Abstract
Food is considered as important environmental factor that plays a role in development of Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT). The goal of our study was to identify food groups, assessed by food frequency questionnaire, that differ in consumption frequency between 491 patients with HT and 433 controls. We also analysed association of food groups with the wealth of HT-related clinical traits and symptoms. We found significantly increased consumption of animal fat (OR 1.55, p < 0.0001) and processed meat (OR 1.16, p = 0.0012) in HT cases, whereas controls consumed significantly more frequently red meat (OR 0.80, p < 0.0001), non-alcoholic beverages (OR 0.82, p < 0.0001), whole grains (OR 0.82, p < 0.0001) and plant oil (OR 0.87, p < 0.0001). We also observed association of plant oil consumption with increased triiodothyronine levels in HT patients (β = 0.07, p < 0.0001), and, association of olive oil consumption with decreased systolic blood pressure (β = − 0.16, p = 0.001) in HT patients on levothyroxine (LT4) therapy. Analysis of food consumption between HT patients with and without LT4 therapy suggest that patients do not tend to modify their diet upon HT diagnosis in our population. Our study may be of relevance to nutritionists, nutritional therapists and clinicians involved in developing dietary recommendations for HT patients.
Highlights
Food is considered as important environmental factor that plays a role in development of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT)
We found a negative association between the consumption of olive oil and systolic blood pressure in the sub-group of HT patients that were taking LT4 therapy (β = − 0.16, p = 0.001)
As dietary habits may play a role in HT disease d evelopment[13,14,15], we performed a set of analyses to detect food groups that: (a) differ between HT patients and controls and (b) may be associated with clinical aspects of HT
Summary
Food is considered as important environmental factor that plays a role in development of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT). Other main characteristics of HT include infiltration of lymphocytes and ruination of thyroid tissue, which usually leads to h ypothyroidism[3] This disease predominantly affects female population and is considered as one of the most frequent endocrine disorders[4]. A large population-based study of 65,981 participants found an association of the vegan diet with a lower risk of self-reported hypothyroidism[16] Another recent study showed that higher animal fat and butter intake are associated with the risk of positivity to TPOAb and/or TgAb antibodies using 1,887 participants, whereas diet rich in vegetables, dried fruit, nuts and muesli consumption decreased that r isk[17]. The overall aim of our study is to contribute to the knowledge related to diet and HT and may be of relevance to nutritionists, nutritional therapists and clinicians involved in developing dietary recommendations for HT patients
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