Yesterday, my wife started her Low Iodine Diet (LID) again. This is the third time that we’ve been through this and we’ve started collecting some recipes and tips to make things a lot easier. Some basic guidelines on dietary needs can be found here. It can be daunting at first when the diet starts, because it seems so limiting to what you can do. But thanks to the power of internet, and a lot of good people out there, it isn’t as stressful as it sounds. Here are a few items to help...
Make in Advance
If possible, make some of your meals or core ingredients in advance. The LID diet can drain a lot of energy from you, and having to piece together a meal, while tired, and with limted ingredients can be frustrating. Earlier in the week we made up a batch of pasta sauce with ground meat and stuck it in the refrigerator. Simply boil some water, cook, the pasta, drain the water, dump in the sauce and you have a meal. We’ll also brown up some ground meat, bell peppers, and onions and separate them into bags and freeze them. They’re quite versatile with meals. Shop in advance too. You can typically find at least one brand of canned good or ingredient for cooking that is LID compliant, but often it takes a bit of work to find. You don’t want to be tired while doing this. One of these days I might make a database for this, who knows, but for now, go ingredient shopping in advance.
Seasoning
Kosher Salt becomes your best friend during a LID diet. It has no iodine, so you can use it with your meats and vegetables without worry. A bit of kosher salt, pepper, and garlic powder works on nearly every kind of meat to give it good flavor to eat.
Snacking
Trader Joes has no salt chips and no salt salsa that tastes really good. They make for a great snack (or can be used with nachos) Trader Joes has a lot of no salt ingredients, so if you have one nearby, its worth stopping in and stocking up. My wife has also added some more items to a growing list here.
Coffee Redeemed - Almond Milk
If you need coffee in your milk, you can’t get any at the store. It’s either dairy based, or has sea salt in it, which contians iodine. However, there’s a simple almond milk recipe my wife has found that she uses in her coffee during this time. The almonds need to soak overnight, so plan this one a day or two in advance, and only in small batches.
Recipes
The Thyroid Cancer Survivor’s Association has a great cookbook here. Here are some of our favorite recipes that we’ve put togeher as well.
Nachos - A staple in our home.
BBQ Sauce - Works great on chicken or pork.
If you have any other tips or recipes, don’t hesitate to post them here! I’d love to have a growing list!