Thyroid Superfoods

It’s believed that up to 10% of our population is affected by Hypothyroidism (a condition in which your thyroid isn’t producing enough thyroid hormone). This can result in weight gain, fatigue, dry skin, and depression.

The root cause of hypothyroidism is unknown, but there are unquestionably certain factors that play a role we can directly impact like poor diet, stress, and environmental toxins.

So the obvious would be to eat whole organic food whenever possible and reduce the processed soy, refined grains, and sugar you take in. This helps to reduce inflammation, which is believed to play a role in poor thyroid function.

That said, there are key minerals that facilitate the production of our thyroid hormones and making sure we have enough of these nutrients can make a significant impact. The three big players are iodine, selenium, and zinc.

Iodine plays a role in biosynthesis of thyroid hormones by the thyroid gland. Iodine is often added to table salt, but not always and with many of us using a variety of sea salts for their added minerals it’s probable you may be deficient. The best place to get iodine is from sea vegetables. Kelp, Nori, Wakame, and Kombu are going to be ideal. Now, if you are thinking what the hell is this and how do you expect me to find it… if you eat sushi you are likely getting some in your rolls with the sea weed wrap, but I recommend getting seaweed snacks and eating those instead of chips. Have them a couple times a week as a healthy snack. And, you can also find iodine in oysters! Which leads me to the next one up on the list… Zinc!

Zinc is required for your hypothalamus to produce Thyroid Releasing Hormone. It’s also required in the conversion of T4 (inactive thyroid hormone) to T3 (active thyroid hormone). Zinc also helps to facilitate the binding of T3 thyroid hormone to our DNA receptors. If we don’t have enough zinc it may impair this binding which may lead to a resistance to thyroid hormone at the cellular level. So… we want to make sure we aren’t zinc deficient and as I alluded above, oysters are a great source of zinc.  As are organic grass-fed beef, shrimp, nuts and seeds (pumpkin, pine, almonds, peanuts), eggs, whole grains, and organic dairy.

Next up is Selenium. This mineral is also required to synthesize thyroid hormone. It can also help to reduce TPO antibodies which can help those that suffer with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Excellent sources of selenium would be pecans, Brazil nuts, eggs, cod, shrimp, and organic grass-fed beef.

Now, while you might think to yourself that you will just supplement to fill the nutrition gaps in your diet – let me clear – I always stress that I like supplementation as a “SUPPLEMENT” to an excellent diet. Supplementation should never be done by a person who isn’t a medical professional to treat a health condition. Supplementing iodine and or selenium solo can be dangerous if you get too much. I strongly recommend you get these nutrients from a balanced diet as referenced above and speak with a board certified endocrinologist as to whether or not supplantation of these nutrients is required beyond that.