you'll see an improvement in your health over time.
Now, if you're still struggling, here's some other things we want to talk about. The vast majority of Americans will do best if you minimize or even eliminate from your diet grains and dairy. Reason is, they generally tend to be inflammatory. And we've told you, Hashimoto's thyroiditis is an autoimmune process that causes inflammation of that gland and causes decreased function. That's what's causing your hypothyroidism. So, if you can minimize the foods you take in that are causing inflammation, it stands to reason that it's going to improve your health, your overall health.
Now, if you've done all these things and you're still struggling, some of you might have to try some extreme diet options that might be vegetarian or vegan. Now, I, I'm not gonna tell you that that's the ideal diet for everyone, but if you've done everything you can in the way of changing your diet, your stress, your exercise, even if you've got medication on board and you're still struggling to improve your health because of the Hashimoto's, then these might be options. But again, the biggest key there is going to be minimizing or decreasing the gluten, dairy, obviously the meats that are there. So, again, maybe not the right thing for everybody, but if you have vigilantly done all the other things we've talked about and you've not achieved the health you need, then there's an option for you.
Now, another thing that we need to address is goitrogens. These are actually pollutants that inhibit the function of the thyroid gland. And where might you find those? Usually with cruciferous vegetables, so broccoli, cauliflower, things that are in that family. If you, if you've done everything else and you're still having problems, look toward those foods and see if those might be areas that you can eliminate and if that helps you out.
Now, if you've done all these things, then I'll tell you why, stick with us because in the future, we're gonna continue to talk about other options as far as treatment mechanisms to help improve the function of your thyroid gland. Take a look at the blog post on our website where we go into much more detail about hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Also, remember to like us on Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and leave us any questions or comments that you have about your own personal struggles with hypothyroidism. This is Dr. Newman. Thanks again for watching.