Our thyroid glands are very nutrient hungry. Alongside making sure you eat balanced meals (you can download the free balanced meal planner for hormonal harmony here) these are my top 4 Micronutrients for optimal thyroid function. There are some tips on how you can maximise these in each meal too and some signs that you may be deficient.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is a bit different to most vitamins, in fact it is more like a hormone. I can pretty much guarantee that you are not getting enough of it from food! It is very important for your thyroid as vitamin D deficiency is strongly associated with higher TSH levels. Not only that, having your Vitamin D levels optimal is going to help prevent the development and progression of thyroid autoimmunity because vitamin D plays such a huge role in our immune system health.
Vitamin D is the ‘vitamin’ we get from the sun. With so many people avoiding the sun combined with inability to synthesise vitamin D from the sun over the over Winter months, having low or borderline levels is much more common then you might realise.
Vitamin D is one of the hardest nutrient to get via the food. Cod liver oil is a good source, but we need to consume a lot even to get to 1000iu. Seafood is going to give you more than most foods and includes other important thyroid nutrients like iodine. Eggs are also a good source.
If you don’t eat seafood or just want to get diversity, the highest plant-based source is mushrooms. It 100% depends on how and where they are grown though as many are grown in the dark so contain very little. So pop your mushrooms on a sunny windowsill and they will create more vitamin D to defend themselves from solar radiation. Scientists have found exposing white button mushrooms to a UV lamp for as little as 1 second skyrockets vitamin D to the point where one serving contains more than 824 per cent of RDI’s. So it is very worthwhile to do this.
Otherwise controlled sun exposure over the Summer months and/or vitamin D supplementation may be indicated. You can ask your doctor for a vitamin D blood test to find out your levels but sometimes you need to self refer for it. I recommend all thyroid patients or clients of mine to get their levels checked and anyone with any immune concerns.
If you would like to check out my other 3 top recommended thyroid nutrients click the links below. I hope you have found this post and series helpful. Remember Nutrition is not a one sized fits all and if you want a personal take on the top nutrients for you check out the offer below.
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