By Jennifer Whitmire MS, MEd, MH, CHES, NEP

If you’ve been diagnosed with autoimmune thyroid disease—Hashimoto’s or Graves’ disease—you’ve likely felt the frustration of chasing answers that never seem to come.

Maybe you’ve been told that medication, surgery, or radiation is your only option, that food and lifestyle changes won’t make a difference, or worse, that your symptoms are “just in your head” or “you’re just aging” like they told my business partner, Jennifer Swank.

I know exactly how that feels, because I lived it.

When I was first diagnosed, I had no idea that my vision, my gut, my energy, and even my ability to handle stress were all connected to my thyroid. The doctors didn’t mention that food sensitivities could trigger my immune system. The only lifestyle advice I got was to “Avoid stress.”

No one warned me that my liver could be struggling in thyroid hormone conversion. And I certainly wasn’t told that removing certain foods could change my life. Instead, I was pressured—more than once—into treatments that made me sicker, all while being told there was no other choice.

But I didn’t give up. I refused to accept that this is how I’m going to be from now on, that my body was broken beyond repair. What followed was years of trial and error, failures, setbacks, and ultimately, breakthroughs.

When “Gluten Free” Didn’t Work—Until It Did

One of the first things I tried was eliminating gluten. At the time, I was desperate for anything that might help, and I’d heard whispers in online forums that gluten could be a trigger for autoimmune thyroid disease.

So, I went gluten free for a month. And nothing changed. What’s worse, when I told my doctor, she laughed at me and said I needed to stop googling everything.

I felt just as tired, just as inflamed, and just as frustrated as before, and my antibodies didn’t budge. “See?” I thought, “Gluten free doesn’t work for me.”

I went back to eating as usual, assuming diet had nothing to do with my thyroid. But deep down, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was still off. 

Years later, when the doctor that told me I would die if I didn’t do radioactive iodine retired, I found an integrative doctor who went through my history.  After us each saying, “Where were you last year before the RAI?” She asked me about my frequent headaches and just blurted out, “You have to get off of gluten.”  I decided to give gluten free another try—but this time, I committed to six months. After the first month, not only did I not have any headaches, they only came back if I ate something with gluten! What?!  All this time, no one told me gluten could have been connected to headaches.

That changed everything.

I didn’t realize how much my body had been fighting an internal battle until I removed the trigger long enough for it to calm down. My brain fog lifted. I didn’t know I was constipated until I wasn’t. My digestion improved. My energy returned. It wasn’t an overnight transformation, but it was real.

The Dairy Breakthrough—The Energy I Didn’t Know I Was Missing

Even after removing gluten, I still wasn’t where I wanted to be. My energy was better, but not great. My skin wasn’t clear. My body still felt sluggish.

I resisted giving up dairy for years. I loved chocolate milk. I loved creamy soups. I had cheese on my gluten free toast, my grits, my tacos, and even my spaghetti. I told myself that since I didn’t feel bad after eating dairy, it must not be a problem.

Then one day, I finally decided to take dairy out for a few months, just to see. And when I tell you the difference was shocking, I mean it.

For the first time in years, I had sustained energy. I wasn’t crashing in the afternoons. My digestion improved even more. The bloating I thought was “normal” disappeared. It was like I had finally taken the weights off my ankles that I didn’t even know I’d been carrying.

The Corn Connection—The Final Piece of the Puzzle

At this point, I had given up gluten and dairy and was feeling better than I had in years. But something was still off.

I was still experiencing occasional inflammation, random fatigue, and symptoms I couldn’t quite explain. That’s when I decided to do an elimination diet—not the standard Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) diet, which left me feeling way too depleted and stressed in a different way—but a personalized, intentional elimination approach.

That’s when I discovered corn was my hidden trigger.

Corn is in everything. My supplements, canned tomatoes and soups, gluten free pasta, pasta sauce, gluten free crackers and chips. I had been consuming it without realizing it, and once I took it out of my diet and tried to reintroduce it, my body made it clear—I couldn’t tolerate it. I had an almost instant headache!

And just like that, I had found the final missing piece.

The Medical System Betrayed Me—And I Paid the Price

Before I found my integrative doctor, when my journey with diet was full of trial and error, my biggest betrayal came at the hands of the medical system.

6 years after my diagnosis, I was in a car accident and my antibodies shot off the charts. I was told I would die if I didn’t do radioactive iodine treatment. With 2 small children at home, the fear this instilled in me was overwhelming. Something inside me told me to wait, to research, to see if there was another way, but I couldn’t find the answer.

I held off—for six years. Six years of sleepless nights, stress, and endless questioning.

Eventually, the pressure became too much. I caved. I did the radioactive iodine treatment.

And it made me so much sicker.

I broke out in a horrible rash after starting Synthroid, only to be told it was “unrelated.” But it was related. My body was screaming for help, and I had to figure out a way to listen.

Then, to make matters worse, the medication I needed became nearly impossible to get in my state. I was left battling a system that didn’t seem to care about my health, my well-being, or my quality of life.

But out of that betrayal came my mission. (Here’s me talking about My Journey.)

Betrayed by the Medical System, But Not Defeated

I don’t want anyone else to go through what I went through. I don’t want others to feel alone, unheard, or forced into treatments that made them worse.

That’s why The Jen Twins—Jennifer Swank and I—came together. We realized we had walked similar paths, and we both had the same goal: to help people heal in a way that actually works.

We lead people through elimination diets—not the restrictive, overwhelming AIP diet, but a real approach to discovering your personal food triggers without depriving yourself of nourishment.

We also guide people through liver cleanses every spring and fall, because the liver is responsible for converting thyroid hormones and balancing many other hormones impacted by autoimmune disease.

And now, we’ve created The Zen & Zest Zone—a space where we teach people how to eat fun, family-friendly meals that actually support thyroid health. We teach classes on herbs, movement, vagus nerve health, and more. It’s the kind of support I wish I had when I was first diagnosed.

The Bottom Line—You CAN Get Better!

If you’ve been told that diet doesn’t matter, that there’s no hope beyond medication, or that your symptoms are just something you have to live with—I’m here to tell you that’s not true.

You have more control over your health than you think. It takes time, patience, and the right guidance, but healing is possible. And you don’t have to do it alone.

If you’re ready to start your journey, join us in The Zen & Zest Zone. Let’s take back your health, together.

Join Now and start feeling better today.