Eat goitrogens in moderation.….and that includes soy and soya!

Did you know that there are cer­tain foods which can affect your thy­roid in a nega­tive way??

They are com­monly known as Goi­tro­ge­nic foods, which means they con­tain subs­tan­ces which pre­vent your thy­roid from get­ting its neces­sary amount of iodine.  If eaten in excess, they inter­fere with the healthy func­tion of your thy­roid gland, til­ting you in the direc­tion of being even more hypothy­roid, or making you sus­cep­ti­ble to having a goi­ter, or enlar­ge­ment of your thy­roid. If you look clo­sely at the word itself, you can see the root word is goi­ter (goitro-gen).

Foods which you have to be care­ful with most revolve around soy-related pro­ducts and ingre­dients, as well as cer­tain cru­ci­fe­rous veg­gies, nuts and some fruits

Now luc­kily for the owner of this site, cho­co­late is NOT con­si­de­red a Goi­tro­ge­nic food.   But here are foods that ARE:

bok choy
broc­coli
brus­sels sprouts
cab­bage
cau­li­flo­wer
gar­den kress
kale
kohl­rabi
mus­tard
mus­tard greens
radishes
ruta­ba­gas
soy
soy milk
soy­bean oil
soy lecithin
soy anything
tem­peh
tofu
turnips

Also inc­lu­ded in the goi­tro­gen cate­gory, even if mildly, are:

bam­boo shoots
millet
peaches
pea­nuts
pears
pine nuts
radishes
spi­nach
straw­be­rries
sweet potatoes

But, don’t panic, and there are two rea­sons why! Coo­king does appear to help mini­mize or inac­ti­vate the goi­tro­ge­nic com­pounds found in these foods, since they are heat sen­si­tive.  Also, just because you eat these foods uncoo­ked does NOT mean you will have problems…if you remem­ber the word “mode­ra­tion”. The owner of this site eats a few straw­be­rries in her Greek plain yogurt seve­ral mor­nings a week. She also enjoys spi­nach a few times a month (because she can’t stand most other vege­ta­bles) as well as pea­nuts. And with soy being added to many pro­ducts, it’s hard to avoid. The key is to not eat any goi­tro­gens exces­si­vely, pay atten­tion to those labs for hid­den soy, and use mode­ra­tion.

(And now you know why those of us “in the know” cringe when we see the heavy empha­sis on soy pro­ducts in the super­mar­ket, inc­lu­ding infant soy formulas! )

Even res­ve­ra­trol, found in grape skins and wine, plus pea­nuts, can be a pro­blem to your thy­roid if you con­sume too much.

There are also cer­tain che­mi­cals which can have a goi­tro­ge­nic effect on your thy­roid func­tion. They include:

Amio­da­rone
car­ba­ma­ze­pine
iopa­noic acid
Lithium
phe­no­bar­bi­tone
pheny­toin
potas­sium perch­lo­rate
propylthiou­ra­cil
rifam­pin
sul­fa­di­metho­xine
SSRI’s like Celexa and others

Iodine and goi­tro­gens: Dr. Browns­tein sta­tes that taking more iodine will coun­te­ract eating some goi­tro­ge­nic foods. And fluo­ride, chlo­rine and bro­mi­des are goi­tro­gens too.  www.iodine4health.com www.optimox.com)

To read more about the dan­gers of soy and it’s his­tory, go here:

You can also read some per­so­nal expe­rien­ces with the nega­tive effect of exces­sive soy here: http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/complaints.html

Want to order your own lab­work?? STTM has crea­ted the right ones just for you to dis­cuss with your doc­tor via Healthchec­kUSA and MyMed­Lab. Go here.