Don't Like Certain Veggies? It May Be Your Thyroid Talking!
According to scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, a nonprofit research institute that studies the senses of smell, taste and chemical irritation, our dislike for certain vegetables may result from particular genes that detect anti-thyroid toxins. In the study, which appears in the September 2006 issue of the journal Current Biology, researchers have found evidence that a particular taste receptor gene, known as TAS2R38, can detect glucosinolates, a particular type of compounds that are found in foods.Glucosinolates are compounds that act as goitrogens and have an anti-thyroid effect by inhibiting the gland's ability to absorb iodine. Iodine is needed by the thyroid as a building block for thyroid hormone. It's thought that being able to detect -- and, due to an aversion, avoid -- glucosinolates found naturally in food could provide a biological advantage to the more than 1 billion people worldwide who have low iodine status, and face a risk of thyroid disease.
The study genotyped 35 participants into three groups: sensitive to glucosinolates, insensitive, and intermediate. The participants then rated the bitterness of vegetables, including 17 glucosinolate-containing vegetables (which included watercress, broccoli, bok choy, kale, kohlrabi, and turnip) and 11 non-glucosinolate foods included radicchio, endive, eggplant and spinach. (Click here for a complete list of the glucosinolate-containing antithyroid vegetables tested.)
Those who were "sensitive" rated the glucosinolate-containing vegetables as 60% more bitter the insensitive group. The groups rated the other vegetables equally bitter.
According to senior author Paul Breslin, "the sense of taste enables us to detect bitter toxins within foods, and genetically-based differences in our bitter taste receptors affect how we each perceive foods containing a particular set of toxins."
Breslin does not recommend eliminating goitrogenic vegetables from the diet however. Says Breslin: "The contents of the veggies are a double-edged sword, depending upon the physiological context of the individual eating them."
Source: Sandell, Mari A. and Paul A.S. Breslin. "Variability in a taste-receptor gene determines whether we taste toxins in food." Current Biology, 2006, 16, R792-R794.
Comments
I’ve had my thyroid removed and am now on synthetic hormone. Do I ~not~ eat these food now or are they okay to eat?? I’m still confused. But I have to say I have often detected extreme bitterness in some of these foods in the past.
Are you familiar with a product called Juice Plus - is it benifical for Graves disease or should it be avoided.
I, too, am confused. I’ve had RAI, and am now on Armour. Do I eat plain salt or iodized? Do I avoid the veggies mentioned in this article or what?
Thanks.
I HAVE HYPOTHROID I LOVE BROCCOLI RABE IS IT ALLRIGHT TO EAT COOKED VEGS.
The article mentions seventeen vegies to watch out for, but only five vegies are listed. Same with the non-gluc ones. Only a few are listed. Could we have the full list?
When I was pregnant with my second child, I couldn’t stand either the smell or taste of Broccoli. I had been placed on Synthroid two years earlier. My doctor never changed my dose during the pregnancy. After reading this article, I wonder if my body was sending me a strong message because I needed more hormone than I was getting from the Synthroid.
I’ve been able to get the complete list of the 17 glucosinolate-containing antithyroid vegetables tested, and they are posted here online.
As for whether or not to eat these vegetables, that is something to decide with your practitioner.
But do keep in mind, cooking these vegetables usually eliminates or greatly diminishes the antithyroid effect.
Can you explain what “anti-thyroid” means.
I do not have thyroid disease. I eat broccoli,kale and cauliflower (one of these) almost daily. What quantity of these foods would you have to consume to produce a negative impact on your thyroid???
Good question. Question #9 is right on; if you do like and eat these vegetables, does eating them have a potentially negative effect on the thyroid?