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I'm trying to understand their logic here: ```Iodine is good. Therefore adding iodine to something makes something else that is also good.``` Is that right?
by mitchtbaum 9y ago
I'm trying to understand their logic here:
```Iodine is good. Therefore adding iodine to something makes something else that is also good.```
Is that right? Why not add iodine to anything other than salt? Iodized pepper, iodized milk, iodized iodine... Why salt?
- kevindqc 9y agoI imagine because it's in everything, which means people don't really have to go after a specific food to get their iodine?
- mitchtbaum 9y agoThat logic could be used to add anything to it.
- FeepingCreature 9y agoGot anything else that's useful in specific quantities and also doesn't spoil?
- yorwba 9y agoThere are a bunch of other nutrients that are commonly added https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt#Fortified_table_salt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt#Fortified_table_salt
- pessimizer 9y agoAnything helpful should be added to it.
- tzs 9y agoIn the US you can't really count on companies using iodized salt. For example, among fast food companies as of 2010 [1]: • Burger King usually uses it • Subway does not • McDonald's usually does not • Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Panda Express are in the middle. There's variability from restaurant to restaurant in a given chain because usually minor items like salt, ketchup, etc., are left up to the local franchise owner to buy from a supplier of their choice. [1] https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/720930 https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/720930
- rsynnott 9y agoWhich is a problem for people who exclusively eat from McDonald’s, I suppose. Most people use salt at home, though, and salt that you buy in a supermarket is generally iodised.
- pixl97 9y ago>Salt is an effective vehicle for distributing iodine to the public because it does not spoil and is consumed in more predictable amounts than most other commodities.
- mitchtbaum 9y agoThat may be true, but at the same time, iodized salt doesn't have nutrients that mined and farmed salt have.
- jjoonathan 9y agoLike what?
- ceejayoz 9y agoMagical woo particles found only in the Himalayas.
- mr_spothawk 9y ago... and microplastics.
- andrewl 9y agoSome salts, like sea salts, do contain other minerals, although whether they're at nutritionally significant levels is of course another question. And adding iodine to sea salt wouldn't remove whatever other compounds were in it. Wikipedia has this: Unrefined sea salt contains small amounts of magnesium and calcium halides and sulfates, traces of algal products, salt-resistant bacteria and sediment particles. The calcium and magnesium salts confer a faintly bitter overtone... Algal products contribute a mildly "fishy" or "sea-air" odour, the latter from organobromine compounds. Sediments, the proportion of which varies with the source, give the salt a dull grey appearance. Since taste and aroma compounds are often detectable by humans in minute concentrations, sea salt may have a more complex flavor than pure sodium chloride when sprinkled on top of food. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt
- oseibonsu 9y agoSalt is generally consumed in small quantities and does not spoil, making it a good carrier. You could use anything else, but it's hard to find things that won't spoil without refrigeration and that are widely consumed in small amounts. Note: I previously worked on an iodated salt program in West Africa for the World Food Programme.
- mitchtbaum 9y agoWouldn't it make more sense grow spirulina or something else with iodine that people there can produce and consume?
- delinka 9y agoHow do you get people to consume spirulina? Preference and taste get involved. Everyone eats salt. Salt was used to preserve things. Salt is used as a flavor enhancer. Salt is consumed far more ubiquitously than anything else. And, it doesn’t spoil if you dont consume it all in a couple weeks.
- mitchtbaum 9y agoAgain, by that logic, you could justify anything. "How do you get people to ____" is a fundamental question in life with many approaches to answering it, ie marketing, public relations, missionary studies, theater, etc.
- fhood 9y agoYour question has been answered explicitly twice. Perhaps you are actually asking something else?
- mitchtbaum 9y agoYes. How can we help improve nutrient availability, generally? From what I pointed out below, this salt processing seems to have underappreciated trade offs. But most importantly, the overarching picture of nutrient availability, not just for iodine, seems to have a bigger challenge at hand worth solving than simply using salt as a vehicle for one - which spirulina would help with in terms of protein and mercury / biotoxin removal, for example.
- kurthr 9y agoSea salt naturally has some iodine in it (less than it has Bromine because of both sedimentation and bio absorption). Iodine is in the same column of the periodic table as chlorine, which makes Sodium Iodide (NaI) a natural cohabitor with Sodium Chloride (NaCl) in solution. What's suggested is only 50grams (2oz) per ton or 50ppm... which is less than Bromine in sea water (65ppm). We mammals probably evolved eating a lot more fish!
- saalweachter 9y agoPartially it was because potassium iodide (a form of iodine that is convenient) is also a salt, like sodium chloride (table salt). So "put the salt in the salt" is pretty obvious. It was also wildly successful because at the time, salt was turning from an expensive good of varying quality produced by thousands of companies to an extremely cheap good of uniform quality produced by a near monopoly in the United States. Public health advocates were able to get just a couple of companies on board and iodize basically all the salt, which then reached basically all the people, basically solving the problem completely overnight.
- maxerickson 9y agoSalt is cheap and already a necessary dietary component. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3509517/#__sec6title https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3509517/#__sec6... (There are people that don't drink milk, there are people that don't like pepper, the dosing is so small that distributing it separately would be less successful, etc)