Home > Hormone Reset > Best Protein for Thyroid Disease
Many people with thyroid disease have come to realize the importance of a diet rich in protein. Yet there’s a great deal of confusion as to what type of protein is best when considering protein supplements.
In this article, I’ll explain why protein can help you improve your health and your thyroid function. I’ll also help you decide for yourself if you should supplement with protein and if so what time would be best.
Product Recommendation: The Daily Reset Shake, the original doctor formulated resistant starch high quality protein. Click Here
In our diets, we mainly get calories from three resources – protein, fat, and carbohydrate. These three are called macronutrients, macro because we consume large amounts and nutrients because they are all essential.
Fats and carbs are both important parts of a healthy diet, yet they are easy to get in abundant amounts. If anything, people often struggle to get less of them. It is possible to get too little of either, but most diets supply plenty. This is not true with protein.
Let’s be clear – the issue is not protein deficiency. Vegans have rightfully argued that people don’t need to worry about a protein deficiency. As long as one has enough food, they won’t become protein deficient. By and large this is true. But this is a case where we need to distinguish how much causes a deficiency from how much keeps us at our best health.
Protein is different from fats and carbs. They are mostly used as a fuel source, whereas proteins are primarily used to repair the body’s tissues. Proteins also play a role in chemical reactions. If we don’t consume enough protein to carry out the reactions and repair our tissues, our body borrows the difference from our muscles. Over time, this borrowing leads to a condition called sarcopenia – the loss of lean body mass.
It is entirely possible to consume enough protein to never worry about becoming protein deficient yet still lose lean body mass. In fact this happens to so many people – it is thought to be normal. So much of the frailty, weakened immunity, and brittle bones of age are not inevitable. Those who consume optimal amounts of protein and remain active, avoid nearly all of these issues.
Protein also has specific benefits to thyroid function. One study showed that a higher protein diet reduced thyroid autoimmunity by over 50% in a matter of six weeks.
Protein also reverses many of the problems that come with thyroid disease. An optimal intake of protein can improve metabolism and help to maintain a good body weight. It also improves the health of hair and skin. In fact the skin and hair are also reservoirs from which the body borrows protein when the overall intake is insufficient.
Many protein recommendations are based upon the amount needed to prevent protein deficiencies. These levels are very low and nearly everyone already gets more than that.
To maintain the best metabolism and body composition it takes about a gram of protein per pound of lean body mass per day. Let’s unpack that.
Lean body mass is everything besides fat. If you ever had your body fat tested, you would know your lean body mass. If someone has 20% body fat, the remainder, or 80%, of their mass is lean. If you have not had yours tested, most adult women are between 20-30% body fat. Adult men are often 15-25% fat.
If a woman was 140 pounds and 25% body fat that would mean she had 75% lean body mass. 75% of 140 = 105. Therefore she would need about 105 grams of protein per day to maintain lean body mass.
There are those who have been diagnosed with osteoporosis or osteopenia. There are also those who know they have lost too much muscle. In those cases, even more protein is better. The formula then is simpler – about a gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight per day.
In the example above, let’s say that the woman still weighs 140 pounds, but she considers 130 to be her ideal weight. Her daily goal would be about 130 grams of protein.
In the diet, protein comes from meat, poultry, seafood, low fat dairy, eggs, soy foods, lentils and protein supplements.
You might notice that I did not include things like nuts, seeds, beans or quinoa. Those foods do have protein but they contain much greater amounts of fats or carbs. The problem is that if one relies too much on less concentrated protein sources, they can’t get an optimal amount of protein without eating too much food to maintain their weight.
Some used to think that there was a rather low limit of how much protein someone could absorb with one meal. Sources used to say numbers like 25 or 30 g. We now know this is not true. The body can absorb large amounts at one sitting with no problem. However, most find that much more than 35 or 40 grams is hard to eat at once.
We also know that it is helpful to have rather even amounts of protein throughout the day. When the body does not consume protein after 4-6 hours, it starts to withdraw protein from the muscle tissue. The difficulty is that it is easier to withdraw it than it is to replace it.
For that reason it is good to have protein with each of the main meals and possibly midmorning or mid afternoon if needed to hit one’s goals.
Most people who look at their protein targets and the amount of protein in their typical foods realize that it will be easier to reach their goal with a protein supplement. These can supply 25-40 extra grams of protein per serving and can be especially handy for first thing in the morning or between meal snacks.
The next question is what kind of protein to choose.
The main options on the market today include:
When choosing protein one should consider first whether it is safe for your thyroid. Many types have so much iodine, they can disrupt thyroid function with regular use. This consideration makes egg, whey, and casein poor options. They typically have 60-100 mcg of iodine per serving. That much does not fit well within a daily goal of under 100 mcg of iodine to improve thyroid health.
The next consideration is protein quality. Proteins are composed of amino acids. Some amino acids are essential – we need them and our bodies cannot make them. Proteins that lack essential amino acids simply don’t work.
In fact, it is even worse than that. Studies have shown that if someone is low in protein and they consume large quantities of a poor quality protein, they are worse off than they would have been without it. Poor quality protein is not just ineffective, it is counterproductive.
The two popular options that have unacceptably low amounts of essential amino acids are collagen, bone broth, beef protein, and paleo protein. All of these products are cow hides that were chemically digested. It is misleading that they even claim to contain protein. Whether they have other health benefits is not clear but their lack of effectiveness as a protein source is entirely clear.
Another consideration is cost-effectiveness. Of the remaining protein types, mushroom protein is otherwise a good option. But at this point, it is 3-5 times the cost per gram as other types of protein. Most products range from $5-10 per 35 gram serving. I like the idea of mushroom protein, but I don’t see any advantages over other proteins that justify the cost.
The remaining options are plant-based. Plant proteins are good options. Several recent studies have shown that they work as well as other proteins. They have been shown to help retain and grow muscle tissue and improve exercise recovery exactly as well as whey, casein, or egg protein.
Of plant proteins, pea and soy have the most bioavailable protein.
Last up is taste. Between pea and soy – pea wins hands down.
Pea protein is also the least likely to be allergenic. Many have allergies to dairy, eggs, or soy, but pea allergies are extremely rare.
It is worth mentioning that some people show pea as an allergen on the older versions of food allergy tests. In nearly all of these cases, people do not experience any symptoms when they eat peas. If they do not, the results are usually in error and this is one of the commonly known ways they can be misleading.
Pea protein also has the option of having the best acid/base profile. Proteins are intrinsically acidic. Those which are more alkaline are better for many facets of health and disease risk.
First thing in the morning is one of the best times of day for a good serving of protein. That first meal sets the stage for the rest of the day’s metabolism. When protein includes resistant starch, it keeps insulin levels lower throughout the entire day, making fat loss more possible.
Resistant starch also heals the intestinal lining and maintains a healthy balance of intestinal flora. It keeps blood sugar from elevating after meals, even 9 hours later.
I took these considerations into account when I formulated the Daily Reset Shake. I use the best quality low-iodine pea protein powder available. Each serving has 12,000 mg of resistant starch to work with the protein.
I also included apple pectin because it complements the flavor and also because it improves the growth of bacteroides bacteria and can lower cholesterol. I added MCTs for their effects on helping mental focus and reducing appetite and natural stevia to blend the flavor.
The goal was to make it a perfect stand-alone complete meal. Make it a habit for breakfast for a month and see how you feel. Most find that their energy and mental focus are clearly improved. Extra protein also makes exercise more fun and easier to recover from. Some add a second dose later in the day as well to meet their needs. In either case it is built to complement the multinutrient blends – Daily Reset Bundle and the Daily Reset Pack. One can use both without overlapping on nutrients.
I’ve seen people have life-changing effects from the simple act of reaching their protein target. Some have seen severe fatigue clear up. Others find their brains come back online. A common benefit is freedom from food cravings or the out of control sweet tooth.
If you haven’t hit your full protein target before, you might not know how well you can feel. You owe it to yourself to give it a try. It is amazing how well the body works when it gets everything it needs!
Try the Thyroid Quiz today (Click Here: Take the quiz) to learn more about your thyroid and the impact it may be having on your overall health.
P.S. Whenever you are ready, here is how I can help you now:
1. Schedule a Thyroid Second Opinion with me, Dr. C, Click Here for Details
2. Need A Thyroid Supplement Recommendation? Take My Thyroid Specific Formulations Quiz Now
3. Need a Personalized Supplement? Check out My Thyroid Specific Formulations
4. Download and use my Favorite Recipes Cookbook Here
5. Check out my podcast Medical Myths, Legends, and Fairytales Here
Dr. Alan Glen Christianson (Dr. C) is a Naturopathic Endocrinologist and the author of The NY Times bestselling Adrenal Reset Diet, The Metabolism Reset Diet and The Thyroid Reset Diet.
Dr. C’s gift for figuring out what really works has helped hundreds of thousands of people reverse thyroid disease, lose weight, diabetes, and regain energy. Learn more about the surprising story that started his quest.
Dr. Alan Christianson
Alan Christianson is a Naturopathic Medical Doctor (NMD) who is a board-certified Naturopathic Endocrinologist with a focus on thyroid disorders. He is the author of The Metabolism Reset Diet and the New York Times bestselling book The Adrenal Reset Diet.
He founded Integrative Health, a physician group dedicated to helping people with thyroid disease and weight-loss resistance regain their health.
He has been named a Top Doctor in Phoenix magazine and has appeared on national TV shows and in numerous print media.
Dr. Christianson resides in the woods by a lake in Northern Minnesota with his wife Kirin.
