Hi to you all.

I have been sprouting Fenugreek for almost one year. I started sprouting this seed because of what I learned about it's effect on lowering one's blood sugar. In my case, it's part of a good eating plan and I happen to love it in my salads.

But, in researching, I came upon the fact that Fenugreek interferes with conversion of T4 to T3 thyroid hormones".

I went to this website:

http://www.chiro.org/nutrition/FULL/...f_Thyroid.html

and here's an excerpt.

"Animal evidence found fenugreek seed extract impaired peripheral conversion of thyroid hormones. Administration of 0.11 g/kg body weight daily for 15 days to male mice and rats resulted in a significant decrease in serum T3, with a concomitant increase in T4 levels. Hepatic lipid peroxidation was unchanged, suggesting the observed impairment in peripheral conversion was not peroxidation-mediated"

Now I sprout Fenugreek. I don't heat up the seed or eat the seed as it is nor do I ground it up. So does this information pertain to Fenugreek Sprouts? And what exactly does this mean. "interferes with T4 to T3 thyroid hormones".

I have never had any problems with my thyroid but I want to make sure I can eat this in my salad every day. It's extremely economical, it's delicious and it's not fattening. And it lowers blood sugar. I hope I don't have to stop eating this wonderful sprout.

Melody

Here is the best article I could find on fenugreek:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...g=content;col1

Often when you read about extracts or studies, you really don't know what they used. An extract is concentrated, and in general more potent that the food version.

In this study the seed was powdered, hull and inside, UNsprouted.

There are two studies out of 4 on PubMed that mention thyroid converstion in rats. I will add here that there is one study on RATs as well with alpha lipoic acid!

The thyroid makes both T4 and T3. T3 is the active form and made in lesser amounts and typically during stress/trauma.
T4 is stored in the tissues, and is inactive and awaits need and is converted by enzymes to active T3. It is this action suggested that is supressed by fenugreek extract. Some rat studies do not cross over to humans, but once published are always quoted, because there is nothing else really to rely upon.

If you remove the seed coat, you are not eating the same thing as the extract.

So it is hard to answer your question. I would say that if you don't show signs of hypothyroidism (sluggish/cold/losing hair/weight gain/edema and carpal tunnel) that you are okay.
But without a test at the doctor's you won't know for sure.
It might also depend on how much of this you eat, and other factors. The minerals zinc and selenium are used in the enzymes that convert T4 to T3 also. So a deficiency in these can lower T3 levels as well.

Ah, my dear Mrs. D.

I KNEW you would help me out. I don't feel sluggish, I feel fine (except for my arthritis), but I'm handling that better than expected especially in this kind of cold weather here in NYC. I just get very very stiff if I sit for two long a period. For example, we went to visit relatives in New Jersey on Saturday and I sat in a car for one hour going there and one hour returning. You should have seen me trying to get out of the car. It was a compact and I had to literally decompress my body to wean myself out of this car. I told the driver. "You should drive a Lincoln Continental" and we all laughed.

So as far as sprouting goes, I am going to concentrate on continuing to sprout my various sprouts, keeping a variety on my plate. And because of what you had mentioned previously in one of your replies to me, I now take Optizinc twice a week. So far, so good.

I'm trying to some day get off of Lantus. My doctors, both the ones in Cornell, and my primary, actually think I have a shot at doing this. No one else does. They all say "you're 62 years old, just take insulin and eat what you want, I mean, you are 62 years OLD!!!

My response?

"I'm NOT 62 years OLD. I'm 62 years YOUNG. I have a lot of stuff to do yet and I want to be around when they start beaming people back and forth across the universe.

If you would have told me this when I was 30, I would have looked at you like you were crazy. Ah, but we don't have the brains at 30, that we now have at the age of 62.

So I shall sprout, and feed Alan good food. Now if I can only get him to stop snacking on those 60 calorie pudding things. He keeps them in the freezer and eats them all night long. I tell him: "Look at how many ingredients are in these things, are you out of your mind?" He says "but they only have 60 calories". I then say: "yeah, but you don't only eat one".

Men!!!!! Oh well.

I do hope you were treated nice for Valentine's Day.

You are probably the one person who has gotten me on the right track about my health. I learn a great deal from you and others on these forums.

Take care and thanks much

Melody

We don't do official holidays much anymore. But my hubby's gifts to me of his time and patience are so valuable now! It is a holiday every day for me. I will confess I had a bit of chocolate too!
I don't do sugar very much anymore, but I do allow a tiny little bit so I don't go crazy and binge, etc.

He took me to Costco Sat without complaining and I got a huge bag of MiracleGro soil (for my seedlings this spring), and a huge shrimp cocktail which lasted me all weekend, and some for Sheba too . Today he is taking me to WalMart... as I don't like to be alone on snow and ice. He is home for the holiday.

We are both working on home projects now, clearing out magazines, organizing the bills for storage etc. So we are busy this Feb!

beam me up too scottie.

Let's all beam up to a planet where there is no processed food, where animals are allowed to roam free and graze on grass and not fed hormones. Where there aren't so many people living on a block and smoking and filling the air with poisons.

Let us all move to a planet where the pharmaceutical industry and Big Tobacco doesn't run everything.

Let us move to a planet where we can LIVE AND BREATHE fresh good air.

That would be just fine by me.

So just in case they ever find such a planet, I'll be sprouting my seeds and going organic as much as possible.

lol

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Melody