Need Some Help. Vegetarian On Lid...What To Eat?

Hi everyone,

 I'm on the LID for the first time. So far I've been eating fruits/veggies and pasta. I'm going to try and find some unsalted peanut butter tonight as well as black beans. What else can I eat? I've read all of the guidelines but it just doesn't seem like there are many options.

Also, what did you snack on?

Go to www.thyca.org

They have a low iodine guideline, good foods, bad foods, and middle foods, snack suggestions, and loads of recipes.  It has been a while since I was on LID so the memory is fading.  I cooked a lot myself, ate lots of fresh veggies, fruits, (good for the hypo constipation), homemade bread, natural peanutbutter salted with no iodine salt, etc.  Some people complain that the recipes are too expensive to make, but if you are a cooking type of person, you can get ideas and wing it with the okay ingredients.  I would advice preparing a lot of things you can eat later because when you go really hypo you will be really tired....

I would think it was easier for a vegetarian to be on LID.  But I'm not a vegetarian, so I guess that assumption was wrong!

I just finished my LID and had my RAI treatment this past Monday, so the misery of "what to eat" is still fresh for me.  I tend not to eat much meat anyway, so I just took a more vegetarian approach.  I ate lots of pasta with salt-free/iodine free seasonings and olive oil.  Oatmeal with sugar and raisins.  But I did read one guideline that said no dried fruits..  The raisins didn't seem to cause me any problems, though.  I snacked on bananas and applesauce, as well as other fruit.  Unsalted matzohs with jelly (read the ingredients for dyes and other no-no's.)  It was truly depressing to walk through a grocery store, read the labels, and walk out with almost nothing to eat!  The first two or three days were miserable, though.  It seemed like I was hungry all the time.  It got better.

Have you been to thyca.org to check out the Low Iodine Cookbook?  There might be some ideas there to spur your imagination a bit.

Also, if you are preparing for RAI, look for Atomic Warhead Sour Spray to use after your treatment.  I found this worked very well without giving you a sugar overload (or cavities!).