This essay sheds light on what are goitrogens, demystifies the dangers and health effects of consuming foods that are high in goitrogens, elucidates how to minimize your goitrogen intake when eating goitrogen-rich foods, and reveals the goitrogen-rich foods that you should avoid eating. Goitrogens are plant-based compounds that are a type of antinutrient. The "three main types of goitrogens encompass goitrins, thiocyanates, and flavonoids". Other types of goitrogens encompass "soy isoflavones, glucosinolates, thiocyanates, thiouracil, thiourea, propylthiouracil (PTU), carbimazole, and methimazole". "Goitrins and thiocyanates are produced when plants are damaged, such as when they are lacerated or chewed. Flavonoids are naturally present in a vast variety of foods". Goitrogens are pervasive in a myriad of fruits, vegetables, and unfermented soy products. The intake of goitrogen-rich foods can severely undermine thyroid gland functions. "Foods that contain goitrogens are able to disrupt thyroid gland function by inhibiting your body's ability to use iodine. More specifically, goitrogens can block the process by which iodine is incorporated into the key thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). They also inhibit the actual release of thyroid hormone by your thyroid gland and disrupt the peripheral conversion of the thyroid storage hormone T4 into the active thyroid hormone T3". In addition to disrupting the production of "thyroxine and triiodothyronine," goitrogens "may interfere with thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), which helps the thyroid gland produce hormones". Thyroid stimulating hormones are churned out by the pituitary gland. The production of thyroid stimulating hormones prompts the thyroid gland to produce more thyroxine and triiodothyronine. "When the thyroid gland's functions are disrupted, it has trouble producing the hormones that regulate your metabolism. This can lead to problems controlling body temperature, heart rate, protein production, calcium levels in the blood, and how your body utilizes fats and carbohydrates". The disruption of thyroid gland functions are calamitous to your overall health. The consumption of goitrogen-rich foods in large quantities, can render a person all the more prone to developing a goiter. A goiter is "an enlarged thyroid gland. A goiter can create a feeling of tightness in your throat, coughing, hoarseness and may make breathing and swallowing more challenging". The consumption of goitrogen-rich foods can also render a person all the more vulnerable to succumb to an iodine deficiency. "Goitrogens may also interfere with the thyroid peroxidase (TPO) enzyme that attaches iodine to the amino acid tyrosine, which together form the basis of thyroid hormones". The consumption of goitrogen-rich foods can also adversely impinge on thyroid gland health. The perils of consuming foods that are high in goitrogens are not limited to severely undermining thyroid gland functions and rendering a person all the more susceptible to succumb to an iodine deficiency. Consuming foods that are high in goitrogens can also render a person all the more prone to contracting hypothyroidism. The health issues that people who has contracted hypothyroidism succumb to experiencing the brunt of first-hand can vary from person to person. This is because the health issues that a person who has contracted hypothyroidism succumbs to experiencing the brunt of first-hand are predicated upon the specific stage of hypothyroidism that he is in. As a person enters into the deeper stages of hypothyroidism, he will be all the more vulnerable to experiencing additional health issues that are associated with having hypothyroidism. Furthermore, as a person enters into the deeper stages of hypothyroidism, his current health issues that are associated with having hypothyroidism are slated to become all the more intensely grave, especially as his thyroid gland functions further perniciously plunges in efficacy. Having hypothyroidism can also "reduce fertility in both men and women". "Evidence from multiple research studies suggests that menstrual problems are three times more frequent in women with hypothyroidism. Men with hypothyroidism often also have low levels of testosterone". Having hypothyroidism can also render fetuses all the more prone to contracting birth defects. "The rate of birth defects was high whether a women had hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, and whether or not her thyroid disease was being treated". Having hypothyroidism can also adversely impinge on cardiovascular system health. "One research study that hypothyroidism can decrease the volume of blood pumped out by the heart in each beat by 30 to 50 percent. Low levels of the triiodothyronine (T3) thyroid hormone are also associated with heart failure". Having hypothyroidism can also adversely impinge on kidney health. "Serious hypothyroidism can lower the kidney's function.