Are you eating the absolute worst food for your thyroid?

Whether you realize it or not, you most likely are.

In fact, 99% of people today, hypothyroid or not, are currently consuming this food (in one form or another) daily without realizing that they are sabotaging their own thyroid health.

Why?

For starters, it’s hidden in almost everything you eat.

But here’s the real kicker.

Doctors, nutritionists, and even other health “experts” will tell you that this food is “essential” to your health.

How wrong could they be?

Now, Dr. Raymond Peat has been outspoken regarding the dangers of this food for decades.

However, I never realized just how dangerous it was until I began to look at the research, a little of which I’m about to share with you in just a second.

The reason this type of food is so devastating to your thyroid is because it blocks your thyroid function at all five levels of your Thyroid Hormone Pathway.

Take a look at the infographic below:

thyroid-hormone-pathway-infographic

This infographic shows all five levels of your Thyroid Hormone Pathway.

Here are the full effects that this type of food has on your thyroid function:

  1. Blocks your thyroid gland from releasing thyroid hormone.
  2. Blocks your thyroid hormone transport proteins from carrying and delivering thyroid hormone to your cells.
  3. Blocks your liver from converting T4 thyroid hormone into the active T3 thyroid hormone that your cells need.
  4. Blocks your active T3 thyroid hormone from binding to your thyroid hormone cell receptors.
  5. Blocks your cells from being able to metabolize/use active T3 thyroid hormone.

This is extremely important to understand because… all of these blockages prevent you from getting active T3 thyroid hormone to your cells, and prevents your cells from using what little active T3 thyroid hormone they do have available.

And as I always say…

“If you can’t get thyroid hormone to your cells, or your cells can’t use thyroid hormone, then it doesn’t matter how much thyroid medication you use… you’ll always be hypothyroid.”

So, what exactly is this dangerous food?

It’s actually a subset of fats called polyunsaturated fats, or PUFAs for short.

Some of these fats are oftentimes referred to as “Essential Fatty Acids” (EFAs) because they were once believed to be essential in the human diet.

Yet, they are NOT essential at all, even though they are still named such.

In fact, many research studies have shown that these fats contribute to a number of health issues and diseases, including hypothyroidism.

I’m going to show you exactly how these PUFAs are sabotaging your thyroid health and what you can do help save your thyroid.

1. PUFAs Block Your Thyroid Gland

Your body depends on enzymes, called proteolytic enzymes, needed to release the stored thyroid hormone within your gland into your bloodstream.

Studies, such as the one below, have shown that PUFAs can strongly inhibit various proteolytic enzymes, thereby directly blocking your thyroid gland from releasing the thyroid hormone you need.

PUFAs, along with excess estrogen, are two common causes of low T4 levels found during routine thyroid lab testing.

Inhibition of chymase activity by phosphoglycerides. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3882053 “Phosphatidic acid containing an unsaturated fatty acid, such as dioleoyl phosphatidic acid, caused the same extent of inhibition as natural phosphatidic acid from bovine brain, but was 20 times more inhibitory than phosphatidic acid containing a saturated fatty acid, such as distearoyl phosphatidic acid.”

2. PUFAs Block Your Thyroid Hormone Transport Proteins

Once thyroid hormone is released from your thyroid gland, it must be transported to various places in your body by certain thyroid hormone transport proteins.

Studies, including the one below, have shown that PUFAs directly block these transport proteins from carrying and delivering both T4 and T3 thyroid hormones to your cells.

This means that not only can’t you delivery active T3 thyroid hormone to your cells, you can’t deliver adequate inactive T4 thyroid hormone to your liver to be converted into the active T3 thyroid hormone that your cells need.

Effect of long-chain fatty acids on the binding of thyroxine and triiodothyronine to human thyroxine-binding globulin. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2869786 “The results indicate that the unsaturated long-chain fatty acids are potent inhibitors of thyroxine binding to thyroxine-binding globulin, whereas the saturated fatty acids have little or no effect on thyroxine binding.”

3. PUFAs Block Your Conversion of T4 into Active T3 Thyroid Hormone

If your thyroid gland can release adequate T4 thyroid hormone, and your transport proteins can deliver that thyroid hormone to your liver, your liver must still convert that T4 into the active T3 thyroid.

In order for your liver to perform this conversion, it requires another enzyme called deiodinase enzyme.

Yet, studies have shown that PUFAs strongly inhibit this enzyme, directly blocking the conversion of thyroid hormone in your liver.

This is a common cause for low T3 levels, even when T4 levels are adequate, on routine thyroid lab testing.

Evidence for an inhibitor of extrathyroidal conversion of thyroxine to 3,5,3′-triiodothyronine in sera of patients with nonthyroidal illnesses. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2857729 “Doses (in micromoles) causing 50% inhibition in different experiments varied between 0.2-0.52 for arachidonic acid, 0.3-0.56 for linolenic acid, 0.38-0.40 for linoleic acid, and 0.8-0.9 for oleic acid. Other lipids had less or no inhibitory activity.”

4. PUFAs Block Your Thyroid Hormone Cell Receptors

Once your liver converts your thyroid hormone into the active T3 form, transport proteins must carry that T3 to your cells.

As we’ve already established, PUFAs directly block these transport proteins.

However, what little active T3 thyroid hormone that does get transported to your cells still needs to bind to the thyroid hormone cell receptors of those cells for your cells to use it.

And research shows that PUFAs also block the binding of your active T3 thyroid hormone to these cell receptors.

Inhibition of nuclear T3 binding by fatty acids. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3173114 “Unsaturated fatty acids were potent inhibitors of the binding of [125I] T3…”

5. PUFAs Block Your Metabolism and Energy Production

We talk a lot about basal body temperature and how it is directly correlated with your thyroid health.

This is why we use it to assess your thyroid function, far more accurately than blood tests today.

(Note: Learn exactly how to test your own thyroid using our free Ultimate Thyroid Testing Protocol. Get it by clicking here.)

But, what’s important to understand is that anything that blocks your metabolism and lowers your basal metabolic rate negatively affects your thyroid health.

And research has shown that PUFAs, or “Essential Fatty Acids”, do just that.

They block your metabolism. Avoiding PUFAs alone has been shown to increase metabolism significantly.

The effect of essential fatty acid deficiency on basal respiration and function of liver mitochondria in rats. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6693988 “Basal respiration in relation to the body weight is significantly increased by EFA deficiency;”

So, as you can see, PUFAs are the worst food for your thyroid as they are involved in directly blocking your thyroid function at every single level.

But…what exactly are PUFAs and how can you protect yourself from them?

4 Simply Ways to Protect Yourself from Thyroid-Suppressive PUFAs

1. Avoid Liquid Cooking Oils and Dressings

PUFAs are found most dangerously concentrated in their oil form, for example:

  • Vegetable Oil
  • Soybean Oil
  • Canola Oil
  • Sunflower Oil
  • Peanut Oil
  • Safflower Oil
  • Corn Oil
  • And more…

(NOTE: Want to know even more thyroid-suppressive oils you need to avoid? Take a look at this article on the “15 Worst Cooking Oils for Your Thyroid“.)

One way to tell if an oil is highly “unsaturated” is that it will be liquid at room temperature or below.

So, if you put an oil in your refrigerator and it doesn’t solidify, then you should toss it in the garbage where it belongs, unless you plan to use it for non-dietary purposes (PUFAs were originally used as a paint base).

And this goes for other foods and products that contain these oils, such as salad dressings.

The only exception is olive oil, which still contains PUFA, but also contains vitamin E, which provides some protection from the PUFAs negative effects.

2. Avoid Eating Packaged Foods

Because PUFA oils are so cheap, they are used widely in packaged foods, most commonly vegetable oil or soybean oil.

Although they may be easier to prepare, packaged foods are almost always harmful to your thyroid.

And don’t be fooled by “health claims” on package labeling.

Aside from being promoted as “essential” to your health, PUFAs are also still being promoted for their supposed heart health benefits, even though they have been shown to increase your risk of heart disease.

In most cases, if the packaging states various health benefits, it’s likely unhealthy for you and your thyroid health.

3. Limit Eating Out and Use Vitamin E

For many of the same reasons as avoiding packaged foods, you’ll want to limit how often you eat out at restaurants as well.

Restaurants use almost exclusively PUFAs for cooking their foods because they are so cheap.

And the cheaper your meal, the more profit restaurants make.

If you do eat out, it’s best to request your food grilled, and without the use of oil.

But it’s still impossible to avoid all PUFAs outside your home.

So, it’s still best to protect yourself as much as possible.

You can do this by using a high-quality pure Vitamin E supplement, such as our Forefront Health Vitamin E Complex.

Learn More About Thyro-Protect Vitamin E

We use this with all of our clients.

But be careful.

Most vitamin E supplements are thinned with PUFA oils, which defeats the entire purpose.

4. Protect Yourself with Saturated Fats

Avoiding PUFAs is extremely important in restoring thyroid function.

However, avoiding them is only half the battle.

The other half is protecting yourself by replacing those thyroid-suppressive PUFAs with thyroid-supportive saturated fats, like coconut oil and/or butter.

Ridding Your Body of PUFAs Takes Time (Up to 3 Years)

Even if you remove almost all PUFAs from your diet today you can’t expect immediate results.

The PUFAs you have already eaten have become stored directly in your fat cells. And the half-life of fat cells is rather long.

As Dr. Raymond Peat points out, it can take up to a year to rid your fat cells of the majority of PUFAs they are currently storing, and up the three years to rid them from the fats stores in your brain.

Although it will take time, the health benefits of ridding yourself of PUFAs are huge.

I highly advise you use all of the recommendations above for protecting yourself against PUFAs.

And while avoiding PUFAs is essential for overcoming your hypothyroidism by unblocking your entire Thyroid Hormone Pathway, there’s still a lot more you can do to help yourself.

There are other factors that are blocking your Thyroid Hormone Pathway too.

And in the 3 Food Triple-Thyroid-Boosting Daily Protocol, we’ll show you exactly how you can start using your diet to further unblock your Thyroid Hormone Pathway and fix some of the other many underlying causes of your hypothyroidism.

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Want to overcome your hypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s thyroiditis?

This daily protocol is the easiest way to get started.

It’s based on real science and research, it has been tested and proven by thousands of hypothyroidism sufferers, and it just works, which you will see for yourself.

Click here to learn more about the 3 Food Triple-Thyroid Boosting Daily Protocol.