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Eat To Beat Hyperthyroidism!
Plus: can you complete this balance challenge circuit?
The 10almonds Team
March 08, 2024
Today’s almonds have been activated by:
A correction: yesterday’s email, in the “This or That” section, we said that n% of you agreed that the extra virgin olive oil was healthier than the cold-pressed coconut oil.
This should have read: “80% of you”
How this happened: your writer here normally manually updates things like that with the up-to-date figure just before the newsletter is sent out, but lost track of the time and forgot to do so. My apologies. I’ve now set a recurring reminder, to do it each day! ~ N.
⏰ IN A RUSH?
Today’s 30-Second Summary
If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:
Hyperthyroidism causes a lot of problems, but dietary interventions can at least reduce its symptoms.
Today’s main feature looks at how cruciferous vegetables and Brazil nuts, amongst other things, can help!
Today's sponsor, Self Preservation Life Jacket, is a free newsletter offering "all things supporting optimization while living sans alcohol".
Read on to learn more about these things, or click here to visit our archive
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
Balance Challenge Circuit: All Levels (10:55)
Notwithstanding the somersaults and things in the intro, the exercises that gymnast Danielle Gray actually recommends here are accessible (and beneficial) to all:
Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later 🔖
❓️ THIS OR THAT?
Vote on Which is Healthier
Yesterday we asked you to choose between Nature Valley Protein Granola and Kellogg’s All-Bran—we picked the All-Bran (click here to read about why), as did 69% of you!
Now for today’s choice:
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Click on whichever you think is better for you!
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❓ MAIN FEATURE
It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!
Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!
In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!
As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!
So, no question/request too big or small 😎
❝Would love to see more on eating vegan. I am allergic to soy in any form which seems to be in everything❞
There is a lot of it about, isn’t there? Happily, these days, a lot of meat and dairy alternatives are also made from other sources, for example pea protein is getting used a lot more nowadays in meat substitutes, and there are many kinds of alternatives to dairy (e.g. nut milks, oat milk, hemp milk, and—which is a branding nightmare but very healthy—pea milk).
You might like these previous main features of ours:
Also, if doing a whole foods plant-based diet, lentils (especially brown lentils) can be used as a great substitute for minced beef/lamb in recipes that call for such.
Boil the lentils (a liter of water to a cup of lentils is great; use a rice cooker if you have one!) along with the seasonings you will use (herbs appropriate to your dish, and then: black pepper is always good; you shouldn’t need to add salt; a teaspoon of low-sodium yeast extract is great though, or to really get the best nutritional benefits, nooch).
When it is done, you shouldn’t have excess water now, so just use as is, or if you want a slightly fatty kick, fry briefly in a little extra virgin olive oil, before using it however you were planning to use it.
Enjoy!
❝What foods should I eat for hyperthyroidism? My doctor tells me what foods to avoid, but not what to eat❞
Great question! We’ll have to do a main feature on hyperthyroidism one of these days, as so far we’ve only done features on hypothyroidism:
As for hyperthyroidism…
Depending on your medications, your doctor might recommend a low iodine diet. If so, then you might want to check out:
…for recommendations.
But in a way, that’s still a manner of “what to avoid” (iodine) and then the foods to eat to avoid that.
You may be wondering: is there any food that actively helps against hyperthyroidism, as opposed to merely does not cause problems?
And the answer is: yes!
Cruciferous vegetables (e.g. cabbage, sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, etc) contain goitrin, which in immoderate quantities can cause problems for people with hypothyroidism because it can reduce thyroid hormone synthesis. If you have hyperthyroidism, however, this can work in your favor.
The above paper focuses on children, but it was the paper we found that explains it most clearly while showing good science. However, the same holds true for adults:
Notwithstanding that the title comes from the angle of examining hypothyroidism, the mechanism of action makes clear its beneficence in the case of hyperthyroidism.
Selenium is also a great nutrient in the case of autoimmune hyperthyroidism, because it is needed to metabolize thyroid hormone (if you don’t metabolize it, it’ll just build up):
The absolute top best dietary source of selenium is Brazil nuts, to the point that people without hyperthyroidism have to take care to not eat more than a few per day (because too much selenium could then cause problems):
(this contains information on the recommended amount, the upper limit amount, how much is in Brazil nuts and other foods, and what happens if you get too much or too little)
Note: after Brazil nuts (which are about 5 times more rich in selenium than the next highest source), the other “good” sources of selenium—mostly various kinds of fish—are also “good” source of iodine, so you might want to skip those.
Want more ideas?
You might like this from LivHealth:
Enjoy!
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📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
Can I Eat That?: A nutritional guide through the dietary maze for type 2 diabetics – by Jenefer Roberts
The answer to the question in the title is: you can eat pretty much anything, if you’re prepared for the consequences!
This book looks to give you the information to make your own decisions in that regard. There’s a large section on the science of glucose metabolism in the context of food (other aspects of glucose metabolism aren’t covered), so you will not simply be told “raw carrots are good; mashed potatoes are bad”, you’ll understand many factors that affect it, e.g:
Macronutrient profiles of food and resultant base glycemic indices
How the glycemic index changes if you cut something, crush it, mash it, juice it, etc
How the glycemic index changes if you chill something, heat it, fry it, boil it, etc
The many “this food works differently in the presence of this other food” factors
How your relative level of insulin resistance affects things itself
…and much more.
The style is simple and explanatory, without deep science, but with good science and comprehensive advice.
There are also the promised recipes; they’re in an appendix at the back and aren’t the main meat of the book, though.
Bottom line: if you’ve ever found it confusing working out what works how in the mysterious world of diabetes nutrition, this book is a top tier demystifier.
What did you think of today's newsletter?We always love to hear from you, whether you leave us a comment or even just a click in the poll if you're speeding by! |
Wishing you the healthiest of days,
The 10almonds Team
