Some raw foods can overstimulate or slow down your thyroid or effect in in a variety of ways, according to the Ezine article by Denice Moffat, "Raw Foods That Hurt Your Thyroid." In nutrition, researchers study the ways in which a goitrogen, a substance in food, prevents the thyroid gland from working correctly by blocking the uptake of iodine. Iodine is essential for the production and activation of thyroid hormone and is one of the main minerals that helps speed up cellular metabolism.
You probably know that a goiter is an enlargement of they thyroid gland, which is located just above the collar bone in your neck. Certain foods can change the way your thyroid works. Make yourself aware of which foods change the way your thyroid works and can affect your health by overstimulating your thyroid or causing it to enlarge, creating more health-related symptoms.
If your thyroid gland is having difficulty making thyroid hormone, it may enlarge as a way of trying to compensate for inadequate hormone production. Your doctor can feel an enlarged thyroid as a soft pad about 2-5 inches in diameter on the neck, usually on one side but occasionally on both sides.
There's a problem with some diet foods. When you eat a large amount of certain raw foods, you may find you're still not losing weight. But the food has to be raw in order to interfere with your thyroid gland function.
You can eat as much of these foods cooked as you want to—except tofu and soy products. If you eat a lot of cooked soy products such as tofu or soy milk, it could or could not affect your thyroid when consumed, depending upon how your body as an individual reacts to soy. Naturally, the soy industries want you to buy their products and have plenty of medical studies to show you how healthy soy can be. On the other hand, the best indicator of how soy will affect you is your own genes and how your body responds to any food.
That's why it's important to note what works well for one person could work differently for another person. It's your individual response to any food that counts. It's important to talk to your doctor or naturopath about how any type of food works with your body. Customize your diet to your own body's responses.
The raw vegetables and fruits that can effect your thyroid include brussels sprouts, cabbage of all kinds, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, peaches, pears, rapini (a vegetable similar to broccoli,) spinach, strawberries, radishes, rutabagas and turnips.
So if you're on a vegetarian diet and are eating a lot of these raw foods, then wondering why your thyroid has sped up or slowed down--is maybe a bit messed up--that might be the reason. Ask your doctor to check you out. Other foods that effect your thyroid, that is have goitrogenic activity, are soybeans (tofu), pine nuts, peanuts, millet, and rapeseed (Canola Oil.)
One of the reasons your thyroid is effected is the goitrogenic foods are high in sulfur. These include the brassiform plants such as kale, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cabbage, kohlrabi, and broccoli.
What happens to effect your thyroid is that the trace metals in the raw vegetables such as sulfur, copper, and iron interact. You need to balance your trace minerals. Otherwise your thyroid might not work right. What happens when you eat too much sulfur in vegetables or fruits is that the sulfur competes with iron and copper. Besides bothering your thyroid, it also could cause anemia.
If you have arthritis and are taking MSM, glucosamine sulfate or chondroitin supplements, be aware they're high in sulfur.
The isoflavones in the soy products is the culprit causing thyroid problems that stem from too many isovlavones. If you're taking genistein for menopause issues, and your thyroid is going haywire, know that a soy isoflavone marketed as a hormone substitute for women and appears to reduce thyroid hormone output by blocking activity of an enzyme called thyroid peroxidase.
But the problem is that this enzyme is responsible for adding iodine onto the thyroid hormones. Thyroid hormones must typically have three or four iodine atoms added on to their structure in order to function properly so this enzyme is pretty important. Most goitrogens are inactivated with heat, but there is some evidence that isoflavones in soy are not heat inactivated.
If you stop eating foods with iodine, then your thyroid increases in size. Then when you take iodine in the diet, your thyroid grows even larger. That's why so many people that eat goitrogens from raw vegetables and fruits or soy products to control their fast thyroid (hyperthyroidism) are working against themselves.
Talk to your doctor. Some naturopaths say, "It is better to increase foods high in copper as well as increase copper’s effectiveness to normalize the thyroid function. After that, the body will tolerate iodine without increasing thyroid hormone production."
Too many people have hypothyroidism compared to hyperthyroidism. You have to make sure you're treated and find out how your diet is affecting your health. For example, too much vitamin B overstimulates your thyroid.
Foods that stimulate the thyroid include the following: caffeine (coffee, tea, cola, and chocolate,) avocado, coconut, and saturated fat. An overabundance of these foods in your diet are not good either. Fix up the cause of your thyroid problems. It could be diet-related. For further information, check out the site of Natural Health Techniques. Read more about thyroid disease information at Natural Health Techniques. Check out more information from the original article on this subject at EzineArticles.com by Denice Moffat.