During peri-menopause, when our hormones are doing a dance as estrogen and progesterone start to wane, it is easy for our thyroid gland to become exhausted.
The thyroid gland is a master gland in a womans’ body and is responsible for our circadian rhythm, our menstrual cycle and our metabolism. When our thyroid is under functioning and sluggish we feel the results across many areas of our body.
Do you have cold hands and feet?
Is it hard for you to wake up and feel energized in the morning? You feel low energy, sluggish and tired!
Do you have dry skin that feels flaky and rough?
Is you hair texture dry, brittle and lifeless?
Despite feeling tired, do you have difficulty getting to sleep when you go to bed at night?
Are you constipated? Do you have less than 1 poop or ‘daily detox’ a day?
Are you gaining weight and non of your old tricks or low calorie strategies are working to shift it?
Has your libido dropped to the floor leaving you and your boo unsatisfied and confused?
All of these symptoms that are often part and parcel of peri-menopause can be improved by taking a little time and care to support your thyroid gland with nutrition.
1. Be sure to include enough healthy fat into you diet. Add and avocado to a salad and stir a tsp of coconut oil into a morning latte. Coconut oil is highly supportive to the thyroid gland as the medium chain fatty acids are chosen first by the body for fuel and fire up our metabolism in the morning.
2. Increase the minerals in your diet by snacking on walnuts, Brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds, pistachios and almonds. In this way you will increase the amount of selenium (particularly found in Brazil nuts), and zinc (richly sourced in pumpkin seeds) in your diet. These two minerals are important co-factors for a very important chemical reaction that happens inside the thyroid gland where the thyroid hormone T4 is converted to active T3. It is active T3 that we want in our bodies, firing up our metabolism to prevent weight gain and give us energy, managing our circadian rhythm so that we actually feel sleepy when we get into our beds and supporting us as our menstrual cycle begins to get erratic and draw to a close.
3. Maintain healthy iron stores. There is a link between a low functioning thyroid gland and iron deficiency and research is still being carried out in this area. What this means for the midlife woman who may be experiencing heavy flow periods or gut health issues is to ensure that she includes foods rich in iron into her diet. Red lentils and beans, nuts and seeds, spinach and other leafy greens.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2239756
4. Include iodine rich foods into our diet by snacking on seaweed, eating sea fish and preparing delicious food for yourself such as this Moules Mariniére. Find another great thyroid gland supporting recipe here
So simple to prepare, Moules Mariniére takes only ten minutes to cook and you have a protein rich, deliciously garlicky and lemony, star of French cuisine on your table!
Shellfish and especially mussels are rich in protein and the minerals iodine, zinc and iron. They are a perfect food to support the health and function of your thyroid gland.
For many years, especially during the winter months, when shellfish is in season, I visit the fish stall in my local farmers market and buy a 1/2lb of mussels. As soon as I walk in the door, i wash and cook the mussels and enjoy a special ‘just for me’ , made in 10 minutes meal, that is just me supporting my thyroid gland.
I highly recommend this indulgence for you too!
Ingredients
1lb fresh or frozen mussels rinsed under cold water in a colander.
1 lemon juiced
2tbsp olive oil or butter
1-2 cloves fresh garlic
Instructions
1. Put the olive oil or butter in a pan and heat gently
2. Add the minced garlic and sauté until the garlic is soft. 1-2 minutes.
3. Add the mussels and any water clinging to them to the pan
4. Squeeze in the juice of a lemon
5. Put the lid on the pan and turn up the heat to medium/high to steam the mussels for 7 minutes
6. Turn the cooked mussels into a bowl and discarded any unopened shells.
7. Dive in and enjoy the garlicky lemony protein bites. Notice any changes to your energy levels as you include this protein and mineral dense food into your diet regularly.
If you have a sluggish thyroid gland and want to avoid raw leafy greens in your daily smoothie, you might like to try this ‘greens-free’ Beet, Celery, Apple and Ginger Smoothie. Click here for the recipe.