The Best Thyroid Diet

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That’s the purpose of this post.

Instead of: Which supplements aid the thyroid in its production of the hormones T4 and T3, help to convert T4 to the more active T3, and work to protect the thyroid? We look at: What does it take to repair liver damage and liver function?

Results for both hypo and hyper thyroid

For years, I took thyroid supporting supplements, but after putting Hashimoto’s into remission, I re-wrote this article from a different perspective (than which thyroid supplements to use) — from what I learned that actually works to heal the thyroid.

It’s average to parrot what functional medical doctors say is advisable, but unless you’ve healed and seen others heal around you — fully getting off thyroid meds and regaining all functions that were compromised — the advice is doubtful.

If you have hypothyroid — or an under-active thyroid — this post if for you. But: Hyperthyroid is also healed through liver healing.

I loved getting rid of most of my supplements — and getting well!

Reduce vitamin A intake

We’ll take a moment to address why a low vitamin A diet is key to improving liver and thyroid health. If we miss these studies, we’re overlooking a most important piece. Unfortunately, those of us who followed nutrition gurus like Ray Peat, Sally Fallon Morrell or Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride (listen up here) … got hypothyroid and sometimes Hashimoto’s (in my case) from following the High Vitamin A Diet that they prescribe and recommend.

I’ll never forget the doctor’s visit I had when I was told I had Hashimoto’s. I had been doing Dr. Natasha’s diet for YEARS faithfully, but I was now SO tired, and with many other low metabolic symptoms. When I was told I had this new autoimmune disease, I collapsed in surprise, tears and true discouragement. It would be years before I realized that the high vitamin A diet that was supposed to heal me gave me my newest ailments.

So please don’t overlook this section.

Many, many studies going way back (1937, perhaps some earlier) all the way up to present day link high vitamin A intake with low thyroid. These studies also link liver health with healing the thyroid. Here are just a few of those studies showing the correlations. You can find many more here.

Studies on vitamin A, liver and thyroid

1. In this study, supporting liver health heals the thyroid. With proper zinc supplementation we see a better thyroid conversion — a process that takes place in the liver. Zinc produces more Free T3 and a better FT3/FT4 ratio. Zinc is required by the body to protect it from vitamin A. (It plays a key role in producing protective retinol-binding protein [RBP]).
2. This study shows us that the amount of vitamin A measured in the blood does not indicate one’s toxicity. Rather, low blood vitamin A indicates that it’s stuck in the liver. It’s too much vitamin A intake that causes sickness. Whether through diet or supplementation, thyroid problems result from vitamin A intake.
3. This study shows retinol (preformed vitamin A) inhibited TSH.
4. Here, we see Vitamin A decreases tissue responsiveness to thyroid hormones: You have thyroid hormones, but they’re ineffective due to the addition of vitamin A.
5. For our purposes here, the final study I’ll share today: After being given vitamin A, rats showed a decreased metabolic rate. This paper is titled, “Vitamin A decreased total T4 and T3 levels”.

It’s that decreased metabolic rate that makes us cold, tired, moody, depressed, feel like we need caffeine etc. Don’t add extra vitamin A to your body.

Reduce copper intake

Copper is found in thyroid tumor tissues. It’s always present and even required for C-cell proliferation.

Taking zinc helps to balance copper. Eating fewer high copper foods is needed for copper detox to happen.

I’m not going to include a ton of copper studies, but there are several. I’ll just share this one, which shows copper levels are used by doctors to gauge a patient’s resistance to thyroid hormone. Higher copper levels (and lower selenium levels) indicate a less responsive thyroid.

So the level of thyroid hormone doesn’t necessarily need to change, but the body’s more responsive to that hormone, simply by decreasing copper and increasing selenium (if needed, based on mineral testing).

Easy takeaway: Reduce copper for improved thyroid function and to help prevent tumor growth.

(I discuss selenium supplementation more in my piece on thyroid supplements.)

A doctor’s testing and guidance

The best diet to revive the thyroid is low in vitamin A and low in copper. 

Within the program my doctor calls Love Your Liver, he shares other nuances and about other compounds that slow down the detox processes of the liver, compounds like aldehydes, that are found in many of the foods we may eat.

To pursue an overall healing of the liver course of action, take one or more of a few steps:

1. Read the following articles, and follow the diet accordingly. I did this DIY version for my own recovery.
   • How to do a low vitamin A diet, and what it is.
   • Avoid high copper foods (listed here, with a free printable PDF).
2. Set up a consult with me for additional support in how to do the diet the most effectively for your body.
3. Want more help? Ask my doctor (Dr. Garrett Smith ND), meet with one of his two facilitators and/or join his support network to start the diet with a whole forum of helpful “friends”. Have lab work done. In the process, learn which specific minerals your body’s missing, that will allow your liver and then thyroid to function more effectively.
4. Do EMFs need to be remediated?

Praises for liver healing

What’s amazing about this approach to thyroid healing is that the liver gets addressed, and the thyroid is one of the first organs to heal — even before the liver is finished with its own detoxing. I’ve seen it happen for many people in the Love Your Liver network, whoever takes the diet and correct supplementation seriously.

This article no longer takes the band-aid approach of helping with symptoms. Instead address liver health, educate yourself to the extent that you have the time and energy through Dr. Smith’s network and YouTube channel, and watch the healing happen.

Low stress

Please always keep in mind, too, when assisting your body in thyroid support, to keep stress low. When we’re stressed, our bodies produce cortisol.

Cortisol speeds up certain body processes while slowing down the metabolism, which helps the body deal with stress.

It also suppresses the pituitary gland, which plays a key role in producing thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). TSH signals the thyroid to release the hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3).

When TSH levels fall, the thyroid becomes underactive, leading to hypothyroidism. This condition occurs when T4 and T3 levels drop significantly. On top of that, the body struggles to convert T4 into active T3, causing reverse T3 to build up in the bloodstream.

Other Sources: 1, 2

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