Hello – The Low Iodine diet is more commonly used for cancer patients who are receiving RAI right after a diagnosis or as part of a periodic scan to check for remaining thyroid tissue. The theory is that if you deprive the thyroid gland of iodine for a period of time, it will “gobble up” the radioactive iodine more quickly and give you a better result.
I would let your own endo make the call on whether this is necessary for RAI for Graves’. Many endos don’t mess with it at all; however, my own endo had me do this when I had my RAIU uptake & scan done prior to diagnosis.
The low iodine diet is a VERY high-maintenance lifestyle, so I probably wouldn’t go this route unless your endo requires it! You have to avoid things like dairy products, egg yolks, commercial bakery products such as bread, and prepackaged meat. You also have to read EVERY ingredient of every processed food that you buy to make sure that it doesn’t include things like non-iodized salt, Red Dye #3, certain soy products, and carageenan.
If you want more info, Google “ThyCa”, which is an organization for thyroid cancer survivors. Once you are on their home page, you will see some options on the left-hand side of the screen for Low Iodine Diet tips and a Low Iodine Cookbook.
