Your thyroid (the butterfly-shaped gland in your neck that regulates metabolism) is very sensitive to change.
Thyroid hormones can be thrown out by stress, infections, lack of sleep, and, oh yeah, diet.
As a dietitian and nutritionist, I consult with a lot of women with thyroid issues. But whether they have autoimmune thyroid disease or suboptimal thyroid function (hypothyroidism) from lifestyle stressors, I always tell them one thing: lower your sugar intake.
Sugar mucks with your gut bacteria.
Sugar feeds the “bad” bacteria in your intestine (gut), which perpetuates their numbers. This often comes at the expense of “good”, or beneficial, bacteria.
But what does this have to do with the thyroid, you say? Well, close close to 20 per cent of T3 (active thyroid hormone) production happens in your gut.
The presence of bad bacteria decreases production and causes the release of endotoxins (chemicals released by bad bacteria), which lead to leaky gut. Leaky gut has been linked to thyroid dysfunction and numerous autoimmune conditions.
Sugar screws with blood glucose.
A high-sugar diet causes frequent insulin spikes. Over time, your body becomes resistant to these spikes, leaving more glucose in your bloodstream, as opposed to in your cells where it can be used for energy. This is known as insulin resistance.
Chronically high blood sugar and the associated insulin spikes are linked to increased thyroid gland destruction in people with autoimmune thyroid conditions.
Sugar causes inflammation.
The negative effect of sugar on glucose levels can create inflammation, too. The inflammation leads to a suppression of the hypothalamic pituitary axis (HPA Axis), which is a SUPER important chain of structures that control your response to stress, immune function and thyroid hormone production, to name a few.
This decrease in HPA axis function leads to a downregulation of thyroid hormone production, leaving you with horrible low thyroid function symptoms. These include hair loss, weight loss resistance, fatigue, depression or anxiety, cold hands and feet, brittle nails and constipation. Not fun.
One great way to dramatically decrease inflammation and its nasty side-effects is to remove sugar from your diet. If you want some evidence of just how healing it can be, check out Sarah’s story, as well as her articles on autoimmune disease.
We originally published this post in November 2016. We updated it in May 2017.
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