Want to know how your thyroid can have its cake and eat it too this holiday season?
We all know that sticking to a diet during the holidays is almost impossible.
Between all the sweets that are calling your name, the holiday parties, and the visitors, you don’t always have complete control over what you are eating.
Of course, we are only human.
Yet we can still take steps to protect ourselves and our thyroids as much as possible, by controlling how we process those dubious holiday foods.
I’m not saying that you should go off the deep end and destroy your diet.
Instead, I want to give you a simple Thyroid Holiday Diet Survival Guide detailing 4 ways you can still indulge during the holidays without completely compromising your thyroid health.
You probably already know that the right diet is fundamental to promoting thyroid health.
Yet, did you know that there are ways to lessen the negative effects of certain thyroid-suppressive foods you might unknowingly encounter?
For example, there is evidence that, when used correctly, certain supplements can help offset some of these negative effects and minimize the thyroid-suppressive effects.
I’ll also tell you about a thyroid-boosting supplement that can protect your thyroid and also improve your mood by managing stress hormones that can be triggered by ingredients common in holiday foods.
But first, I want to talk about a supplement that is important for regulating blood sugar and boosting metabolism.
You may have heard of it before, but you might not know about a few of it’s important properties…
Avoid the Guilt with Vitamin B1 (Thiamine)
Want to enjoy more holiday sweets and treats, more energy, and with less guilt?
Well, certain B-Vitamins can help due to their metabolism-boosting effects.
Specifically, thiamine (Vitamin B1) is crucial for stimulating healthy oxidative (carbohydrate) metabolism and can help your body process more carbohydrates (sugars) that we often consume during the holidays while improving blood sugar handling.
High-dose thiamine supplementation improves glucose tolerance in hyperglycemic individuals: a randomized, double-blind cross-over trial.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23715873
“CONCLUSION/INTERPRETATION: Supplementation with high-dose thiamine may prevent deterioration in fasting glucose and insulin, and improve glucose tolerance in patients with hyperglycemia. High-dose thiamine supplementation may prevent or slow the progression of hyperglycemia toward diabetes mellitus in individuals with impaired glucose regulation.”
In other words, this means that thiamine helps turn carbohydrates (sugars) into energy instead of just elevating your blood sugar and/or storing those sugars as fat.
As an added bonus, by stimulating healthy oxidative metabolism, thiamine also helps improve your ability to use thyroid hormone (T3) more efficiently.
(NOTE: These are two of many reasons we use thiamine and other essential B-Vitamins in our Vitamin B Thyroid Complex supplement.)
Protect Your Thyroid from PUFA with High-Gamma Vitamin E
If you attend holiday parties or visit family and/or friends, you likely can’t control the quality or ingredients of the foods you eat.
Most people cook with ingredients and fats that contain significant amounts of thyroid-suppressive polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs).
Not only do these fats suppress your thyroid, but they also readily oxidize in your bloodstream, causing oxidative damage to your cells, tissues, and organs.
Vitamin E is one of the most effective anti-oxidants that can help protect against the oxidative damage caused by PUFAs.
While it’s pretty much impossible to avoid all PUFAs outside your home, it’s still best to protect you and your thyroid as much as possible.
You can do this by using a high-quality pure Vitamin E supplement, such as our Forefront Health Thyro-Protect Vitamin E Complex.
There are many well-known additional benefits to Vitamin E. Perhaps the most popular use of Vitamin E is in lotions and skin treatments.
Unless you’re celebrating Christmas in the tropics, your skin could probably benefit from the protection Vitamin E affords against the cold and dryness of winter as well.
(NOTE: that our Thyro-Protect Vitamin E Complex supplement is in pure oil form and is quite thick. If you want to use it topically for your skin, I recommend using coconut oil or olive oil to help it spread.)
Abolish Stress with Pregnenolone
Holiday stress is unavoidable.
It also comes in many forms, like long lines in stores, traffic accidents due to bad weather, tense or awkward holiday parties…
…the list goes on.
Even eating the wrong foods will increase your stress hormone levels.
Yet, there are ways to help successfully manage it.
For example, pregnenolone effectively increases dopamine and lowers stress hormone.
The neurosteroid tetrahydroprogesterone attenuates the endocrine response to stress…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8946427/
“Pretreatment of rats with a single dose of THP or P4 (50 micrograms/kg) significantly attenuated the elevation of plasma adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and serum corticosterone…”
The study above shows that allopregnenolone (synthesized from pregnenolone) decreases stress-activating ACTH (adrenocorticotrophic hormone) and the stress hormone cortisol by up to 60%.
ACTH is the pituitary hormone that triggers the production and release of the stress hormones, including cortisol, by the adrenal glands.
The overproduction of cortisol is well known to shut down thyroid hormone conversion in your liver while increasing production of reverse T3.
That’s why it’s especially important that your body is able to regulate those stress hormones during the holiday season, when stress tends to run a little high.
Another study published in the Journal of Neurochemistry found that pregnenolone also triggers the release of dopamine, which decreases stress hormone levels, and helps make us feel happy and relaxed.
Pregnenolone sulfate induces NMDA receptor dependent release of dopamine from synaptic terminals in the striatum
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18710414
“PS modulates DA release with very high potency, significantly increasing [3H]DA release at PS concentrations as low as 25 pM.”
Who doesn’t want to feel happier and more relaxed during the holidays?
One of the primary reasons we use our Pure Pregnenolone Powder is due to its strong anti-stress effects.
Curb Constipation with Cascara Sagrada
Though Christmas foods are all delicious, changing your diet too quickly can sometimes make you feel a little… shall we say… uncomfortable.
Plus, eating foods that are harmful to your thyroid health can cause inflammation and swelling of the digestive tract and lead to constipation.
We all want to feel relaxed and happy during the holidays, and suffering from constipation is pretty much the exact opposite.
Don’t worry though, because there is a safe and inexpensive supplement that can help.
Cascara Sagrada keeps you regular by improving digestive function in two ways.
First, it reduces intestinal edema, or swelling, which narrows the intestines and can cause constipation.
Second, it increases energy of the cells within the digestive tract to improve digestive function.
(NOTES: (1) It’s extremely important that cascara sagrada be aged properly. Otherwise its effects can be harsh on the digestive tract. So, we use a specific source that meets this criteria and don’t recommend others. (2) If you are prone to or commonly experience loose stool, then Cascara Sagrada is likely not for you. This supplement is very effective at promoting regularity, so it should only be used when necessary. (3) For best results, adjust dosage to your needs and use daily to prevent constipation. )
So, there you go…
Whether you’re faced with poor food quality and/or choices, foods that make you feel stressed, or foods that tend to back you up and make you feel uncomfortable…
…we have something that can help.
These supplements are safe, simple to use, and, most importantly, are effective tools you can use to take control of your thyroid health this holiday season.
Even though the holidays can put extra stress on your thyroid health, it doesn’t mean that you can’t indulge a little or have to unnecessarily suffer.
These supplements can help protect your thyroid from all those additional holiday thyroid pitfalls and help you make this the best holiday season ever.
