Announcer: It's a healthy audio treat. RadioMD presents Family Food Kitchen with Ellen Briggs and Carolina Jantac.

Female 1: Hey, if you want a balanced thyroid to improve your odds of not gaining weight and of being healthy, then you ought to know which are the worst foods to avoid and the top best foods you can eat. It is such a pleasure to introduce you to the author of "The Complete Thyroid Health and Diet Guide," Dr. Nikolas Hedberg. Dr. Nik, first would you please connect the dots quickly between the food we eat and the health of our thyroid?

Dr. Hedberg: The food that we eat and how they connect with our thyroid are really not very different from the foods that anyone would want to eat, no matter what condition they have. But there are a few caveats to that regarding some of the worst foods that can negatively affect the thyroid that you want to stay away from and then eat best foods as well.

Female 1: Well, let's stay with the three worst. Just have at it.

Dr. Hedberg: So the sugar is going to be No. 1 because that raises insulin and causes surges in blood glucose and that negatively affects the thyroid. The second is going to be Gluten, and Gluten is mainly going to be avoided if you have auto-immune thyroid disease, known as Hashimoto's, and then soy would be No. 3. Soy can be high in estrogen which affects thyroid, and it's also going to be low in sulfur containing amino acids which are really important for detoxification. If the soy is fermented, that can be okay. But any processed soy, you would definitely want to avoid.

Female 2: Okay so that's sugar, gluten, and soy, and I am assuming avoid doesn't mean you can't ever eat them but definitely keep it down to a minimum. So let's go to the positive. Which foods should we be eating to maintain good thyroid health?

Dr. Hedberg: Right. So the first category is going to be fruits and vegetables, and fruits, they need to be low glycemic fruits, meaning that they don't spike blood sugar very much. And then vegetables, pretty much all vegetables with an emphasis on cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli and cauliflower. And those are going to really help with estrogen metabolism and detoxification which is what you want if you have hypothyroidism due to too much estrogen.

Now the fruits and vegetables will ensure that your pH is in the healthy range because there are studies that have shown that if you become very acidic then that decreases thyroid hormone levels. Meat is actually a top one but it needs to be free range organic, and that is so-called, you know, natural meats and the reason why you would want to do that is because those are going to be lower in chemicals and antibiotics and estrogens. And the thyroid really needs very healthy levels of amino acids. So things like a grass fed beef, grass fed lamb, bison, things like that, fish.

Female 2: So we are eating those for the specific animal amino acid. So we are not talking about just proteins. So eating plant protein would not substitute here. You have to be looking for animal protein.

Dr. Hedberg: You can get all of your proteins from vegetables if you're a vegetarian, but meat is also going to contain a lot of other nutrients that are really important for the thyroid, especially zinc. So that's why I put that as one of the best foods.

Female 1: Gotcha. Okay and next?

Dr. Hedberg: Yeah, fish. Now with fish for the omega 3 fatty acids and the selenium, those are very important for thyroid function. Now with the fish, you definitely want to avoid farm raised fish. It should be wild caught. That's going to be a very important food for thyroid function and metabolism and tying in with the selenium in the fish, the next food would be Brazil nuts. You don't really want to eat too many of these though. Maybe only eat no more than two, maybe three a day,