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In this episode of Thyroid Pharmacist Healing Conversations, I interviewed Ginny Mahar, also known as the Hypothyroid Chef. Ginny is a functional medicine health coach, Cordon Bleu-trained chef, and thyroid advocate who combines her personal healing journey with her passion for food to help others thrive with Hashimoto’s and hypothyroidism.
Our conversation dives into how food can be powerful medicine for thyroid health – but also how perfectionism and overwhelm can sabotage progress. Ginny shares her lived experience of turning her health around through nutrition and lifestyle, and offers compassionate, actionable guidance to help others find balance and joy in their healing journeys.
If you’ve ever struggled with restrictive diets, food-related stress, or just feeling too tired to cook, you’ll find this episode incredibly validating and inspiring.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
- Why identifying your own food triggers is not only essential, but empowering. While common culprits like gluten, dairy, soy, grains, and nightshades can drive inflammation, Ginny emphasizes the importance of personal experimentation to uncover what truly works for your body – and what doesn’t. Using flexible frameworks like Paleo or AIP as a starting point, she encourages a “detective” mindset to find your ideal food roadmap.
- The perfectionism trap: why “all or nothing” can stall your healing. Many thyroid patients feel they must follow their diet flawlessly to succeed. But the stress of trying to “get it perfect” can backfire. Ginny shares how defining your non-negotiables (like gluten) while allowing for personal “wiggle room” can relieve pressure and make healing more sustainable.
- How to cut through the online noise. Carnivore, keto, oxalates, AIP… with so much conflicting advice, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Ginny shares how to tune out confusion, identify thyroid-savvy experts, and reconnect with what your body needs – not what’s trending. She encourages simplifying your inputs, trusting your intuition, and staying grounded in what actually works for you.
- Start simple and make healing sustainable. Instead of chasing complex protocols or recipes with 20 ingredients, Ginny recommends focusing on nutrient-dense staples like organic produce, clean proteins, and healthy fats. Her strategy: build a weekly foundation with batch-prepped basics like roasted veggies, shredded protein, and a go-to sauce for fast, nourishing meals.
- The power of mindset and community. Reframing your journey from deprivation to empowerment – focusing on what you can eat, celebrating small wins, and leaning on a supportive community – can radically shift your relationship with food, healing, and yourself. Ginny walks through mindset tools like “tiny celebrations” and the joy of finding thyroid-safe foods you love, plus the importance of not doing it alone.
- Why lifestyle habits matter as much as food. Thyroid healing isn’t just about what’s on your plate. Ginny explains the eight foundational rituals – from sleep and self-care to stress reduction and gut repair – that build energy, calm the immune system, and support long-term wellness. Her “8 Daily Rituals” framework offers a doable, whole-life approach to healing, one habit at a time.
Freebies
- Download Ginny’s free Thyroid-Friendly Grocery Guide
Guest Resources / Connect with Ginny Mahar
- Visit the Hypothyroid Chef Website
- Follow Ginny on Instagram and Facebook
- Watch the Hypothyroid Chef YouTube Channel
- Join the Thrivers Club Membership
- Check out Ginny’s Thyroid-Healthy Everyday eCookbook Bundle and Thyroid Healthy Meal Plan Kickstart
Other Tools and Resources
- Water filtration – Ginny recommends using a filter that removes fluoride and chlorine to support thyroid health. I like AquaTru and Clearly Filtered’s water filters.
- Gluten-free bread – Canyon Bakehouse, Udi’s
Books and Articles About Thyroid Health
- Brain Fog and Hashimoto’s
- The Best Diet for Hashimoto’s
- Is Gluten the Root Cause of Your Thyroid Condition?
- Going Dairy Free to Reverse Hashimoto’s
- How Avoiding Soy Can Benefit Hashimoto’s
- Fluoride and Your Thyroid
- A Paleo Diet: Will It Resolve Your Hashimoto’s?
- Autoimmune Paleo Diet
- Tiny Habits by BJ Fog
Get the Full Episode Transcript
Let’s Connect!
- Follow me on Instagram:@izabellawentzpharmd
- Get my FREE weekly thyroid & gut health newsletter: Sign up here
- Subscribe & Review: If you loved this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or rate it on Spotify!
Got questions? Drop them in the comments! 🙂
About Our Host
Dr. Izabella Wentz
Dr. Izabella Wentz is a compassionate, innovative, solution-focused integrative pharmacist dedicated to finding the root causes of chronic health conditions. Her passion stems from her own diagnosis of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis in 2009, following a decade of debilitating symptoms.
Dr. Izabella Wentz has written several best-selling books, including the New York Times bestseller Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: Lifestyle Interventions for Finding and Treating the Root Cause, the protocol-based #1 New York Times bestseller Hashimoto’s Protocol: A 90-Day Plan for Reversing Thyroid Symptoms and Getting Your Life Back, the Wall Street Journal bestseller Hashimoto’s Food Pharmacology: Nutrition Protocols and Healing Recipes to Take Charge of Your Thyroid Health, and her latest book, Adrenal Transformation Protocol.
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About Our Guest
Ginny Mahar, FMCHC, is a Functional Medicine Health Coach, Cordon Bleu Chef, and thyroid advocate. After a Hashimoto’s diagnosis in 2015, she launched Hypothyroid Chef to share thyroid-friendly recipes and lifestyle strategies. She later created THYROID30®, a whole-health food and lifestyle program endorsed by top experts, and founded The Thrivers Club, a supportive community for thyroid patients. As host of the Thyroid-Healthy Bites podcast, Ginny inspires her audience with practical tips and compassionate guidance, blending her thyroid-friendly food and lifestyle approach with expert interviews and tales from their healing journeys.
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