What are the dietary taboos for thyroiditis?

First of all, it must be clear that there are no absolute, one-size-fits-all dietary taboos for thyroiditis. The core adjustment logic should be based on your current stage of thyroid function and the titer of thyroid autoantibodies. Only three categories: high-iodine foods, extremely high-fat and high-sugar, and highly irritating foods are recommended to be avoided at most stages of the disease.

Last week, I met a 32-year-old patient with Hashimoto's thyroiditis in the outpatient clinic. All three thyroid functions were normal, but the anti-peroxidase antibody was 8 times higher than the normal value. After checking her diet, I found out that she heard that she eats seafood to supplement her nutrition, and she makes wakame and egg soup for breakfast every day. She often ate raw pickled seafood such as pickled crabs and drunken shrimps on weekends, and her antibodies more than tripled during the recheck for three consecutive months. Later, she was asked to stop eating high-iodine seafood and only occasionally eat freshwater fish and shallow-sea fish. When she was rechecked three months later, her antibodies had dropped by almost half.

As for the widely circulated statement on the Internet that cruciferous foods should not be eaten, in fact, academic circles have always had different opinions. Many people say that the glucosinolates in these foods will affect the synthesis of thyroid hormones and should not be touched. In fact, as long as you are not in the hypothyroidism stage with abnormal thyroid function, and you do not eat several kilograms of raw food every time, it is perfectly fine to eat it cooked. There was a young man who loved fitness. In order to lose weight, he ate raw broccoli and raw purple cabbage mixed with salad. He was in the stage of subclinical hypothyroidism. After two months of continuous eating, he was rechecked and found that the thyroid stimulating hormone had almost doubled. After he stopped eating raw food, it fell back a lot without taking medicine. To put it bluntly, it is still a matter of quantity and eating method. There is no need to kill all cruciferous vegetables at once.

If you are in the hyperthyroidism stage of thyroiditis, you should never touch high iodine. It is best to replace iodized salt with non-iodized salt, and try to avoid coffee, alcohol, and spicy food. There was a girl who had just graduated. During the hyperthyroidism stage, she was so flustered that her hands were shaking so hard to hold a pen. She stayed up late every day to catch up on projects and drank iced Americano. The symptoms did not subside for half a month. After being advised to give up coffee, the feeling of panic was reduced by more than half in less than a week.

Don’t overdo it. I have seen many patients who dare not touch iodized salt after being diagnosed with thyroiditis. After half a year, the urinary iodine test was extremely low, which made the hypothyroidism more serious. In fact, as long as the antibodies are not particularly high and the patient is not in the hyperthyroid stage, it is perfectly fine to eat iodized salt normally. Eating some seafood occasionally will not have a big impact. You don’t have to be afraid to eat this or that because of thyroiditis, which will affect the quality of life.