Starting the Iodine Free Diet
In September, Luiz found out his under active thyroid had traces of cancer cells. Needless to say, this was a complete shock! But thankfully, it was a miracle - that it was found so early meant that, in a matter of three weeks, he had had the diagnosis, tests and surgery done! And now he was on the road to recovery.
Now, six months later, we are getting ready for the final step which is a radioactive iodine treatment; this can be used to destroy any thyroid tissue not removed by surgery. It takes five days of hospital visits (blood tests etc.) and preparation for the treatment consists of a two week long low iodine diet. Iodine is found in salt and the diet consists of trying to keep the iodine levels extremely low rather than cut it out completely. Iodine is good for the body but cutting it down is usually proportional with cutting salt down so the food plan would have benefits for high blood pressure and for people who feel they have too much salt.
As two 25 year olds, the diet was quite confusing to us (we started by understanding what iodine was, what food contained it, how easy it is to cut out and what are the benefits.) We were overwhelmed with a pile of information, all on millions of websites and all giving us different advice; it didn’t help that the treatment was to take place in Brazil and yet half the diet would be in the UK! We found ‘the American Thyroid Association’ had a good cookbook to look at, which is comprised of many patients’ recipes that they’ve enjoyed! In addition to this, the Macmillan website and forum was of much help.
In the next few posts I will be adding the recipes to the meals we liked the most. We needed simple ingredients and recipes to follow which fit into our lives easily.
The main things you must avoid
Iodised salt
Dairy products
Egg yolk
Seafood
Cured food
Chocolate
Soy products
The main things you can have
Non iodised salt
Fresh or frozen vegetables/fruit
Unprocessed meat
Egg whites
Unsalted nuts
Vegetable oils
Soft/drinks/tea/coffee
Sounds easy right! … We are now half way through the 15 day diet and finding it easier than we first thought as it is quite similar to the sustainable eating style we are trying to abide by this year. We try buy locally and ethically, which is in line with iodine free, as most dishes need to be cooked from scratch. The benefits seem to be living a little healthier as we are so conscious of what food we are digesting; all food has been homemade even the bread and snacks just to make such the iodine is super low for the treatment.
One major rule we learnt very early on was that for the duration of the diet we would be eating from home. Eating out is virtually impossible due to it being extremely hard to know what ingredients (and brands) are used to cook and season our food. This was difficult at first as we love going to try new foods but eventually we got in a routine (don’t get me wrong the day we finish we will be running to the best and nearest restaurant we can find.)
Following this post I will post a few recipes we used and later add on to a recipe book and meal week plan! But first click for the first recipe - some delicious waffles!
