Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine is often quoted as having said, “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.”
This is a powerful statement! But it’s not complete. The truth is that not all foods and herbs are good for all people or all conditions.
I see many people with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease trying every new diet, detox, herbal fad and thyroid foods they come across. Unfortunately, what they don’t realize is that not all foods and herbs, no matter how healthy they are, can provide health benefits for their thyroid and immune system and in some cases can be even dangerous.
Let me give you 4 very common examples.
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4 Most Common Thyroid Foods Mistakes You Want To Avoid
1.You could be using some herbs, teas and thyroid foods that are powerful enough to modulate your immune system… but into the wrong direction and make you feel even worse.
About 90% of people with Hashimoto’s disease are Th1 dominant when about 10% are Th2 dominant. For some of them Th17 part of the immune system also significantly influences the state of their immune system.
This means that using thyroid foods like green tea and curcumin (an active ingredient found in the spice turmeric) that stimulate the Th2 part of the immune system will improve condition of Th1 dominant person and worsen those who have high Th2.
So highly promoted and often recommended herbs such as ashwaganda, panax ginseng, licorice and echinacea are stimulators of Th1 and will worsen symptoms in those who have high Th1 which happens to be the most people with Hashimoto’s.
If you have Hashimoto’s or any other autoimmune disease you need to learn about how thyroid foods and herbs can contribute to the modulation of your immune system before starting to use them for medicinal purposes.
2.You could be eating the right food, for the wrong condition.
Iodine is an important nutrient for your thyroid health and you cannot live and function without it. Lack of iodine can result in hypothyroidism. But does it mean that every person with hypothyroidism should add more iodine into their diet or take iodine supplements? Of course, not.
Adding more iodine to your diet can help only people who have hypothyroidism due to iodine deficiency. You don’t need to load on iodine rich foods if hypothyroidism is due to other causes and your body’s iodine reserves are sufficient.
Too much of a good thing, in this case iodine can have a downside. This is especially true for people with genetic predisposition, undiagnosed and untreated Hashimoto’s thyroiditis because excess of iodine can be harmful.
In fact, people who were diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease have to be very careful with iodine supplements and iodine rich foods especially if they don’t have iodine deficiency.
Iodine supplements are proven to make Hashimoto’s thyroiditis worse, suppress the thyroid activity and contribute to autoimmune flare-ups that can result in further destruction of the thyroid gland. You can learn more about iodine-rich foods and thyroid in my FREE Hypothyroidism Diet Guide.
3.You could be eating the right food, but it’s not prepared properly.
You may have heard about healing properties of a spice turmeric. If not, I wrote an article about health benefits of turmeric for thyroid and you are more than welcome to read it. What many people don’t know is that in order to enjoy all these medicinal benefits you need to use it for cooking correctly or supplement in the right form like high-absorbing turmeric.
Here is what you need to do if you are going to use turmeric for cooking:
- In order to increase turmeric absorption in the digestive tract it has to be used together with black pepper which stimulates the pancreas to produce digestive enzymes.
- You have to use turmeric together with some good fats because its active ingredients called curcuminoids are actually fat soluble. This means that if you are making a turmeric tea with water and not milk or coconut milk, it is going to be eliminated quickly and you are losing out on its healing properties.
- Heating some herbs and spices makes active ingredients like curcuminoids in turmeric more bioavailable. That is why turmeric used in seasoning and dishes that require cooking provide the most health benefits and enhances the healing power of thyroid foods.
4.You don’t take into consideration energetic properties of foods.
In order to use thyroid foods as medicine to improve health we need to understand the energetic properties of food and how to properly prepare and use them.
For example, if someone is feeling hot and dry, ginger, turmeric and cayenne pepper, would make their condition worse. And, if someone is feeling cold and damp with poor immunity and prone to frequent colds and flu, raw salads would exacerbate this condition.
If you want to learn more about how to use foods and herbs for your health I encourage you to watch the replay of the webinar hosted by Holistic Chef and Thyroid Expert Andrea Beaman on Wednesday this week. It will be available for a short period of time and I just posted it below:
To get the entire program How To Use Food As Medicine and delicious recipes for 67% off for the Flack Friday sale of 2020 use the code friday67 when signing up here
How To Use Food As Medicine
What is in the program? You get a deeper understanding and expand your healing knowledge about how to use food and herbs for different health conditions and prepare them properly to get their medicinal properties.
You can start in your kitchen! Master health coach, herbalist and chef, Andrea Beaman, has a great opportunity for those who want to expand their holistic cooking knowledge. She currently offers her Food as Medicine Program to help people start healing themselves using foods and herbs that are already in their kitchen.
The Food As Medicine Program helps people understand the energetics of food and how to use it as medicine, plus culinary and wild herbs and thyroid foods, and how to properly prepare them for the greatest impact on health and vitality.
Participants also learn to prevent the #1 killer of both men and women around the world, how to naturally boost immunity for long-term health, kitchen remedies and shortcuts, how and when to detox the body, and so much more.
Here is what you receive in this online program:
- 4 highly informative cooking classes filled with healing wisdom
- 4 downloadable presentations
- Hours of delicious content and easy recipes
- Priceless knowledge for a lifetime of wellness
You don’t need to be a chef to be able to do this. By learning easy cooking techniques, a little bit of kitchen savvy, and healing food knowledge, you’ll be surprised at how much medicine you have access to right now in your kitchen.
Taking back your health starts by understanding food and getting into the kitchen to do some cooking. Let Andrea show you how.
To find out more about Food As Medicine Program and get 67% off during the Black Friday sale of 2020 with code friday67 when you join click here
My name is Marina Gutner, PhD. I am a researcher, medical writer, Author of forthcoming series on thyroid, hypothyroidism and autoimmune disease. I was diagnosed with autoimmune Hashimoto’s disease and hypothyroidism in 2004 and soon got so sick that I was unable to function. It took me years of research to find how to recover from severe adrenal insufficiency, stop Hashimoto’s and reduce my high dose of thyroid medication. On my blog I show you exactly how I did it so you can learn how to get started. Read more in 
