5 foods for healthy thyroid
The National Institutes of Health say that your thyroid needs iodine to work well and make enough thyroid hormone for your body's needs (NIH). If you don't get enough iodine, you risk hypothyroidism or a goitre (a thyroid gland that becomes enlarged to compensate for the thyroid hormone shortage, per Medline Plus). Since table salt is iodized, most Americans don't have a problem getting enough iodine. However, if you're on a low-sodium diet (which more and more Americans are doing for their heart health) or a vegan diet (more on that later), you may need to get more iodine from other sources. A registered dietician at the Cleveland Clinic, Mira Ilic, RD, told Health that there is a lot of iodine in many kinds of seaweed, but the amount can vary a lot. The NIH says that the amount of iodine in different types of seaweed is very different. For example, the amount of iodine in whole or sheet seaweeds sold in stores ranges from 16 mcg/g to 2,984 mcg/g (the recommended die...