Food Freedom
One of the most surefire dietary ways to create hypothyroidism is eating a diet with low carbs/sugars. (Intermittent fasting can be just as dangerous!)
I first posted this info a few years ago, I already knew MULTIPLE people who’d completely wrecked their thyroid/metabolism by going low-carb for years.
I have since seen so many more people go down this path, especially when they did it in the past and had results.
So many people drop a lot of weight, have hormonal burnout and put the weight back on, then try and go back and do it all again. Each time making the problem worse and worse. They eventually end up not able to digest entire foods groups at all, and even with an extremely limited diet, cannot lose weight.
DID YOU KNOW THAT CARBOHYDRATES PLAY A VARIETY OF ESSENTIAL STRUCTURAL ROLES IN OUR CELLS?
"The health value of these roles is obviously vast: without them, energy metabolism would fail, and with it, the vast array of energy-dependent processes within the body; without them, our ability to read our own genetic information or to pass it on to our offspring would fail; without them, immunity and digestion would suffer. We could expand the list of such negative health consequences endlessly...."
First off, there are so many reasons why people do good short term on a low carb diet!
The average American consumes a diet high in refined carbs and sugars and low in good fats, so naturally when good fat is added and carbs are cut out, you will have more energy, lose weight and feel better!
HOWEVER…
When complex carbs are avoided long term-- that is when problems arise!
THE RESULT IS MANY TIMES SEEN IN CONDITIONS RELATED TO HYPOTHYROIDISM. CARBS PLAY A VERY IMPORTANT ROLE IN REGULATING THYROID FUNCTION, ESPECIALLY AT YOUR LIVER.
When you cut carbs, your blood sugar drops (also harmful for diabetics long term but that’s another subject !!) and as your blood sugar drops your body will OVER produce stress hormones. When adrenaline is is overproduced you might feel great at first!
But your body can only continue to overproduce stress hormones for so long, and that is when the real damage happens.
HERE ARE A FEW SIGNS THAT YOU HAVE THYROID ISSUES:
• Cold hands and feet
• Excess weight creeping up
• Low average body temperature
•Not able to handle stressful situations
•Hair loss on back of legs
•Infertility
•Gut dysbiosis
•Depression or anxiety
•Thinning eyebrows
• Symptoms of osteoarthritis
• Sluggish reflexes
• Acne
• Low libido
When you already have low thyroid (and a huge percentage of the population has some form of hypothyroidism!) and you cut out carbs, it can then interfere with the production of your other hormones and your metabolism.
YOUR LIVER AND THYROID ARE ALSO DIRECTLY CONNECTED, AND ONE OF YOUR LIVER’S MAIN FUNCTIONS IS GLUCOSE STORAGE. WHEN YOU DEPLETE THESE STORAGES BY REMOVING CARBS/SUGARS, YOUR LIVER SUFFERS FROM A LACK OF GLUCOSE, DIMINISHING ITS ABILITY TO REGULATE BLOOD SUGAR.
THEN, as result of poor blood sugar regulation, the body will produce MORE stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones break down muscle to create more glucose for brain function.
Cortisol interferes with the liver’s ability to convert free T4 to free T3, which makes the situation worse! As stress hormones rise, they create reverse T3, drives thyroid hormones even lower.
So now we have a vicious cycle that ends in sluggishness/fatigue, hormonal imbalance, weight gain, disrupted sleep patterns, premature aging and physical degeneration.
The liver is also responsible for detoxing excess estrogen, which is suppressive to the thyroid hormones. To be able to detox this estrogen, your liver needs glycogen. When the normal pathways of metabolizing estrogen are disrupted, it passes through the colon where is is reabsorbed!
(I will be doing a post on estrogen dominance for more info on this subject!)
ANOTHER HUGE DOWNSIDE TO CHRONIC CARB RESTRICTION IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOUR BODY IS TRYING TO COMPENSATE FOR THIS GLUCOSE DEFICIENCY.
"Gluconeogenesis" is what the body does to ensure that we have enough glucose, even in conditions of carbohydrate deprivation.
Here is a quote from the first article I posted, which explains the process:
"Gluconeogenesis is primarily stimulated by the adrenal hormone, cortisol. Cortisol antagonizes thyroid hormone and, when chronically elevated, impairs immunity. As we move away from burning glucose and toward greater reliance on fat, free fatty acids elevate. Cortisol augments this rise even further by causing us to release free fatty acids from adipose tissue. High levels of free fatty acids can impair thyroid hormone’s ability to carry out its physiological functions within our cells even if blood levels of thyroid hormones remain normal."
This information is truly just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the harm keto/ low-carb diets can cause.
The same thing can happen when you do any kind of intermittent fasting. Fasting has gained popularity over the last few years, and for good reason! There are many incredible studies showing the benefits of fasting. I even did it successfully for years!! It wasn’t until my personal thyroid crash after baby#7 that I learned how detrimental it can be to your health if you have thyroid issues.
During the fasting portion of this type of diet, your liver can’t store enough glycogen to keep your blood sugar stable.
So, it creates the same stress response followed by the same thyroid suppressive effects that you get when you eat zero carbs!
Stress hormones rise overnight and are highest in the morning, which leads to low blood sugar. Being hypothyroid makes this problem worse because your liver doesn’t store sugar properly.
A balanced breakfast is extremely important the morning to lower these stress hormones and balance your blood sugar.
How you establish your blood sugar in the morning can set the pace for the entire day, and longer it goes unbalanced in the morning, the more difficult it becomes to lower those stress hormones and get your blood sugar under control.
This is why one of your first and most important rules is eating a balanced breakfast within 30 minutes to an hour of waking!
(We will go into blood sugar in depth in a later post!)
If you’d like to learn more about chronic carb restriction, check out my blog post on health risks of chronic low-carb dieting in this post
If you have a story of how you wrecked your hormones, share it below!
And please remember, this post is about LONG TERM effects. (Similar things can happen if you do Paleo/AIP diets long term as well! Your body stops being able to digest certain food groups completely).
The main thing I hope you learn from this is what it means to have true food freedom! Hang around and we will show you how to STOP extreme dieting and start enjoying your food again!
Disclaimer: Medical Disclaimer. The information posted is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is for general information purposes only.