Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 096 // Should I go gluten-free if I have Hashimoto's?

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096 // Should I go gluten-free if I have Hashimoto's? · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

• 0:00
  Welcome to a long-anticipated episode of Health with Hashimoto's.
• 0:04
  Today we're going to talk about gluten.
• 0:05
  It is a top question that I get and perhaps you have googled it or you have
• 0:10
  read information about gluten and Hashimoto's or gluten and thyroid and you
• 0:14
  are curious, do I need to give up gluten if I have thyroid problems?
• 0:19
  We are going to get into that and honestly, I want to tell you the reason I
• 0:23
  have not tackled it yet is because on this podcast, I always want to give you
• 0:28
  simple and sustainable solutions.
• 0:31
  I want to help you identify your root causes and then take action on them.
• 0:35
  But going gluten-free, there is not a simple and sustainable solution.
• 0:41
  Sustainable, yes, but it's not simple to go gluten-free. And that's why I've
• 0:45
  shied away from this episode for so long.
• 0:48
  We are on, I think, episode 96 today. So it's been a hundred episodes,
• 0:53
  including the bonuses, and I've not talked about gluten yet,
• 0:56
  but today we're going to talk about it.
• 0:59
  I would be curious, have you gone gluten-free? Have you tried it?
• 1:03
  And if you did try it, how long did you try it? What did you do?
• 1:07
  Hop over to the Health with Hashimoto's community on the app and let's talk about it.
• 1:14
  Let's have a robust discussion because Because when you start talking about
• 1:19
  food, and when you start interfering,
• 1:22
  I'll just say interfering with how people eat and what they eat and what they
• 1:26
  think they quote, should eat or should not eat, you get some,
• 1:32
  you get a lot of feelings, you can get a lot of big emotions.
• 1:36
  Because food is such a part of our lives.
• 1:38
  And that's good, like we need to eat to live.
• 1:41
  So hop over to the Health with Hashimoto's community. And let's talk about it.
• 1:44
  If you have an iPhone, phone, the Health with Hashimoto's app is in the App
• 1:48
  Store. If you have an Android, just click the link below.
• 1:51
  And I have a couple links for you to follow because it is not in the Google Play Store yet.
• 1:56
  I actually have taken a pause on trying to get it into the Google Play Store
• 2:00
  because I have met with some obstacles that I'm not quite sure how to get over them.
• 2:06
  So I will continue to drop the link below in the show notes so that you can still load the app.
• 2:11
  And also there is a desktop top version if you want to do it on your computer or on your tablet.
• 2:17
  You can still join the 100% free community.
• 2:21
  Also within the app is the free Hashimoto's Decoded course.
• 2:26
  In that course, I will explain in detail what is Hashimoto's and perhaps you already know that.
• 2:32
  Perhaps you go to your doctor and you already walking into the office,
• 2:36
  you know more than your doctor because you've had Hashimoto's for so long and
• 2:39
  you've dug into this and you have done your research and you have read so many
• 2:44
  books, listened to so many podcasts, watched so many YouTube videos.
• 2:47
  You have done so much learning and you're already a step ahead of most doctors.
• 2:56
  So maybe you don't need that part of the course, the Hashimoto's Decoded course.
• 2:59
  You're like, yes, Esther, I already know what Hashimoto's is.
• 3:02
  But perhaps you don't know all of the root causes, or maybe you don't know your
• 3:07
  root causes, or maybe you know some of them, but you don't know all of them.
• 3:11
  So still go through that course.
• 3:14
  You can skip ahead to different parts if you want to skip the first.
• 3:17
  I broke it into small, easy to digest videos.
• 3:21
  So in the course, you're going to figure out what the root causes of Hashimoto's
• 3:26
  are and then apply them to your life and say, which ones, which ones apply to
• 3:30
  me, which root causes do I think I have?
• 3:32
  And then you get to take the next step, which is how to address them.
• 3:36
  And that is where the holistic Hashimoto's course comes in, because I know that
• 3:41
  you can leave Hashimoto's decoded with a ton of information,
• 3:46
  but at the same time, it's a ton of information. I go through all the root causes.
• 3:50
  And so you might be thinking, oh my goodness, I have like at least three,
• 3:55
  maybe five of those root causes that apply to me. I think they're impacting my health.
• 4:00
  So I need to figure out how to address those. What, where do I start?
• 4:05
  And you're going to leave and I don't want you to be overwhelmed.
• 4:07
  You can do it on your own. A lot of people do.
• 4:10
  And a lot of people spend a lot of time and frankly, a lot of money chasing different solutions.
• 4:17
  And some of the solutions might work and some of them might not.
• 4:21
  So that's why I created the Holistic Hashimoto's Course, because I want to shortcut your journey.
• 4:26
  I don't want you to wander around in the maze and try to take,
• 4:31
  I mean, not try to take so much time, but end up taking so much time trying to get through.
• 4:37
  Solutions that will work for you. I want to shortcut that time.
• 4:40
  And that is why I created the Holistic Hashimoto's Course.
• 4:44
  It is to take you by the hand and guide you exactly what you need to do.
• 4:48
  I don't want you to wander around in the maze. I don't want you to be overwhelmed.
• 4:52
  I don't want you to be confused. I want you to have clear answers and know exactly what to do.
• 4:58
  And so the Holistic Hashimoto's Course is going to shortcut your time to get those answers.
• 5:04
  And And in the course, one of the weeks is about what you eat.
• 5:08
  I have you do a food inventory. I recommend at least three days.
• 5:14
  If you can do five to seven, that would be best because I'm having you look for clues.
• 5:19
  Like when I eat X, I experience Y.
• 5:22
  And the best way to get those clues is to look for patterns over several days,
• 5:27
  especially, you know, maybe your weekday diet is not the same as your weekend diet.
• 5:31
  Diet, or maybe you go out to eat once a week or more, and you want to include
• 5:36
  one of those meals in your log.
• 5:39
  So I have you log your food and the symptoms that you notice,
• 5:43
  your bloating, any depression, anything that you notice is just data.
• 5:49
  And then we go through and we talk about your next steps.
• 5:53
  One of the ebooks that is free in that or is included in that week is all about
• 6:01
  gluten and how to go gluten free.
• 6:03
  So I'm going to give you a little preview now as we talk about it.
• 6:07
  So question number one, what is gluten?
• 6:09
  Well, gluten is a protein and it's the protein that gives a lot of baked goods their texture.
• 6:15
  I don't know if you've ever had gluten-free foods like like gluten-free bread
• 6:19
  or gluten-free desserts, cookies, anything like that.
• 6:22
  They do not feel the same as regular baked goods.
• 6:27
  There's always a texture difference.
• 6:31
  A lot of times it's more dry, it's more cardboard, and it's not for lack of trying.
• 6:36
  It's just the lack of gluten. Gluten is a protein that helps bind,
• 6:41
  helps the elasticity, helps the texture of baked goods or anything with grain.
• 6:46
  It is primarily found in wheat, but it is found in some other grains as well.
• 6:51
  For example, it is in barley.
• 6:54
  So if you get Rice Krispies from Kellogg's, it will say it has barley malt in it. That is gluten.
• 7:02
  So those Rice Krispies are not gluten-free.
• 7:05
  However, if you get Rice Krispies from, I think, Aldi, those do not have any
• 7:10
  gluten in them. They do not have barley malt.
• 7:12
  So those Rice Krispies are gluten-free. So if somebody makes Rice Krispie bars
• 7:17
  for a potluck or something, you cannot know that it's gluten-free.
• 7:23
  You'd have to ask if they know where they bought their Rice Krispies.
• 7:27
  For myself, I always decline Rice Krispies unless somebody specifically says these are gluten-free.
• 7:34
  I mean, because honestly, I love Rice Krispies, but I don't need them.
• 7:37
  I don't need all of that like straight sugar.
• 7:40
  The Rice Krispies, it just turns to sugar. They have a super high glycemic index.
• 7:45
  And the marshmallows, of course, that's just straight sugar.
• 7:49
  Add a little butter so that, you know, it gets the right consistency.
• 7:52
  But I don't need Rice Krispie bars.
• 7:55
  So I will decline them unless somebody says specifically, they do not have gluten.
• 7:59
  So anyway, all that to say, gluten is a protein.
• 8:04
  Now over the years different grains have been bred and crossbred so that they
• 8:09
  have more gluten in them and that's not necessarily GMO it's just breeding although
• 8:16
  there is a GMO component now.
• 8:17
  So in the United States our gluten and our baked goods is different than that in Europe.
• 8:24
  There are many people who live in the United States and when they visit Europe
• 8:27
  they discovered that they can eat regular baked goods that have gluten,
• 8:32
  and they don't have any symptoms that they would normally have in the U.S.
• 8:36
  So we do know that gluten is different in the U.S. versus Europe.
• 8:41
  Also, gluten is inflammatory.
• 8:44
  That means when you eat it, your body has some inflammation.
• 8:48
  Part of this is related to a chemical called zonulin. When you eat gluten,
• 8:53
  your body releases zonulin.
• 8:55
  And zonulin tells the little gaps in your, or tells your gut to open little
• 9:02
  gaps in the gut wall. And this is so things can pass through.
• 9:06
  This zonulin reaction is worse in people with celiac disease,
• 9:10
  but it does happen with everybody.
• 9:12
  You eat something that has gluten and then your body releases the chemical zonulin
• 9:16
  and that opens the little junctions in your gut wall.
• 9:20
  For a lot of people, this can lead to leaky gut.
• 9:24
  Now, leaky gut is just a popular way to say intestinal wall permeability.
• 9:30
  That's the fancy way to say it. Either way, it means things are getting through
• 9:34
  your gut wall into the rest of your body that they shouldn't be there.
• 9:39
  And then your body is like, oh my goodness, that should not be there. Let's attack it.
• 9:42
  And so then you get increased allergies because your body learns we don't want
• 9:47
  this foreign thing in our body, let's attack it.
• 9:50
  And every time you now eat that, you can develop an allergy.
• 9:54
  Leaky gut also plays a role in other things like Hashimoto's.
• 9:59
  I have heard it said that every single person who has Hashimoto's has leaky gut.
• 10:04
  We do know that everybody with an autoimmune problem has a gut component,
• 10:09
  whether it's specifically leaky gut.
• 10:11
  I cannot say I have not read enough firm research on that, but we do have a gut component.
• 10:18
  So how does gluten and thyroid stuff interact? Good.
• 10:24
  Question. So I just talked about how allergies is your body learning and identifying
• 10:30
  a specific thing and then attacking it. That's what an allergy is.
• 10:34
  And when you have thyroid problems or Hashimoto's, your body is already attacking your thyroid.
• 10:41
  Well, gluten and your thyroid are very similar on a molecular level.
• 10:47
  In fact, gluten is called a molecular mimic of your thyroid.
• 10:53
  So if you already have your body mobilizing and attacking your thyroid,
• 10:58
  and you eat something with gluten, what do you think it's going to do if it
• 11:02
  confuses them? It's going to attack.
• 11:04
  And so you might have more symptoms when you eat gluten.
• 11:08
  And that is why when Dr.
• 11:11
  Isabella Wentz, she is a pharmacist, you can find her website is called The
• 11:16
  Thyroid Pharmacist, and she She has books.
• 11:18
  She has videos. She's got lots of resources.
• 11:20
  She did a survey and she said it went viral.
• 11:24
  A whole bunch of people responded. And out of everybody who responded,
• 11:28
  86% of them said they felt better when they went gluten-free.
• 11:33
  These people were not necessarily celiac. They did not have celiac disease,
• 11:37
  but they did have thyroid problems.
• 11:39
  And 86% of them felt better when they went gluten-free. Now for myself,
• 11:44
  I did not go gluten-free for myself.
• 11:47
  I went gluten-free because my youngest, when he was just a teeny tiny baby,
• 11:52
  just two or three months old, he had a horrible eczema rash, head to toe.
• 11:57
  He was clawing at his skin, causing it to open up and bleed. He was miserable.
• 12:02
  And I knew that it was my job as his primary source, his only source of nutrition.
• 12:08
  Nutrition and the the caretaker of
• 12:11
  his environment I knew that it was my job to figure out what
• 12:14
  was going on what was causing it so I went on a very very
• 12:17
  very strict elimination diet for the
• 12:20
  benefit of my son I would not have done it for myself I
• 12:23
  do not have that much self-control and self-restraint to give up every single
• 12:29
  food I think I was eating fish and chicken and vegetables while breastfeeding
• 12:35
  and so I was eating so much and I was so sick of eating those things because
• 12:40
  if you've ever breastfed a kid,
• 12:42
  you know you have to eat so many calories and I was just so frustrated and bored.
• 12:47
  Anyway, that very strict elimination diet, when I was done, when I had brought
• 12:54
  back in foods to see if they were okay for my son, I discovered at that time
• 12:59
  that my body was not okay with gluten.
• 13:02
  Now, his body was fine with it, but my body was like, oh my goodness,
• 13:06
  you gave me a break from gluten.
• 13:08
  Let's stay off of that forever, okay? And I was like, yeah, no.
• 13:12
  I really love donuts and I love bread. I love sandwiches.
• 13:17
  I do not want to give up gluten. I did this for my son, not for me.
• 13:21
  So I kind of argued with myself.
• 13:23
  For quite a while. I was mostly gluten-free. I would go, you know,
• 13:28
  100% gluten-free for quite a while, and then a special occasion would come up,
• 13:32
  and I would eat whatever I wanted.
• 13:33
  In our house, we have four birthdays within 30 days.
• 13:37
  So for that birthday season, I was eating whatever I wanted.
• 13:40
  I was eating as much gluten as I wanted, because I figured gluten is an all-or-none
• 13:45
  thing, so I might as well just enjoy it.
• 13:47
  After a couple years, I did realize that I was having more and more symptoms
• 13:52
  when I had gluten and that it just wasn't worth it anymore.
• 13:56
  I did try sourdough. Now, if you have made sourdough bread, it changes the gluten a little bit.
• 14:02
  And if you do long fermented sourdough, it changes it even more.
• 14:06
  So long fermented sourdough is when you let it rest or rise or something.
• 14:12
  You put it in the fridge overnight.
• 14:13
  I remember that part. And people were saying that if you do long fermented sourdough,
• 14:18
  people who normally cannot not eat gluten can eat that.
• 14:21
  Well, I tried it and I could not.
• 14:24
  For me, what I realized that day when I was experimenting with a sourdough is
• 14:29
  gluten makes me really depressed.
• 14:31
  It's not necessarily a gut symptom for me, although I did have some,
• 14:35
  but mostly it was depression.
• 14:37
  And then I also had some more migraines. The migraines were why I initially
• 14:43
  was like, I'm not going to celebrate birthday season with gluten every single
• 14:46
  year. That was the migraines.
• 14:48
  But then when I tried it with the sourdough, I realized that gluten makes me depressed.
• 14:53
  And that's not something that you can get easily tested for.
• 14:57
  That's really something that you need to do an experiment on yourself.
• 15:02
  Is gluten affecting me? So here is how you're going to do that experiment if you decide to do it.
• 15:08
  Number one, your first step is to decide that you're going to do it.
• 15:14
  And like I said earlier, gluten is an all or nothing thing. You can't just 80% it.
• 15:19
  If you're going to go gluten-free, it needs to be 100% and it needs to be for
• 15:23
  a significant amount of time.
• 15:25
  Some people say it takes up to 90 days for you to get all of the gluten and
• 15:29
  all of the effects of it out of your your body.
• 15:32
  So that's a significant time commitment.
• 15:35
  So number one, decide that you're going to do it. I would suggest at least a month.
• 15:40
  So step one, decide that you're going to do it. Step two is take an inventory
• 15:44
  of your house and what you eat.
• 15:46
  Like I said, you can take a food diary, but you want to write down everything
• 15:51
  that you eat and your personal care products.
• 15:54
  I discovered gluten and wheat in my shampoo and conditioner because,
• 15:58
  and then I realized in commercials, they say like they have wheat protein to
• 16:02
  make your hair healthy and shiny.
• 16:04
  I was like, oh. So check your personal care products as well.
• 16:07
  Check all your food and your personal care products.
• 16:09
  That's step two. Take an inventory.
• 16:11
  Step three is plan a full two to three weeks of meals and snacks.
• 16:19
  Even if you do not normally do meal planning, in this case, you need to do meal planning.
• 16:26
  And that is because when you're completely changing your diet,
• 16:30
  you're going to have some stressful days, you're going to have some stressful
• 16:33
  times, and you do not want to get to that point and wonder what you're going to eat.
• 16:38
  You know, standing there in the kitchen like, oh my goodness,
• 16:41
  I am hungry and there's nothing to eat. You want a plan in place.
• 16:46
  Whether you follow that plan or not is up to you, but prepare and have a plan in place.
• 16:53
  Have snacks that you you know that you can eat. One of my favorite snacks.
• 16:57
  I love hummus with microgreens and some sauerkraut I've started to mix in and
• 17:02
  some gluten-free crackers or some carrot sticks as my scoopers.
• 17:07
  I love that for a snack and it is gluten-free.
• 17:10
  As far as meals, if you look up paleo meals, I think 100% of them are gluten-free
• 17:16
  because paleo is grain-free.
• 17:18
  And thankfully, Hopefully with all of the paleo stuff that's available now and keto,
• 17:24
  you can find a lot of recipes, but get a plan in place that will last you at
• 17:30
  least two to three weeks so that you have food on hand and you know exactly what you can eat.
• 17:37
  And then comes step four, try it out and keep a log, figure out how this is affecting you.
• 17:43
  And then at the end of however long you decided to do it, whether it's a month
• 17:49
  or 90 days or what, have a little bit of gluten and see what it does to you.
• 17:53
  This is your chance to experiment.
• 17:56
  You can know that 86% of people, you know, felt better in Dr.
• 18:01
  Isabella Wentz's study when they went gluten-free, but that doesn't tell you
• 18:05
  how you are going to respond.
• 18:06
  Sure, you might have an 86% chance of feeling better, but are you in that 86%
• 18:11
  or are you in the minority where they can have gluten and they feel just fine?
• 18:17
  Nobody can tell you what's going to happen for you.
• 18:20
  Every single person is bio-individual. We are all unique. You are unique. You are special.
• 18:26
  You are valuable and you are unique. Your health journey is not like anybody else's.
• 18:32
  And so when it comes to gluten and what you can or can't eat,
• 18:36
  at least what is good for your body and what your body reacts to,
• 18:41
  there's not a specific like code like, oh, you are this person.
• 18:46
  So here's your little card. This has all the information you need.
• 18:49
  That would be nice, right? Especially as parents, if we could get a little,
• 18:52
  a little user's guide with each baby that we have.
• 18:55
  That would be so nice, but there is no user's guide. So you get to experiment on yourself.
• 19:00
  So again, the four steps in implementing this is number one,
• 19:04
  you're going to decide if you are going to go gluten-free, it's a hundred percent
• 19:08
  or none, and then decide how long.
• 19:10
  Number two, take an inventory of what you currently eat, and also look for gluten
• 19:17
  and wheat in your personal care products.
• 19:19
  Number three, plan a full two to three week rotation of meals and snacks.
• 19:28
  Have it all planned out so that you are prepared so that you lower your stress
• 19:32
  when you're making this change.
• 19:34
  And then step four, keep a log or a diary of how you feel and what you're eating.
• 19:40
  Knowledge is power and I hope that this helps you figure out if gluten is okay for you or if it's not.
• 19:47
  Let me know in the Health of Hashimoto's community.
• 19:50
  Like I said, come over to the app and let's have a conversation about gluten
• 19:54
  and what you eat. This should be a pretty good discussion.
• 19:58
  I am excited to hear everybody's stories.
• 20:00
  This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
• 20:04
  Please discuss any concerns and plans with your trusted healthcare professional.
• 20:08
  If you found this episode helpful, will you please share it with a friend?
• 20:12
  I'll see you next week on the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.
• 20:14
  Music.