Isn't Gluten Free Beer A Problem With The Celiac/hashimoto Connection?

[northman123456]

I have an underactive thyroid (hashimotos) for which I take thyroid replacement thereapy .

 

and I self diagnosed myself as gluten sensitive...had a host of cognitive problems once upon a time...no longer.

 

As I understand it, people with the auto-immune disease of hashimoto thyroiditis, can also have the auto-immune disease of Celiacs..and maybe vice/versa ?? I don't know absolutely if this is true..my doctor has never heard of the corralation..but it all seems a very young science.  I decided to believe this was true back when I was chin deep in my brain fogg and wondering what was going on , and thats why I cut out gluten..and all my problems dissapeared.

 

I went and found substitutes to most of my regular diet and for the most part I forget i'm on one.

 

but..

 

beer..not a big drinker me, but its the only alcohol I like and I miss it a bit..most gluten free beer seems to be made of sorgum..which is too sweet for me...other beers are made of rye but have the gluten protein chemically destroyed, a process which I don't trust..so I avoid that..I've recently stumbled apon one made of millet.

 

heres my problem..I found out today that millet is a mild Open Original Shared Link inhibitor.  It can make you grow a goiter in large amounts if you have a thyroid disease..so can sorgum...so can tapioca..which is what my gluten free bread is partially made out of.

 

my question is : if people who have celiacs can often have thyroid problems too, why are gluten free products often made of non-thyroid friendly ingrediants?

[Adalaide]

Thyroid disease is more common is celiacs than in others. But, it isn't nearly so high as you may think.
Open Original Shared Link

 

Companies are trying to make a good tasting beer. This is already difficult enough when making a gluten free beer. It seems silly (imo) to expect a company to cater to an extremely small subset of an already small (compared to the regular beer market) market. When you start talking about a small % of 1% of the population, no company who is trying to make a profit is going to specifically cater to that for beer. Health foods sure, beer... I don't see it happening.

 

ETA: sorry, I read that backwards, will find better %

[Adalaide]

Open Original Shared Link

 

 

 

Open Original Shared Link

 

The first link says "4.3% of UK and 6% of sprue patients had autoimmune thyroid disease" but is old. (1997) The second lists 10%.

 

Based on the US population there are roughly 3 million people with celiac here. Making beer for 300,000 people, nationwide, is just not a financially sound business plan. I do believe there are ways you can learn to brew your own at home.

[Gemini]

There is way too much emphasis on thyroid inhibiting foods.  For the vast majority of people, you cannot eat enough of any product to cause thyroid mayhem. 

I have a very severe case of Celiac and Hashi's thyroid disease...it was as bad as it gets.  At no time did I pay any attention to foods that may cause a problem. (for thyroid disease)  I eat many cruciferous veggies, occasional soy products and the others mentioned above.  I ended up lowering my thyroid dose after healing from Celiac so obviously, it did not cause a problem.  I have managed to get my thyroid antibodies into the normal range and they were off the charts high right before the Celiac diagnosis.  So...my advice, whether you take it or not, is to ignore it, unless you have a significant problem with your thyroid that is not responding to ANY treatment.  Sometimes people read things and become so afraid of eating certain foods, that fear will do more harm than eating the food that you think may be a problem.  The gluten free diet, at least for me, did more to heal my thyroid than anything else.

 

Except for the beer that is made from a gluten containing grain, you have not need to fear millet or any other gluten-free grain, unless you have an allergy to that food.