This Buddha Bowl Recipe Supports Thyroid Health

Try this simple and healthy buddha bowl recipe that’s perfect for batch cooking.

Feeling overwhelmed by the idea of batch cooking? We know it can be intimidating. Fortunately, you don’t have to spend hours cooking extravagant recipes on Sunday night to reap the benefits of batch cooking.

The easiest way to batch cook is to make a handful of simply-prepared ingredients and throw them together in a buddha bowl or Tupperware (we like these glass options).

Buddha bowls are hearty dishes that contain a mix of different whole-food ingredients served in a big bowl and topped with a sauce. Traditionally buddha bowls are vegetarian, however, you can make one with pretty much any combination of protein, unprocessed carbohydrates, and healthy fats. Here are some of our favorite options:

Proteins: legumes, eggs, pasture-raised animal protein, wild-caught seafood

Unprocessed carbs: 100% whole grains and starchy vegetables

Healthy fats: olive oil, avocado, nuts/seeds, and nut/seed butters

Recommended Reading: Easy Ways to Eat More Vegetables in Every Meal

What does this buddha bowl have to do with my thyroid?

In honor of Thyroid Awareness Month, this simple recipe is especially beneficial for people with thyroid conditions. The thyroid is a tiny, butterfly-shaped gland on the front of the neck. It makes hormones that regulate several critical functions in the body, including growth and development, body temperature, menstrual cycles, sleep, and weight.

When the thyroid is not functioning properly it can produce a variety of negative symptoms, including irritability, muscle weakness, fatigue, weight gain or loss, trouble sleeping, anxiety, depression, and irregular periods. This buddha bowl recipe has several key components that benefit the thyroid: foods that are rich in selenium and iodine and foods that help minimize inflammation.

Our buddha bowl recipe is also great for those who don’t have thyroid issues! Use it as a guide to making delicious and healthy batch cooked bowls. This simple recipe gives you the autonomy to choose between ingredients depending on your taste preferences.

Check out the nutrition facts below for more on important nutrients for thyroid health.

Key Nutrients for Thyroid Health

Selenium

An essential trace mineral for reproduction, selenium is also critical for thyroid function, DNA production, and antioxidant formation (1). Selenium plays several roles in thyroid hormone synthesis and metabolism. It also helps to increase antioxidant activity in the body. Antioxidants are important for people with autoimmune thyroid conditions like Hashimoto’s and Graves’ disease.

The best sources of selenium include Brazil nuts and other animal proteins, such as shrimp, yellowfin tuna, eggs, and liver. One ounce of Brazil nuts (about 6 – 8 nuts) has over 700% of the recommended daily intake of selenium. This buddha bowl recipe has 55 mcg of selenium, the daily RDA for selenium.

Iodine

Iodine is a trace element that plays a key role in thyroid function. It is an essential component of the thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). Thyroid hormones are essential to supporting metabolic activity in the body (2).

Both iodine deficiency and iodine excess can throw off your thyroid hormones and damage the thyroid gland. As a result, it’s important to have a healthy balance of iodine in the diet. Iodine deficiency causes an increase in thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), which can eventually lead to goiter, an enlargement of the thyroid gland.

Excess iodine can prevent the synthesis of thyroid hormone. This may lead to some of the same symptoms of iodine deficiency, including goiter, elevated TSH levels, and hypothyroidism.  

Because iodine stores need to be delicately balanced, we recommend getting your iodine from food sources (which have a much lower risk for iodine excess) compared to supplements. The best all-natural sources of iodine are seaweed (kelp, nori, kombu, and wakame), seafood, and eggs.

Low-Inflammatory Diet

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is the most common cause of hypothyroidism in America (3). This autoimmune disease triggers the body’s immune system to attack the thyroid gland, resulting in severe inflammation and tissue damage. This impairs the production of thyroid hormone, which then leads to hypothyroidism.

Eating a low-inflammatory diet is especially important for people with autoimmune thyroid conditions. Food and nutritional status have a big impact on our ability to metabolize and synthesize thyroid hormones, in addition to the functioning of our immune system.

Nourishing your thyroid with key nutrients like iodine and selenium can help support your thyroid gland in making thyroid hormones.  Minimizing your exposure to inflammatory foods and increasing your intake of anti-inflammatory foods helps to minimize (and in some cases even reverse) the autoimmune response.

Many people with autoimmune disease do best on a Paleo diet, Autoimmune Paleo diet (AIP), or a Modified Paleo diet (Dr. Sarah Ballantyne has an amazing blog with AIP diet resources). If you have an autoimmune disease, try eliminating potentially inflammatory foods like gluten, dairy, grains, legumes, and industrial seed oils. Eat lots of organic vegetables and fruit, grass-fed/pasture-raised/wild-caught animal proteins, and healthy fats (avocado oil, olive oil, grass-fed ghee). The AIP protocol is slightly more restrictive and should be followed under the guidance of a healthcare professional.

This buddha bowl recipe is 100% Paleo and includes sweet potatoes, a great source of anti-inflammatory antioxidants.