Autoimmune Paleo Diet
The idea behind the autoimmune paleo diet is that there are all kinds of stuff in food that can cause inflammation, worsen the immune system, and drive autoimmunity. So, we should cut out anything that counts as a possible offender.
That turns into quite a long list, including:
- All grains (including oats, wheat, and rice)
- All dairy products
- Eggs
- Nuts and seeds
- Legumes
- Beans
- Nightshade vegetables
- Garlic
- Tomatoes
- All sugars
- Butter and ghee
- All oils (with a few exceptions)
- Herbs derived from seeds
- Food additives
- Processed foods
- Chocolate
- Alcohol
That turns into a pretty restrictive diet! What I can tell you is that some of these foods listed above, they’ve been shown to have massive health benefits. While I’m totally fine with someone cutting out processed sugar, I am always skeptical about cutting out healthy foods.
But, we don’t have to speculate wildly about whether this is a good diet or not – we have two studies we can work from that offer us the bigger picture. Let’s start with the first that was done on women with thyroid disease.
Quite simply, no benefits were revealed at all. There were no positive changes to thyroid levels or to thyroid antibodies.
A second follow-up study was done. What this study found was that not only was there no positive change, there was an increase in TPO – effectively meaning that their thyroid antibodies got worse! You really can’t make this stuff up2.
Those who conducted the study reasoned that an increase in iodine levels from the autoimmune paleo diet, caused the negative effects to occur. This is most likely caused by a recommended intake of sea vegetables or sea salts found in diets of this kind.
High-Protein Diets
This was a bit of a one-off study. While it was called a low-carbohydrate diet, it was also exceptionally high in protein. It was a very low-calorie diet.
In it, the dietary intake of protein was at 50-60%, which is a whopping amount. And there are a lot of ways in which those with thyroid disease often are below what is ideal for their protein intake.
So, they got a lot of protein and radically lowered their total food intake. Their thyroid function didn’t change, but they did see their weight go down quite a bit.