Underactive thyroid diet

[Piixxiiee]

Underactive thyroid diet suggestions please? What to cut out? I'm going try to cut out sugar but do you think gluten free too? Or certain foods to not eat?

[FatherBrownsBicycle]

My endocrinologist suggested gluten free but didn’t suggest anything else.
There are a few thyroid diet plans online but they all seem very restrictive to me so not something I’ve tried. The BTF also says most sufferers feel better when their iron is in the top of the normal range -although don’t take multivitamins/iron within 2 hrs of thyroxine as it affects absorption, as does coffee none of which I was informed about in the early years!
Many hypothyroidism sufferers also end up with low vitamin D & low B12. I had to beg for tests when I was so exhausted I couldn’t get off the sofa even though my TFT were ‘normal range’. 🙄
I’m interested in what diets other posters suggest.

[Piixxiiee]

Oh thanks, I did have a quick look online but I got bogged down with all the things not to eat so thought I'd ask in real life! So do you eat gluten free?
Didn't know about the coffee 😔 or the iron/multivitamin. So I take levothyroxine then after 1/2 hour breakfast followed soon after by multivitamin and coffee !! Will change this now- thanks!

[FatherBrownsBicycle]

Apologies, I just re read and see I was less than clear.
Thyroxine on an empty stomach half an hr before food or coffee is fine. I just meant no one told me coffee affected absorption, not that it needed 2 hrs, like the iron/multivitamin.

[Piixxiiee]

Ah thanks!

[menofharlech]

I am trying a bit of an elimination diet atm and excluding gluten, dairy, alcohol, caffeine and in theory sugar (although not excluded, have cut this down a lot).

Plan is to try for 3 months then slowly reintroduce.

Am also supplementing vit d, iron, b vits, selenium and magnesium.

[MiniMum97]

Levothyroxine should be taken 4 hrs away from supplements, not 2 hours.

[CrunchyCarrot]

The more foods you stop eating, the more nutrients you will start to become deficient in. I went gluten and dairy free on getting a Hashi's diagnosis, but it only resulted in me developing histamine intolerance and oxalate problems, because I became Vitamin B2, B12 deficient, along with other things. I'm now trying to put that right.

You may need to ditch gluten, it depends whether you are intolerant to it, so you could try an elimination of that from your diet for a short period of time (say a couple of months) then try re-introducing to see if you notice any change in symptoms.

[PurpleFrames]

Is changing diet recommended for all underactuve thyroid havers!? I got put on meds without much info or ever seeing a specialist so am a bit at sea with regards what is the best thing to do..

[HotelliFinlandia]

Do not do the ketogenic diet. It can (and did for me) cause problems with my hashimotos.

Intermittent fasting has been good. I eat between 11-6pm (roughly).

And reduce snacking.;)

[CeibaTree]

Do you know if you have Hashimoto's disease? If so a gluten free diet is a good idea (recommended to me by an endocrinologist) as if you have an autoimmune thyroid response, gluten can trigger that for some reason. By the way I didn't find out I had Hashimotos until a few years after I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid when a GP casually mentioned it when I was seeing them about something else! The basic difference is that Hashimotos is a problem with your immune system attacking your thyroid, and regular Hypothyroidism is a problem with the thyroid itself. Did you have antibodies checked when your thyroid bloods were taken?

[CeibaTree]

@HotelliFinlandia

Do not do the ketogenic diet. It can (and did for me) cause problems with my hashimotos.

Intermittent fasting has been good. I eat between 11-6pm (roughly).

And reduce snacking.;)

I've actually been on and off Keto for a while and generally eat low carb, and it's never caused me an issue. Unless it has and I haven't noticed! What problems did you have? Should I be looking out for something specific? I've been on the same dose of thyroxine for years, and my TSH is always under 2 - did the Keto diet mess up your thyroxine dose or did you get symptoms? Thanks!