iThei mdcdaelcinfd o c elllllrllll o tclhdfliThei mdcdae“He who takes medicine and neglects to
diet wastes the skill of his doctors.”
—Chinese proverb18: Diet for Hashimoto’s
What Is the Right Diet for Healing Hashimoto’s?
This question is complicated, and unfortunately, nutrition is the only science
in which multiple answers can be both correct and wrong. In other words,
there is more than one way to skin a cat, and one man’s medicine may be
another man’s poison.
As we know, the three factors for thyroid autoimmunity are 1) genes, 2)
triggers, and 3) intestinal permeability. While we can’t change genes, we
can change their expression by removing triggers and correcting intestinal
permeability. For some, it may be as easy as eliminating excess iodine intake
and cutting out gluten (a major cause of increased intestinal permeability).
Others may require a significant lifestyle change, including diets and in-
terventions aimed at removing parasitic, fungal, bacterial, and viral infec-
tions; avoiding environmental triggers; trading offending foods for heal-
ing foods; balancing blood sugar; and practicing stress reduction.
We are all different, and although we may share the same condition,
unique interventions are required for each of us to heal.
Multiple diets have been reported to reverse Hashimoto’s and other au-
toimmune conditions. Such diets include a gluten-free diet, iodine-free
diet, Feingold diet, Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), GAPS diet, Paleo
diet, autoimmune Paleo diet, soy-free diet, dairy-free diet, low-FOD-
MAPs Diet, the Body Ecology diet, and elemental diet.
The connecting thread behind these diverse diets is they all remove reactive
foods. Most of the diets include animal proteins, are more nutrient-dense
than the Standard American Diet, and remove processed foods. Many of
the diets recommend healing foods like fermented foods and gelatins.
While vegan and vegetarian diets have been reported to be extremely
helpful with autoimmune and chronic conditions, I have not been able
to find reports of people recovering from Hashimoto’s by following a