I continue to be amazed by the human body and the odd connections that seemingly come out of nowhere. Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor. This is not medical advice. Do your own research and due diligence.

Because of my Eosinophilic Esophagitis, I use coconut milk quite a bit. I buy two kinds that are only coconut and milk – no extra ingredients. I have consumed them daily for years and years.

Sometime around Thanksgiving or Christmas (I don’t remember exactly), I tried the Bare coconut snacks that are available at Meijer. I can’t purchase snack foods so something like this is a treat for me. They are so good!

Long story short, I realized this week that they are probably what has been contributing to my less than stellar winter. I have struggled with being impatient, testy, and really not myself. My sleep has been messed up. I’ve struggled with body temperature regulation. I chalked it up to some on-going stressful circumstances, winter, hormones, and the state of the world.

I don’t even remember what prompted me to look up coconut and anxiety this week, but there it was. Loads of people discussing having problems with anxiety and other new health problems when they started consuming coconut. Many of them were people on Keto diets.

One article I found told the story of a woman who was really messed up by coconut of any kind – even coconut derivatives in things. But what she figured out was that it was impacting her thyroid.

That’s when I knew I had my answer.

I did some more digging, shared my findings with Arya, and had it fact check what I was thinking based on research and such.

I’m not going to get into the science here, but I found my answer. Coconut was giving me problems similar to those I experienced with fluoride and Vitamin D supplements. They both mess with my thyroid. (Vitamin D functions as a hormone and most people have no idea.) The toasted coconut is much more concentrated and apparently it pushed me over the threshold to where it became a problem. Nothing like I experienced with the fluoride, but it’s clearly not good for my body.

I immediately quit eating the snack and could tell the difference in less than 24 hours.

So take this little bit of information and tuck it away in the back of your mind. You never know when it might come in handy in a conversation.

And I am so thankful I can move past this season of really struggling with being not myself.

My family is as well.