Low-Iodine Eating: Day 5 (How the Diet Works)

This is the fifth in a 21-day series showing how I kept a low-iodine diet in preparation for radioactive iodine treatment.

The Menus

Breakfast

Spicy Muffins (see Day 4)
Coffee, black, no sugar
Morning meds (see Day 1)

Lunch

Peanut butter (natural, no salt added) and strawberry preserves on matzo

Cranberry-Lime Seltzer
Apple
Kiwi
Afternoon meds (2:00) (see Day 1)

Dinner

Homemade Chicken Tenders (see recipe)
White rice
Lima beans
Water

Evening meds (see Day 1)

Snacks

Pecan halves, dried cranberries 
Coffee, black, no sugar

[NOTE: I freeze the muffins two at a time in sandwich size Ziploc baggies. That way, I can pop two out of the freezer the night before, and have them thawed and ready for breakfast the next day. This is helpful when you start decreasing your thyroid hormone  (you'll be hypothyroid)-- you'll be tired in the morning when you get up.]

Freeze individual portions of special foods, to make meal preparation easier when you're hypothyroid.

 

The Recipes

Homemade Chicken Tenders

• Vegetable oil for frying
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
• Non-iodized salt
• Black pepper
• Garlic powder
• White flour for coating chicken (about 1 cup)

Heat oil in a heavy frying pan (I put about 1/4 in in the pan).

Season chicken strips to taste with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Put flour in a gallon Ziploc bag. (NOTE: using a ratio of 3 parts of white flour to 1 part of corn flour (masa harina) [not corn meal] gives an extra crispiness to the chicken). Place chicken strips in the bag, and seal tightly. Shake the bag, turning to coat all the pieces evenly (when they don't stick to one another, they are floured well). Discard extra flour.

Place chicken strips in hot oil. Brown on all sides. Drain on paper towels.

The Seasonings: Experiment with one of the many great non-salt herb and spice mixes available. It just so happened that all my spice mixes contained salt, so I used garlic powder -- one of our old standbys.

What Is Happening in Your Body...

A little about the science behind this special diet I have been on...

Thyroids and Parathyroids

When you have your thyroid removed, it would seem that any chance of thyroid cancer returning is pretty, well, zero, since you no longer have a thyroid. 

I learned a bizarre and fascinating fact about the thyroid and parathyroids. It seems that the parathyroids sometimes hid inside the thyroid, and they get removed by accident when you have a thyroidectomy -- this is why your report will say that they counted and found all four of your parathyroids. If they didn't, that means they've removed one.

But fear not! If they accidentally remove one, they just make a little slit in the skin of your arm, slip that baby inside, close it in, and it's perfectly happy living there, not really attached to anything, doing its parathyroid job.

Weird, huh?

The thyroid is just as strange, it seems. Because, even if a few cells are left floating around in your neck, over time, your thyroid can try to grow back. Just like the parathyroid -- not really attached to anything, but pumping out thyroid hormone.

Soooo... if the normal cells can grow back, your endocrinologist worries about the abnormal ones (that don't follow rules) will also grow back. But how do you get rid of them, if you can't see them?

Iodine, Radiation, and Your Thyroid

Your thyroid gland loves iodine. In fact, most of the iodine in your diet ends up in your thyroid. Iodine keeps the thyroid running smoothly, and the thyroid is very important in keeping the rest of your body running smoothly.

If you've ever had or known someone who had cancer treatment, you know that radiation is often used to zap any cancer cells that are still lingering around. Radiation treatment has come a long way over the past 20 years, but external beam radiation still hits body parts that don't need to be irradiated. 

Did you know that there is an isotope of iodine that is radioactive? Because the thyroid loves iodine, and this particular form of iodine is radioactive, it's like sending a letter bomb to your thyroid. The letter isn't bad, in fact, it's good. But the attachment is a doosie. The thyroid takes up the iodine, but gets the radiation along with it. Much less collateral damage than external radiation. Any lonely thyroid cells floating around, waiting to re-grow, are sought out and destroyed.

So Why the Special Diet?

In order to get the most radioactive iodine to any remaining thyroid cells, you have to make them want it really, really bad. THEN you want to make it so the only way they get the iodine is to use the radioactive form. We do this in three steps...

Step 1: Starve the body of iodine. This is what we're in the middle of doing, right now, with this low-iodine diet.

Step 2: Fire up any lingering thyroid cells at the last minute. Right now, if there are any thyroid cells in your body, they're kind of sleeping on the job, because you are taking thyroid hormone pills. The thyroid hormone in your blood tells your pituitary gland (in your brain) - "We're good. You can turn off the thyroid gland right now." But we want the thyroid cells to wake up, so they will be hungry for the radioactive iodine. So, gradually, your doctor will lower your thyroid hormone until you aren't taking any more, at all. This will make your pituitary gland say, "Whoa! We better get some more thyroid hormone!" Which will, in turn, cause those rogue thyroid cells to wake up and try to work. They need iodine to work, so they'll be looking for it.

Step 3: Take radioactive iodine. This will be a liquid or a pill, and the doctor will decide whether you get a low dose or a high dose. By this time, any remaining thyroid cells (cancerous or normal) will be looking for iodine, and will take up the radioactive iodine, which destroys the cells.