Can Paleo Eating Jack My Thyroid Part 2…

   Practice CrossFit Kids, First Pull-up, first hand rip

“A good memory is one trained to forget the trivial.” 

Everybody knows someone with a “Thyroid issue”. Today, that poor organ is all but blamed for the holocaust, and medications like Synthroid cloud cabinets like Aspirin did thirty years ago. Conveniently, blaming and treating “thyroid issues” isn’t working, it’s producing more of them.

Yesterday we began to answer Carly’s question here. “Could a Paleo diet jack up my thyroid?” The answer was no…with a but.

Paleo is general as are we. But individually we have curves, mutations and evolution priming us to responding one way or another to one thing or another. For instance, some folks can eat carbs and stay lean, others most certainly cannot. A small number of folks can get away with dairy with no real adverse affects, but most cannot. Some can never eat nuts; some will die if they eat fruit. The goal isn’t to blindy follow a religion.  It’s to objectively eat for life.

It’s All In Our Gut:

The Paleo diet’s most important function is improving gut health which is where 85% of our immune system is stored along with the enteric nervous system.  Essentially, it’s like a second brain located in the stomach.

Carly mentioned yesterday that she ate Paleo “for the most part” (remember no exceptions) . In Carly’s case, “mostly Paleo” is like “a little pregnant”. She, and many others, need be “Paleo Warriors” not “Weekend Warriors”. Variety days are toxic to everyone, but to some they are down right deadly.

Graves disease, like Carly was diagnosed with, and Hashimoto’s of the thyroid for that matter are autoimmune disorders as described yesterday. That being said, it is best to treat yourself as if you have any other autoimmune disorder as we all kinda do. Celiacs, Krohn’s and Leaky Gut are attacking our gut lining making everything from being happy to staying alive more difficult. The only way for sufferers like Carly, and other folks with diagnosed (or un-diagnosed) autoimmune disorders, to truly tell if the diagnosis is correct, effective, helpful, or hurtful, is to take all other factors off the table. In Carly’s case, everything not Paleo is off the table forever.

After ridding yourself of every anti-nutrient – lectin, phytate, sapponin and the like – by never ever eating grains, gluten, legumes or nightshades again you can really see if your thyroid is the issue, or if you’re just like millions of other Americans…”gut checked”.

To further improve your version of Paleo, control your blood sugar as much as possible. High blood glucose over a prolonged period of time is the cause of diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and more. The simplest way to avoid frequent testing, and to even out daily energy peaks and valleys and lose fat is…don’t eat carbs.

Most people cannot do “any” real form of carbohydrates. In fact, the majority of us inherited damaged goods making even too many vegetables toxic. And remember, fruit is a carb…the worst carb. Stop it now if you want to live.

We are copies of copies of copies, and generations ago we started getting worse not better. We need all the help we can get and eating less than 50grams of carbs a day may be just the ticket. The ticket to Ketosis.

We have detailed living on fat for fuel while in ketosis here, here, here, here, and here because it’s that good. I will save repeating myself.  Suffice it to say that if your goal is to avoid seizures, cancers, many autoimmune disorders, depression and more dysfunctions, a ketotic paleo diet may be the best way to go.

Vit-D, Fish Oil, Iodine

It’s only after the diet is spot on that any human ever need venture to the supplement aisle. No, Paleolithic man didn’t take fish oil, and, yes, he got his Vit-D from the sun, but we are not making this a religion, remember? Paleo to us means doing and taking anything that makes us healthier. After we are healthier for cleaning up the food offenders, we can look to the counter for a few extra treats.

Fish oil aims to balance our Omega 6-3 ratios shown to prevent all sorts of wild inflammation. Figure up how much you need to achieve this, but the ratio we are looking for is no more than 4:1.

Vit-D is a hormone we have discussed before. I sincerely hope for Carly’s sake her Doctor checked this vital marker. The benefits to Vit-D supplementation are usually well known, but what is not usually addressed is the issue of Vitamin-D deficiency when autoimmune disorders are prevalent.

If Carly and others like her are really just having a gut problem leading to a thyroid issue, most likely her Vitamin-D levels are low even if she is taking it. It’s one thing to take the supplement.  It’s another to absorb it with a gut that’s falling apart. See why we clean up the diet first?

It’s not that I would advocate taking more, it’s that I would have my levels tested and see where they lie before making dietary changes, and then a month or so after changes. I would recommend ensuring the ingestion of plenty of fat as Vit-D is a fat soluble vitamin and requires fat for absorption, and and looking for levels of no less that 30ng/dl.

Iodine supplementation is the last touchy supplement folks with thyroid disorders may turn to.

Not necessarily someone with Graves Disease as Hyperthyroidism may be worsened by more Iodine, but in the case of Hypothyroidism, iodine supplementation seems common.

Iodine is a dangerous supplement to toy with, so I would rarely start this up your our own. Especially when this could be the one issue Paleo eating is exacerbating.

Sometimes our diets Pre-Paleo were so horrible that eating eggs, fish and sea-vegetables by the barrel full now is adding far too much gas to the fire. Maybe for someone with Graves the simple answer is to make sure the food listed above, and other items high in iodine, including table salt, are kept to a minimum.

Conversely, someone with hypothyroidism may do well to eat more whole eggs, kale, and ocean-caught fish. But again, I would step this up slowly, see how you feel and if symptoms regress, awesome.

This one organ is far too much for two posts. The only way we are able to even scratch the surface is because the main question is, “Can Paleo eating Jack my Thyroid?”, and the short answer was no, but the extended text shows there’s more than meets the eye.

The next question which should be asked is, “How important is feeling better, and being healthier to you?” If the actions and steps above seem like too much, then I think your first question was a waste of time. 

Strength:

-Work up to a heavy jerk

or

Deadlift

Max reps @ 85% 1RM

For TIme:

200-Double Unders

Post weight moved and time to comments.