Episode 14: Food Sensitivities and Hypothyroidism: What You Eat Impacts How You Feel
While learning about the holistic approaches to healing, the biggest factor I discovered to promote healing was FOOD. And it makes so much sense… we’re eating all the time. Multiple times a day… every day of the year. If we’re eating things that aren’t working for our body, then day in and day out we’re constantly causing our bodies to have to react and respond. If we’re eating foods that work for us, then food has the power to nourish and heal.
In this episode, we’re talking all about food sensitivities and hypothyroidism… what some common food sensitivities are, how to figure out what foods may be giving you issues and of course, I have a few simple shifts that you can do to start making an impact in this area today.
Glad you're here,
Sarah
Resources Mentioned In This Episode:
Take the Quizzes: bit.ly/thyroid-tools
Products and Tools to Support Your Thyroid Naturally: bit.ly/thyroid-tools
Paleo On the Go (paleo meal delivery service)
Disclaimer: Information shared on this podcast and any referenced websites are not to be taken as medical advice or to be used as a diagnosis or treatment plan for any medical condition. I’m sharing my educated opinions & experience but nothing shared here can be taken on a one size fits all basis and we always recommend you do your own research, talk to your own doctors and practitioners, and take full responsibility for any health & medical choices you make.
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Want to read this episode instead? Here’s the transcript!
So when I first started working through my Hashimotos Thyroiditis diagnosis, I was basically offered a pill to replace the thyroid hormone that my body wasn't producing. And that was it. That was the extent of my treatment protocol. And while there is, I firmly believe a place for taking thyroid hormone replacement, it's super important. The more I learned and the more I researched, the more I realized that it wasn't enough. It's kind of just like a bandaid approach. Well, I started digging into the holistic approach to healing, and the biggest factor that I discovered to promote healing was food. And it makes so much sense. We're eating all the time, multiple times a day, every day of the year. And if we're eating things that aren't really working well for our body, aren't serving our bodies, then day in, day out, we're constantly causing our bodies to have to react and respond to something, some irritant, some thing that it has to deal with in some sort of food that's not working well for us.
But if we're eating foods that do work for us, then food has the power to nourish and to heal. And so in this episode, we are talking all about food sensitivities and hypothyroidism and what some of the common food sensitivities are, how to figure out what foods might be giving you personally some issues. And of course, I have a few simple shifts that you can do to start making an impact in this area today. So grab a notebook and a pen, and let's get started with today's episode.
Before we jump in this week, I wanted to actually share a review from one of you. So this is from Mel Kenny, and she says this, here's what I like most. “In every episode, Sarah shares at least one simple tool or tip that I can put to use to start getting and feeling better. I value good advice from others who've been there. And this is it.”
Thank you so much for that review. And if you've been listening to a few of these episodes, then I would just love it if you would take a moment and head over to Apple Podcasts and leave me a quick review. It's super helpful to help other women find this podcast in like the vast sea of podcasts that are out there. And, you know, once they do find this podcast, they can start having some actionable small steps to move the needle towards healing their hypothyroid issues holistically. And that's the whole point, right? So it's super simple. Just tap the three dots on this episode page. If you're listening from your phone, that's very easy to find. Tap the three dots, scroll down to the ratings. You're gonna wanna go to the page show, scroll down to the ratings and reviews, and then click the little purple phrase that says, write a review. I really appreciate it, and thank you for helping to light a path for other women looking to chip away at this big behemoth that is hypothyroidism.
Welcome to the Natural Thyroid Fix. I'm Sarah Geisinger, a holistic lifestyle and nutrition coach and former hypothyroid mom who has reversed her thyroid disease using a natural approach to thyroid health. Trust me, I know what it feels like to move through life in a brain fog, needing a nap by mid-afternoon and constantly be cleaning the hair you've lost outta the shower drain. Do you know what I'm talking about? If you're here, I bet you do. So if you're ready to reject the notion that this tired hypothyroid life is as good as it gets, and start implementing simple natural strategies to live a vibrant symptom-free life, then this is the podcast for you. Let's dive into today's show.
Food Sensitivities in Hashimoto’s
So it really does seem like, like a no-brainer when you, when you think about how powerful food can be to impact your healing, it, it can really be food can really be a tool to help you to heal, or a tool to let disease take root in your body. And literally, we get to choose every single time we take a bite. So I would've never said that I had any food issues way back <laugh> in my younger years, in my twenties before I really started having symptoms of hypothyroidism. I would've never described myself as having any issues with food, never had any food allergies, never struggled with, I dunno, dairy or peanuts or anything that I could really pinpoint, at least that is what I thought. And now that I know more about what food sensitivities really look like, I realize that I really probably was dealing with food issues and I just didn't really know that that's how they would look.
I, I didn't realize that although bloating is common after eating, it's not actually normal. I definitely didn't realize that breakouts and skin issues that I was dealing with would be potentially connected to the food I was putting in my body. And I certainly didn't think about the, the lack of energy or the dull aches that I would have could be connected to levels of inflammation that I was introducing simply by the food that I was consuming each day. Literally was not connecting those dots back then. But the though the terminology sort of gets mixed up, sometimes food sensitivities are sort of different from food allergies. And so food allergies are generated by a specific branch of the immune system, the IgE branch, and those reactions usually show up within minutes of ingesting a super reactive food. And those reactions can be, you know, pretty violent, really itchy or itchy rash in the throat or your tongue swelling up or shortness of breath.
Almost always, there's some effort by the body to get rid of it by either vomiting or <laugh> intense bowel movements. There's oftentimes some lightheadedness or your blood pressure will drop if you're dealing with a food allergy. And a lot of times if they're really severe, it can be life-threatening. Shellfish and nuts are some of the most common foods that result in this sort of food allergy. And so food allergies are different than food sensitivities. So food sensitivities on the other hand, are governed by a different branch of the immune system, and it's actually three different branches. And so, interestingly enough, the one branch of the immune system, the IgG branch, is also thought to be responsible for creating thyroid antibodies. And so thus, the connection between hypothyroidism, hashimoto thyroiditis, and food sensitivity, there's the connection. It's like the same branch of the immune system is is causing those things to happen.
So from my experience, I've seen that eating foods that stimulate the release of antibodies promotes the production of thyroid antibodies, and then it just kind of further pushes the attack on the thyroid. And so food sensitivity reactions, they they are usually not immediate. They're not like an allergy, there's not that intense reaction. They're usually not immediate. They usually take a couple hours, maybe even a few days to really come to fruition. But some of the most common symptoms of food sensitivities as compared to food allergies, the common symptoms of food sensitivities are acid reflux, bloating irritable bowel syndrome symptoms, having heart palpitations, joint pain and anxiety, tingling feelings. Like in, you can feel it maybe in your fingers or in specific parts of your body having headaches or skin breakouts. So when I look down that list, even now, I can kind of use that as a little checklist, even though I wasn't making a great connection between foods I was eating and having reactions to them.
Now, knowing what I know now, I can check quite a few things and maybe you're the same, but basically, food sensitivities usually occur when we eat the same foods over and over. And we also have intestinal permeability, which you might know by its more common name, leaky gut. But basically there's a gap, there are gaps in the gut lining, and that is allowing the things that are supposed to stay out of the gut, into the gut, and things that are supposed to stay in the gut out into the bloodstream. So you've got this kind of <laugh> what should be a kind of like a sealed system. It's not, and things are moving in and out and causing problems. So leaky gut can be ongoing. It can be something that kind of pops up because of stress, exposure to toxins, consistently eating, triggering foods or even having some kind of infection, like a intestinal infection.
There's a lot of reasons for leaky gut, and I'll talk about that on some other episodes. Food sensitivities occur when you eat those same foods over and over again that are, you know, your body's maybe has a little bit of issue with, and you also have leaky gut going on. And so when our gut is compromised, maybe if you're in a stressful season, and so leaky gut can kind of flare up, then the body is more likely to recognize specific proteins as foreign invaders and make antibodies to fight against them, which again, appropriate response, yay, immune system, <laugh>, that's what it should be doing. But what that results in is it results in the development of new food sensitivities. And so the good news is that unlike actual food allergies, most of these type of reactions, these food sensitivity reactions can be reversed simply by removing the triggering foods for a couple months, somewhere in the neighborhood of three to six months, and then rotating them into your diet and eating them in moderation.
So it gives your body like the ability to eat it in small doses after having had an opportunity to have a break and calm down and then eating them in moderation. The idea there is just to reduce the inflammation that's in your gut, give your gut the chance to heal by removing those reactive food foods. And then once it's resolved those food sensitivities when you're, you know, introducing it in small amounts, problematic foods for you and small amounts, then your body can get used to it in small amounts and then handle it. And so you can totally, in many cases, work on food sensitivities and sort of healing from those, which is good news. It does take some effort, but it is good news. So I wanna talk about some of the common offenders. <Laugh>, the common problematic foods really for everybody, but specifically for people who deal with Hashimoto's thyroiditis or have been diagnosed with hypothyroidism.
So the most common food sensitivities found in people who have Hashimoto's thyroiditis or are hypothyroid is a intolerance to gluten. This one, I have a whole episode specifically on gluten. So go ahead and scroll back. You'll wanna hear that if you suspect that you have an intolerance to gluten, I have a whole episode just on that. And dairy is another one. It's a top offender. Soy grains, particularly corn can be problematic. Nuts, seeds and nightshades. Nightshades are are a type of plant, a type classification of plant that includes eggplant, potatoes, white potatoes, tomatoes and peppers. And so those, those are things that are common, common offenders for people who are hypothyroid or, you know, no, for sure they have Hashimoto's thyroiditis, these are the com the most common ones. So some people have nightshade sensitivities because they contain something called lectins both, and that has been linked to digestive problems and some intestinal damage in and of itself.
A additionally, a lot of times if you're not being careful to eat organic, they have a high rate of exposure to pesticides. And so that can be an irritant as well. So there's a couple things going on there. When you're eating, if you're, that's not to say you have to look at that list and avoid everything. When you look that list, you can kind of be a little overwhelming going, all right, well what can I eat <laugh>? But it just means to, this is, these are things to pay attention to when you start to feel crappy or you maybe have some of those symptoms I mentioned earlier that are symptoms of ha having a food sensitivity, starting to think back and maybe even keep a food diary that keeps tabs on what foods you ate and is there a connection there. So the, those are some of the most problematic.
Most Common Food Sensitivities for Hypothyroidism
I wanna talk about the biggest offenders just in brief here, including gluten. And this is one that I think inspires the most amount of fear because the thought of having to go gluten free is, it's, it's challenging and it's maybe not your favorite idea. However, in talking to people and looking at the research, there is upwards of about 90% of people who are hypothyroid feel better on a gluten-free diet. And there's a number of reasons for that. So gluten is actually a protein that's found in barley and rye and wheat. And that really, when you think about the western diet is, is a, is a pretty big staple in the western diet, right? It's in breads, cereals, pastas, but it also can be hidden in a lot of other food products. So basically a person could have a couple different types of reactions to gluten.
So if you are someone who has celiac, then you would have the celiac reaction, and this is like the most severe form of a response to gluten. And so those with celiac disease if you don't stay on a strict gluten-free diet, they really face some pretty life affecting symptoms, serious intestinal damage, serious inflammation, and full flare up problems. So someone who's celiac, it's like gluten needs to be gone and not reintroduced for sure. If you have an allergic reaction, this is can be a little bit different. You can have that like immediate reaction having difficulty breathing a rash hives, you know, it's pretty intense and and violent if you are actually allergic to gluten. And then if you have what's called the delayed hypersensitivity reaction, this is what the food sensitivity is. And so these are the reactions like I was describing, where it can take a couple hours, a couple days, and you're noticing symptoms like maybe a rash, maybe a maybe achiness, maybe a headache, things like that.
And those are indicators that you have a sensitivity. So reactions to gluten, a lot of times they are considered kind of typical hypothyroid symptoms. And so some of the reactions to gluten, including bloating, having irritable bowel syndrome, acid reflux, stomach pains, brain fog, fatigue, hair loss can be another reaction to gluten gaining weight, being cold intolerant, anxiety heart palpitations, carpal tunnel allergies, panic attacks, all of those things can be, are considered a re they can be a reaction to gluten, just gluten, right? So you look at that list and then you kind of match it up to what you, the symptoms that you experience as a hypothyroid a person dealing with. And you start to go, huh, I wonder how many of my symptoms could be resolved just by removing gluten. And so I would encourage you to at least explore that as a possibility.
So some research also suggests, suggests that celiac disease itself is, is more common in those with Hashimoto's. And so that's an interesting thing too, but that's not super well researched. There're just some indicators there. I thought that was noteworthy as I was preparing for this. If you have celiac disease you should probably <laugh> get your thyroid checked according to at least this one study. Anyway, the other thing that I wanna talk about is dairy. And so dairy is probably the second leading offender of problems with people among, among people who have hypothyroidism. And the reason is, is that oftentimes people with Hashimoto thyroiditis or who are dealing with hypothyroid symptoms are more likely than others to have sensitivities to the proteins found in dairy, specifically casein and whey. And so lactose intolerance and dairy protein sensitivity are too different things. And they cause similar symptoms like bloating and diarrhea can be among them.
But they're not the same thing. So if you are lactose intolerance that is about your body lacking the enzymes, that prevents the proper breakdown of milk sugar, which is called lactose. And that can be managed just by taking the, taking enzymes like in a, in a pill, like a digestive enzyme. So maybe an over-the-counter brand would be like lactate and that can be managed with that. And so that lactate have, being lactose intolerant means that your body lacks the enzymes to break that down. But having a dairy sensitivity is like having a gluten sensitivity. They are both s kind of governed by the immune system, the one branch of the immune system, and they are considered that like delayed hypersensitivity reaction. And again, that can have sort of different reactions including including the gut reactions like bloating and gut diarrhea and acid reflux, but also lung reactions.
A lot of times people who react to dairy, they develop a cough and kind of feel like they, like, almost like a chest congestion or like a, a mucus and phlegm develops if they are have a dairy sensitivity. They also can have skin reactions like eczema or rashes or acne. And so if any of those things are on your list of things that you're dealing with, then you may wanna look at dairy as being one of the foods that is not serving your body well. And so there are so many reasons as to why a dairy sensitivity is increasingly common. But basically it just, it has to do with the proteins from the, the proteins in cows are different from the proteins that are found in human milk. And so especially if you have leaky gut or intestinal, then your body is more likely to react against these proteins when they're in your body.
And so there's there's some evidence and some people do better on other non cow options like goat's milk or she sheep's milk. But those are actually, the proteins are still very similar to cow's milk. And so there's actually a study that said that camel's milk is the best milk for people who have cow dairy and dairy sensitivities. So if you can find yourself a camel to milk, then there you go, cuz it's a different type of type of protein in it for some dairy is more reactive than gluten. Statistically gluten is the highest, most reactive food, especially for people dealing with hypothyroid symptoms. But dairy is real, real high up there too. So sometimes for some people eating even just tiny amounts of dairy results in symptoms like coughing, bloating or acid reflux, any of the things I mentioned. And so that is something that I would encourage you to just pay attention, make some notes, and look at at, at those things.
The other one I'm gonna, the last one I'm gonna mention here specifically is soy, because it is the third most common food that people with Hashimoto's thyroiditis or hypothyroid symptoms may be sensitive to. And so this is soy basically can be problematic in terms of typical reactions and food sensitivities, but also soy can, can worsen the autoimmune attack on a thyroid. So even if you are not specifically having symptoms of being sensitive to soy, I would encourage you as someone who is dealing with hypothyroid symptoms, that it would be a really good idea to cut soy out of your diet and soy can be sort of sneaky. Well, let me just, another reason why not only is soy cause block some of the enzymes that co that are, that are needed to convert the T4 into T3 and make it active. It can also worsen an autoimmune attack on the thyroid and it can also impair the absorption of thyroid hormone medication.
Soy is really, causes some interference within our hormone cycles. And so avoiding soy, especially for women, I think is really a good idea, especially for women dealing with thyroid symptoms. Soy is, is kind of sneaky and so the reason that soy is sneaky is it's, it can be hard to avoid because it's not just found in foods that like you would expect, like edamame or soy milk or tofu or miso or, you know, even soy sauce or something like that. But it's in a lot of processed foods, it's in, a lot of, it's in a lot of like frozen foods, like frozen prepared foods. It's in a lot of like prepared sauces that you might buy from the store, soys in a lot of things. And so avoiding soy can be really, really tricky and you need to read labels because that is, the labels will kind of tell you what you're dealing with.
But ingredients that you need to look out for is soy lein bean curd, hydrolyzed, soy protein, soybeans, edamame, nato Yuba, tamari olestra or oen carib and hydrolyzed vegetable protein. So there's quite a few things that are <laugh> that soy masquerades as you're gonna wanna make sure that you check labels and avoid soy for the reasons that I just mentioned.
Food Sensitivity Testing
So I, I encourage people to get some food sensitivity testing. I think it's super helpful to just know what you're dealing with. And when we eat foods that our body is sensitive to on a daily basis, it really is hard to unravel the puzzle of what is cau, what foods are causing what symptoms. And so if you can get some food sensitivity testing, it will really help to clear things up and help you to figure out what you need to be avoiding and what foods really work for you.
This is, you know, when we, if we don't get this information, it can be done, you can figure things out. I think it just takes longer food sensitivity testing is like a super power cheat sheet to healing. There's a lot of food sensitivity tests out there and so you wanna make sure that you get one that is, gives you good information is from a reputable source. And so I have one linked below that you can get and take on your own. Or if you're working with a functional practitioner, then you can request a food sensitivity test from them. And so, but you can get one some directly without a doctor's prescription via the link from my med lab, which I have down in my bio or in my, in the show notes. So you can grab that and what that's gonna do is tell you either 184 foods, it kind of tests for 184 foods or test for 96 foods, whatever you choose.
And what that does is that helps you to kind of just like see what sort of immune response you have to these sorts of foods and can kind of make a plan of what foods you want to avoid. I also encourage people to do what's called an elimination diet. And this is a really good place to start when you're trying to figure out your own particular food sensitivities. And so the first step would be to remove the most reactive foods. So I would encourage you to remove gluten, dairy, soy, and any other foods that you suspect you might be having a problem with. And then what you need to do is you need to just a, avoid these foods completely for like two weeks. And during that time, you need to keep track of if your symptoms still remain, do you still feel foggy? Do you still feel achy?
Are you having some digestive issues? And then after you have spent a period of weeks without those foods in your body and in your meals, then you can slowly start introducing them back one at a time and then waiting several days between each one and paying to see if they notice a reaction. And so if you do, then that is an indicator that you will want to keep that food out of your diet for a time to let your body calm down from the reaction. So start with removing gluten, start removing dairy and soy, and then any other foods. And if you wanna go a little bit deeper, then you can go from there. And that's where I think the combination of both an elimination diet and the tests can be really, really powerful. All right, so I wanna give you a couple things that you can do today to start moving the needle in how you feel.
And again, these aren't gonna be all you need to do or have super massive impacts, but the deal with approaching thyroid and really any health issues from a holistic perspective is that they're a culmination of small steps that are combined together to create a massive impact. And so it can be really freeing and really liberating to figure out what foods are problematic for you and eliminate them and all that, but at the same time it can be kind of challenging, right? So I wanna kind of help you to start to figure out what you can start doing to make this a little easier. So the first thing that I would recommend is starting to cook your meals at home more. And so when you're avoiding certain foods, particularly foods like wheat and dairy, they are so, so prevalent in all of the foods that you can pick up at at like the prepared foods at a grocery store or in a restaurant.
Cook Your Meals At Home If You Want to Heal Your Thyroid
And so the best strategy is to try to cook most of your meals at home and to like cook them from scratch, not purchase something pre-packaged and warm it up un until at least until you've sort of gotten a handle on what foods are causing you problems. It's best to cook simple foods at home that you can handle that are with made with ingredients that kind of, you know, are on the safe list for you. And so that is where I recommend avoiding eating out as much as possible, especially while you're trying to figure out, figure out some food potential food sensitivities. I would encourage you to figure out how that can work if you are, you know, if you love to eat out I would maybe encourage you to eat at home first and then be able to just get something that's small.
Like, I don't know, salads are easy. A lot of times if you especially if you just get like olive oil as a dressing and so you can start to figure those things out. Or if you're going to someone's home for dinner, I've had cases where I've been like, Hey, I'm dealing with some dietary issues, rather than like, burden you with that. I'm just gonna bring something for myself and I'm so excited to spend time with you <laugh> and I just pack something and you can enjoy time together, which is really the most important thing. Anyway, the good news is there really are so many great recipes out there and readily available on the internet that can inspire you to make good food at home, that really works for whatever it is that you're trying to avoid. One of my favorite cookbooks when dealing with figuring out what foods work well when you're trying to kind of work through like a autoimmune protocol diet or a anti-inflammatory diet, is a book by Isabella Wentz called the Hashimoto's Food Pharmacology.
It has tons of great recipes. It has good explanations of like different swaps that you can make and just lots of really good, the food is also like simple, so you're not making really complicated dishes, you're keeping it very simple and I think that's a really handy tool. So you can check that one out. I'll have that linked in the show notes. Also, if you just don't have time to cook or it's totally overwhelming, there are a number of resources that you can use with that are kind of like a paleo-friendly food service. I found that if you follow, pretty much follow the paleo diet, and again, you can do a quick Google search to find out what that is, but it kind of gives you a really good starting point because paleo diets are focused so much on like vegetables, meat, things like that.
Paleo Diet for Hypothyroidism
And there they're usually things that can really work well with food sensitivities. So there are a couple meal services, you know, that that where you can get like meal kits and they send 'em to your house. There's one specifically called Paleo On The Go and they offer paleo ketogenic and autoimmune paleo options, which is cool. So you can just get those things meal kits sent to you if it feels really overwhelming to start shifting how you're eating or to even start cooking at all if that's not something that's in your normal right now. But adopting a paleo style diet, if you, if it's best, if it feels best for you to kind of have like a plan to follow, generally speaking, you can follow the principles of a paleo diet. It's not like required to be paleo to work on healing from hypothyroidism.
I just find that that works really well for most people because it eliminates most of those really common food sensitivity issues that we talked about earlier, like gluten and soy and dairy. And that and the emphasis is again on quality proteins and fresh veggies and fruits and those are all going to be very nourishing as your body heals. So there's tons of resources out there on paleo eating. And so those are, you can do a quick Pinterest search and co come up with tons of options of things to make. Okay. And so that is actually my second thing is that I would encourage you to do, make shifts in your diet towards a paleo style diet. And I think that just by doing that you will start to see some improvements in how you feel when you're ready to dive in a little bit deeper.
For sure, you're gonna want to do an elimination diet, get some food sensitivity testing, but for today you can start to make some food choices that line up with the paleo style diet and start to cook more from home. Those are simple things that you can start working on a little bit of at a time even today. Okay? So there we have it. Be sure to head to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review. If you haven't taken any of the quizzes that I offer and I've created, you'll wanna head to bit.ly/thyroid-tools to take the number of different quizzes I have to help you kind of sort through the more subjective symptoms that you might be dealing with and see how you can start doing some small things to feel better even today. So I hope that you can apply some of these things and make those small shifts towards feeling healthy and good because I am confident that when you do it that way, when you focus on doable lifestyle shifts, living a symptom-free life is totally possible. And I want that for you.
Real quick before you go, if this show has helped you in some way, then I know that it'll help others too. So please head over to iTunes, subscribe, and then leave a review so that more women can find health and healing too. And do you know that you can have an incredible impact on the women who deal with thyroid issues in your circle? Yep, that's right. All you have to do is take a screenshot of this podcast, tag me at Natural Thyroid Fix and post it in your stories. Let's light a path for all the other hypothyroid mamas looking for hope and healing and to just feel like themselves again. I'll look forward to connecting with you over on Instagram until next time on the natural Thyroid Fix.