There are so many natural ways to support thyroid health. On the top of my list is a pro-thyroid diet along with addressing the gut-liver axis, and mineral balance. Today I would like to share one of my favorite ways to enrich my food with more minerals!
Minerals are often called the "spark plugs to life," due to their role as required co-factors for thousands of enzyme reactions throughout your body. Natural sea salts are an amazing source of trace minerals (there are over 82 recorded minerals in some salt varieties, just skip the pink salts please!)
The mineral sodium is very crucial to fluid balance in the body. Salting your food to taste is usually the best way to meet your body's needs, because you let your cravings be your guide. If you have adrenal fatigue or if you are under high stress, you often lose an increased amount of sodium through your urine, which causes dehydration. Salting your food, or a pinch of salt in water is a good way to replenish electrolytes and help your body stay hydrated (as sodium helps your body hold onto water).
Enter Dulse
Another AMAZING source of minerals is a type of seaweed called dulse (my favorite brand here). Dulse is rich in iodine, B vitamins, iron, chromium, and potassium. It also contains smaller amounts of vitamin C, A, and E . Iodine is especially crucial to your thyroid gland, making it instrumental in supporting your metabolism. If you're not sure about your iodine status, you can do this simple 24 hour test at home to help you determine if you could benefit from adding small amounts of naturally occurring iodine to your diet.
With dulse, you can easily grind it up into a fine power (vitamix or coffee grinder works great), and add it to your salt, which provides a simple way to spread more mineral rich love over your food.
You don't need a lot of iodine, only trace amounts, so synthetic supplements are not something I'd ever recommend.
Getting it from food provides the safest delivery system!
Need Even More Natural Thyroid Support? Find Out Your Calcium and Potassium Levels
Have you ever had your calcium or potassium levels checked before to see how well your thyroid hormones are doing their job?
High calcium (often caused from taking too much vitamin D) can be a true driver of sluggish thyroid symptoms, as it slows down your body.
The average American today gets far too much calcium relative to potassium. Typically, this isn’t because one is in too much calcium from food sources per say (although one could over-do it), but instead from calcium supplements, calcium fortified food, and/or increased calcium absorption from taking high dose vitamin D3. Part of vitamin D’s job is to tell your body to absorb more calcium from your food, pushing calcium levels even higher in the body, and pushing potassium levels lower. Pair that with a chronically low intake of potassium from fruits and vegetables, and you have yourself some powerful nutritional forces messing with your thyroid hormone’s ability to do its job. This often manifests with symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, low body temperature, blood sugar issues (hypoglycemia), and sluggish digestion.
Luckily, you can find out what your calcium and potassium levels are with hair analysis. By assessing the ratio of your calcium to potassium levels, you can see how well your thyroid hormones are doing their job. Then, if needed, make supplemental and dietary adjustments to bring the ratio into better balance, supporting healthy thyroid function naturally.
If you’re curious if vitamin D supplementation has your thyroid function in hot water by way of high calcium levels, you may want to consider getting a hair analysis, to see how it’s affecting your mineral levels. You can learn more about hair analysis or get started here.
Extra Credit
If you're looking for even more ways to increase the minerals in your diet, try making DIY multivitamin in the form of a daily nettle/oatstraw infusion!
Ready to find out how your diet measures up?
Find out if your diet is giving your body what it needs with the Nutritional Debt Quiz!
What food and supplements do you use to support your thyroid function naturally? Please share in the comments!
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frugalfeeding
What a lovely way of increasing the appeal and health benefit of sea salt!
Sebastian
Does not seaweed also contains a lot of anti nutrients? So it also blocks the mineral absorption?
MM
Can you please specify how much dulse to add to the salt?
Catherine
Use as much or as little as you want. The goal is to add just enough so you will like the taste and actually use it.
Abundantly,
Catherine
Kay
I sprinkle about 1 teaspoon on everything I eat and started drinking green tea and oolong tea cut bread out and soda in 7 days I've lost 10.2 lbs!!!!! I feel fantastic and sugar levels are down from 244 to 150 I love it!