by Joann Loos
published: Sept 28, 2026
Sulfur and Thiols
Sulfur is an essential element in the body . It’s found in amino acids such as cysteine and methionine, and is a part of proteins and other necessary molecules (1) . We get sulfur in our diet as part of many different sulfur-containing compounds And this is where the confusion enters. Many websites will give a list of “sulfur” foods, but they rarely identify which sulfur-containing compounds they are targeting.
What are thiols and how they differ from sulfur-containing compounds
Thiols are a class of sulfur-containing compounds characterized by a sulfhydryl group (-SH) attached to a carbon atom. So while all thiols are sulfur compounds, not all sulfur compounds are thiols, much like all beagles are dogs, but not all dogs are beagles. Here’s a figure for the more visual:
For example, methionine, cysteine, sulfates, sulfides, sulfoxides, and disulfides are all sulfur-containing compounds, but they are not all thiols. Cysteine is a thiol, the rest are not.
Why are thiols relevant to mercury
While mercury can bind with sulfur in general, mercury binds particularly strongly to sulfur in thiol groups. In chemistry it’s called a high affinity. (2)
In biological systems, thiols can exist as sulfhydryls (-SH) or thiolates (-S⁻). Mercury has a particularly strong affinity for thiolate sulfur.
Recap
- High sulfur does not mean high thiol.
- Thiols can exist as thiolates, and mercury has high affinity for thiol/thiolate sulfur
Thiol Food List
The thiol food lists are unique to Andy’s work. His work was one of the first places that distinguished between sulfur-containing foods and foods with thiols
How Andy came up with the thiol theory
Andy told me his interest in thiols began with an unexpected observation about bread.
He was working from home, and rather than taking time to cook, he ate a lot of bread and butter. He had recently bought his bread from a particularly good German deli near his home. He was making good progress on his project.
He ran out of the deli bread, so he went to the grocery store for a conventional loaf of bread. He continued working on his project. He started to feel really brain-fogged and unable to think clearly. He just thought he was over-tired. But he really missed the tasty bread from the deli.
He went and got a new loaf of the good bread. And he started to feel better. This started his scientific brain thinking. He tried eating both types of bread, consistently feeling better on the loafs from the deli. While in the deli, he asked the owner about the difference between the types of bread. “Our bread,” the owner said, “is made of flour, yeast and water. Conventional bread has a lot of additives in it to make it rise and brown better.”
Andy started to pay much closer attention to how he felt after he ate. Onions and garlic contributed to brain fog. So did his morning quadruple mocha cappuccino latte. He started experimenting, keeping a list of foods that made him feel bad, and ones that seemed safe. He noticed the foods associated with his symptoms were foods he considered high in thiols.
This became the basis for his subsequent experimentation with thiol-containing foods, and eventually for the food lists.
Andy talked about the foods on the amalgam.de listserver (where he shared the beginnings of his protocol). Some of them reported seeing similar patterns in their own responses.
It’s not exhaustive
Andy continued experimenting until his passing. We were developing a plant food tree list, identifying which plants were related to others to see if we could use that relationship to predict the food’s thiol category.
Plant relationships sometimes proved useful but not reliable. For example, cilantro leaves and coriander seeds come from the same plant. Cilantro is considered high thiol in Andy’s system, but coriander seeds were not. In this case, the part of the plant (leaf vs seed) was significant.
Not everyone is thiol sensitive
Andy spoke with people in the amalgam.de listserver and in the Yahoo chelation groups about their reactions to food. Based on this, he estimated that about one third of the population is thiol sensitive, one third NEEDS thiols in their diet, and the remainder is not affected either way.
Recap
- Andy did independent research to develop the thiol foods list
- The lists do not include all foods
- Not everyone is thiol sensitive
Where to Find the Thiol Food Lists
Andy’s thiol food lists are part of the practical framework described in The Mercury Detoxification Manual, which he wrote with Rebecca Rust Lee.
The book provides:
- Andy’s high- and low-thiol food lists
- his observations about symptoms associated with dietary thiols
- lists of supplements he considered relevant to the thiol issue
- his method for conducting a thiol exclusion test
You can get the book at:
Physical book. https://noamalgam.com/product/the-mercury-detoxification-manual/
Ebook. https://noamalgam.com/product/the-mercury-detoxification-manual-pdf/
References
- https://myhealthcare.com/Minerals/Macrominerals/Sulfur/
- Ajsuvakova OP, Tinkov AA, Aschner M, Rocha JBT, Michalke B, Skalnaya MG, Skalny AV, Butnariu M, Dadar M, Sarac I, Aaseth J, Bjørklund G. Sulfhydryl groups as targets of mercury toxicity. Coord Chem Rev. 2020 Aug 15;417:213343. doi: 10.1016/j.ccr.2020.213343. Epub 2020 May 7. PMID: 32905350; PMCID: PMC7470069.
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