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There\u2019s no shortage of hyped diets.<\/p>\nThere\u2019s no shortage of hyped diets.<\/p>\n
But do they help with hypothyroidism?<\/p>\n
A new study in the journal Food & Function<\/em> put a specific type of diet to the test, with shocking results.<\/p>\n But actually\u2026 if you just tweak it a little, it\u2019s quite good.<\/p>\n Plant-based diets are becoming increasingly popular, and they are usually assumed to be healthy.<\/p>\n But if you\u2019ve recently visited your local bakery, you\u2019ll know there are lots of plant-based foods that are far from healthy.<\/p>\n Accordingly, researchers wanted to understand whether the growing trend of plant-based eating might help protect against thyroid problems or increase risk.<\/p>\n To investigate this, researchers turned to the massive UK Biobank dataset.<\/p>\n They followed a large cohort of 199,382 participants, all free of thyroid disease at the start of the study.<\/p>\n Participants were asked about their dietary habits, with a particular focus on plant-based food intake.<\/p>\n The researchers used three plant-based diet indices (PDI) to assess diet quality:<\/em><\/p>\n •\tHealthy Plant-Based Diet Index (hPDI) \u2014 measures intake of healthy plant foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and legumes.<\/p>\n •\tUnhealthy Plant-Based Diet Index (uPDI) \u2014 measures intake of less healthy plant-based foods, such as refined grains, sweets, and sugary drinks.\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n Participants\u2019 risk for thyroid dysfunction, hypothyroidism, and hyperthyroidism was tracked over a median follow-up of 12 years, and researchers used advanced statistical models to analyze the data.<\/p>\n Over the course of the study, there were:<\/p>\n •\t4,086 cases of hypothyroidism<\/p>\n •\t935 cases of hyperthyroidism\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n The data revealed some notable discoveries:<\/em><\/p>\n •\tA higher hPDI score (more healthy plant foods) was associated with a 16% reduced risk of developing hyperthyroidism.<\/p>\n •\tA higher overall plant-based diet score was associated with a slight increase in hypothyroidism risk, suggesting the average person tends to eat more unhealthy than healthy plant foods.\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n So the key takeaway is to be cautious of hyped diet trends of any type.<\/p>\n Just because it\u2019s plant-based, low-fat, sugar-free, keto \u2014 or whatever trend is blowing up that day \u2014 doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s healthy.<\/p>\n The fact remains: it\u2019s easy to heal hypothyroidism with the right kind of diet and lifestyle changes.<\/p>\n Thousands of readers have done it already.<\/p>\n\n
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