Hello.
I have Hasphimoto's thyroiditis, which was diagnosed about 6 years ago, after the birth of DC1.
I have only recently learned that I should not be eating gluten, after seeing a nutritionist, and am annoyed that I wasn't told this when I was first diagnosed. Anyway, I know now, so have been eating gluten free for the last 4 months. I think I have had the odd exposure, but on the whole have managed to avoid it.
The nutritionist has given me details of an auto-immune diet, and I was wondering if anyone else is following one of these and whether you'd be happy to share some food ideas with me.
At the moment I feel like an elderly person. My joints ache. I have no energy. I have had my annual blood tests done and they show my TSH and T3 levels are at a good level, but I still feel like poo!
I don't eat well which I know is the problem but I spend most of my time just completely lethargic and lacking in any interest or motivation esp when it comes to food for me, so we live on cheap ready meals, like risotto. I'm stuck in a rut and need some hell from a real life person who is actually going through, or has gone through this.
My pnutritionist is lovely and I will ask her for help, but thought I'd ask here first.
Many thanks in advance.
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General health
Hashimoto's and Auto-Immune diet
mumat39 · 01/06/2014 08:00
Glanced through the thread so apologies if this has already been said, but before you change your diet ask your doc to test whether you are coeliac - apparently that's another autoimmune thing & it's like ruddy health bingo- if you've got one, you're prone to others! 
I have typ 1 diabetes & an underactive thyoid for example. If you do get a formal coeliac diagnosis I believe you can get some food things (gluten free) on prescription, as gluten free bread etc is horribly expensive. Definitely worth checking! 
Mmmmm, and with that new information, I'd suggest both you and your DD are tested for Coeliac, especially as you mention anaemia too.
A negative test 2 years ago doesn't mean a negative test now. There are lots of false negatives both with the blood test and the gut biopsy. Some people can be quite sick and still not have a high antibody level (so below the threshold for a positive), and the biopsy can sample healthy tissue (patches of gut can be normal or abnormal).
Autoimmune diseases seem to go hand in hand with wheat/gluten consumption, food intolerance and allergy seem to be part of that picture... But coeliac is just the tip of the iceberg IMO, if it's making you and your DD sick then stop eating it even if the tests come back negative .
But if you do decide to change diet, I'd recommend staying clear of processed gf foods as you are unlikely to get the same health benefits if you do as you may well be reacting to other things in the grains, not the gluten iykwim.
Yes, you need to be eating wheat (or actually, any gluten containing grain, so rye, barely also. Antibody levels drop after a few weeks to months (depends on the individual).
I had antibody blood testing done privately, about 6 weeks after stopping eating wheat (I did have some the day before), and did get an antibody response but my reaction to all it the other grains was much higher (was still eating them at the time).
It's not that unusual to cross-react too other grains if you are allergic/intolerant to one.
Honestly, with respect, they more you say, the more I'm thinking "the entire family needs to go on an exclusion diet". 
, there is a lot of health stuff going on, and an exclusion diet might help you get to the bottom of it... Or on the other hand it might rule out food being the problem. Either result is a good result .
and you need to be eating the equivalent of four slices of bread for anything from a few weeks to a few months before testing/biopsies. Hard to go back on it when you know it makes you feel ill though 
With the exclusion/aip you may feel results very fast, I did within a few days, but some things take a month or two (example, for me, headaches and gut pain gone in about 3or4 days but joint pains a bit longer and (what I believe was) gluten ataxia took about 4 months to gradually improve. Remember, you might feel quite ill for a few days at the start of exclusion - and that's normal.
But I cut out absolutely all grains including rice and maize, I will have the occasional bit of white rice now but that's it for grains.
Re cutting out food groups - grains are not really a food group and no one needs to eat them... They are just part of a food group (carbohydrate), and there are plenty of better (more nutritious) carb foods even for people like me who can't have much potato either (nightshades, although baby potatoes are ok for me in moderation).
Sweet potato and various squashes and pumpkins, carrots and swede are the main starchier carbs we have (whole family including toddler eat this way, although the others not as strictly as me).
And ALL veg and fruit are carb... Replace the grains with other carb foods and you should get more, not less, nutrition as grains are pretty poor in vitamins and minerals. True, they have fibre (if whole grain), but it's not a good form of fibre - the fibre in veg and fruit is much better for your gut and your gut bacteria.
So - we are not missing out on anything nutrient wise, quite the opposite, we are just eating different sources of carbohydrate and fibre, and feel very much better for doing that !
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That's really helpful. A lot of that one or other of the DCs struggle to eat/prefer not to eat (soup, salad, cream, stir fries, berries, nuts) but we usually have a good range to choose from for lunches, so I can work around them.
We do eat a lot of potato, rice, pasta, tomatoes and red peppers and I'd like to try to cut down, but hard to do that just now.
I'll look on that website for a few more ideas. Thanks. 
:)
I roasted lots of veg (aubergines, onions, butternut squash, celariac, sweet potatoes, courgettes, green beans, carrots) and mixed some of it with fresh herbs and tuna for dinner. Dds had pasta with it. DD2 not keen on aubergine or onions, but other than that went down well. Have 3 big tubs of veg for future meals too. 
Thanks, you lot.
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