Raw foods that hurt your thyroid
" Have you heard of goitrogens? A Goitrogen is a substance in some foods that prevents the thyroid gland from working correctly by blocking the uptake of iodine. Iodine is essential for the production and activation of thyroid hormone and is one of the main minerals that helps speed up cellular metabolism.
Goitrogens get their name from the term "goiter," which is an enlargement of the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland lies just above the collar bone in the neck area. If the thyroid gland is having difficulty making thyroid hormone, it may enlarge as a way of trying to compensate for inadequate hormone production and can be seen or felt as a soft pad about 2-5 inches in diameter on the neck, usually on one side but occasionally on both sides.
Goitrogens can induce hypothyroidism and goiter. I bring it up this month because often diet foods contains goitrogens. When eaten in large amounts, the dieter wonders what they are doing wrong and why they are not losing weight.
More than four cups/week of the following foods—in the RAW form only—will interfere with your thyroid gland function. You can eat as much of these foods cooked as you want to—except tofu and soy products which we will talk about later. The foods are: Brussels sprouts, cabbage of all kinds, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, peaches, pears, rapini (a vegetable similar to broccoli,) spinach, strawberries, radishes, rutabagas and turnips.
Other foods that have goitrogenic activity are soybeans (tofu), pine nuts, peanuts, millet, and rapeseed (Canola Oil.)
Goitrogenic foods are typically high in sulfur (especially the Brassiform family of plants such as kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kohlrabi and broccoli). Sulfur, copper, and iron interact with each other and need to be in perfect balance for everything to work correctly. So, some researchers think that when you eat an excess of sulfur, it competes with iron and copper and can cause anemia. This brings up a good question because LOTS of people are on MSM, Glucosamine sulfate and Chondroitin supplements lately which are all high in sulfur.
The main component in soy causing thyroid problems are isoflavones. Genistein is a soy isoflavone marketed as a hormone substitute for women and appears to reduce thyroid hormone output by blocking activity of an enzyme called thyroid peroxidase. This enzyme is responsible for adding iodine onto the thyroid hormones. Thyroid hormones must typically have three or four iodine atoms added on to their structure in order to function properly so this enzyme is pretty important. Most goitrogens are inactivated with heat, but there is some evidence that isoflavones in soy are not heat inactivated.
Ask you can see, this stuff gets pretty complicated. We fix one thing in our world and several other challenges pop up!
While many hyperthyroid people try to limit thyroid output by restricting their iodine and eating more goitrogen foods, this strategy can backfire. Iodine restriction causes the thyroid to increase in size (goiter) in an effort to filter more blood to get more iodine. When iodine is then re-introduced to the diet or accidentally ingested, the thyroid now grows even larger than before because now it has a larger capacity to do so!
Therefore the consumption of goitrogens to control hyperthyroidism is not a good strategy. It is better to increase foods high in copper as well as increase copper’s effectiveness to normalize the thyroid function. After that, the body will tolerate iodine without increasing thyroid hormone production."
Also very filling, so it makes a good evening snack after I've drank a couple beers and get the munchies 
