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I just looked it up and found out that Morton Kosher salt is not iodized, which is what I've been using for a few years now. A health issue has lead me to avoi

I just looked it up and found out that Morton Kosher salt is not iodized, which is what I've been using for a few years now. A health issue has lead me to avoid processed foods and eating out. I wonder if I'm at risk of being deficient?

chrisBob 9y ago
Thats the whole points of kosher salt. That makes it great for canning, but it isn't recommended for your daily use. Similarly, people going for trendy sea salt are likely to be missing the recommended iodine.
BCM43 9y ago
My understand is in general in the United States it's not enough of an issue to require you to buy iodized salt. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/well/eat/should-we-be-buying-iodized-salt.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/well/eat/should-we-be-buy...
- m_mueller 9y ago
  But that's statistically speaking - GP seems to be enough outside the norm to spend a few minutes thinking about this. The question I'd ask is whether American soils used for farming are generally enough iodine-rich, or whether the problem rather goes away by people eating lots of processed foods containing iodized salts.
tptacek 9y ago
You almost certainly aren't at risk; the American diet is generally high in iodine. Dairy, eggs, and meat are particularly strong sources of it. User kosher salt. Consider getting your vitamin D levels checked every once in awhile; that's the one you might be low on.
- wahern 9y ago
  The American diet is high in salt, not iodine. The vast majority of salt in the American diet comes from processed foods, and that salt is not usually fortified with iodine. This has been exacerbated by medical advice to lower salt intake, which means people are using less iodized table salt at home. Iodine intake by Americans has dropped considerably over the past few decades. So much so that many pregnant women are borderline deficient or actually deficient. There have been several recent, high-quality studies in the U.S. and U.K. showing that pregnant women especially should be taking additional iodine supplements, and that supplementation beyond table salt could result in measurable increases in average IQ even in the U.S. and U.K. When my wife was pregnant three years ago none of the nutritional supplements I examined (e.g. USP certified products like Nature Made) contained iodine. Partly because of the research and partly because she just doesn't like to cook with much salt, I searched high-and-low for a supplement. The research recommended 80-100 micrograms (mcg). The only supplement I found with such a small amount was a Whole Foods brand product, which I bought with some apprehension given the lack of certified quality control. Too much iodine can have similar deleterious effects as too little iodine, as it likewise screws with thyroid function. When my wife was pregnant the second time around I bought another bottle of iodine supplements, as well as the exact same Nature Made prenatal vitamins. It wasn't until a few months later did I actually read the list of ingredients on the Nature Made bottle to discover that, sometime in the intervening two years, they began adding iodine! D'oh! So of course she stopped taking the separate iodine supplements. Presuming the Whole Foods-brand pills were truly in the 100-microgram range, then all was good. The supposed safe upper limit of iodine intake (for pregnant and non-pregnant adults) as recommended by American doctors is actually far below the average intake for many Japanese populations, for whom no known bad effects are known. That said, most of the iodine supplements on the market I saw just had ridiculous and possibly dangerous amounts of iodine. It's a good development that Nature Made (and presumably other reputable prenatal supplements) have begun adding iodine. For the record, my son turned out to be the smartest kid in the whole, wide world. ;)
  - wahern 9y ago
    You can downvote me all you want but in 2014 even the American Academy of Pediatricians began recommending iodine supplementation, presumably based on the same research I had been reading at the time: https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/Pregnant-and-Brestfeeding-Women-May-Be-.aspx https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages... Having a high-quality, upper middle-class diet isn't a simple answer. For example, cruciferous vegetables like broccoli inhibit the uptake and use dietary of iodine. Whatever the causes of the recent regression in wealthy societies, the fact of the matter is that the more modern studies 1) actually measured iodine levels, 2) measured outcomes, and 3) used large, randomized controlled studies. It's a good thing prenatal manufacturers are adding iodine, because even smart people (or perhaps _especially_ smart people) are stubborn and think they know better.
- cellularmitosis 9y ago
  Indeed, I started vitamin D supplementation after hearing Dr. Rhonda Patrick speak about it in-depth on the Joe Rogan podcast.
jmulho 9y ago
Other good sources include seaweed, supplements, and apparently milk (because an iodine solution used to clean tanks leaches into the milk!). I like to use a piece of kelp in soups, the same way you would use a bay leaf. Or throw a handful of re-hydrated wakame in soup at the end, the way you would use parsley. This video has a lot of info on iodine sources (including what to avoid): https://nutritionfacts.org/video/avoiding-iodine-deficiency-2/ https://nutritionfacts.org/video/avoiding-iodine-deficiency-...
taxicabjesus 9y ago
The first time I went to visit my Thai friend [1], she sprinkled salt in the water she was using to rinse her vegetables. I asked 'why': she said something about the iodine disinfecting the vegetables. I pointed out that her salt did not actually have iodine in it... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14140086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14140086 (my previous comment about this passenger) I looked into the matter a little bit. The Thai king had instituted an iodized salt program. Public relations campaigns helped the Thai people appreciate all the different roles of iodine. Iodine is a good antiseptic (it shreds most single-celled organisms by combining with a protein that's not on the cell membranes of multi-celled organisms, iirc), but my friend's strategy to 'disinfect' her vegetables with slightly-salted water was probably an exercise in futility, even if her salt had iodine... > I just looked it up and found out that Morton Kosher salt is not iodized, which is what I've been using for a few years now. I remember some research that found Thai women of reproductive age had much better iodine levels if they ate seafood, than if they got their iodine from salt. Additionally, foods that are grown near the ocean [2] have much better iodine levels than foods grown in regions where almost all the iodine has washed out of the soil (Michigan, etc). Ocean spray 'mists' iodine back onto the land, which increases the iodine content of the food grown thereon. [2] http://iodinehistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/an-iodine-road-trip.html http://iodinehistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/an-iodine-road-tri... There's another interesting post on this blog about old fear-mongering about "too much iodine", because patient's thyroids weren't taking up the radioactive iodine that doctors were giving them for 'diagnostic' purposes: http://iodinehistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/i-was-right.html http://iodinehistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/i-was-right.html Too much iodine seems to suppresses the thyroid activity, so it is a concern. But this is mostly a problem for people who use supplements. I think one should consume 'enough' iodine to fully saturate their thyroid... A little more than it takes to prevent goitre [3] (when the thyroid swells to try to increase the amount of iodine it pulls out of the blood), but not too much... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goitre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goitre
- dmurray 9y ago
  Growing up I was taught (in Western Europe) to wash lettuce and other leafy veg in salted water to kill bacteria, or possibly insects or insect eggs. I always understood that it was the salt acting as a disinfectant, not any iodine additive. I'm now questioning whether this was ever necessary.

chrisBob 9y ago

Thats the whole points of kosher salt. That makes it great for canning, but it isn't recommended for your daily use. Similarly, people going for trendy sea salt are likely to be missing the recommended iodine.

BCM43 9y ago

My understand is in general in the United States it's not enough of an issue to require you to buy iodized salt. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/well/eat/should-we-be-buying-iodized-salt.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/well/eat/should-we-be-buy...

m_mueller 9y ago
But that's statistically speaking - GP seems to be enough outside the norm to spend a few minutes thinking about this. The question I'd ask is whether American soils used for farming are generally enough iodine-rich, or whether the problem rather goes away by people eating lots of processed foods containing iodized salts.

tptacek 9y ago

You almost certainly aren't at risk; the American diet is generally high in iodine. Dairy, eggs, and meat are particularly strong sources of it. User kosher salt. Consider getting your vitamin D levels checked every once in awhile; that's the one you might be low on.

wahern 9y ago
The American diet is high in salt, not iodine. The vast majority of salt in the American diet comes from processed foods, and that salt is not usually fortified with iodine. This has been exacerbated by medical advice to lower salt intake, which means people are using less iodized table salt at home. Iodine intake by Americans has dropped considerably over the past few decades. So much so that many pregnant women are borderline deficient or actually deficient. There have been several recent, high-quality studies in the U.S. and U.K. showing that pregnant women especially should be taking additional iodine supplements, and that supplementation beyond table salt could result in measurable increases in average IQ even in the U.S. and U.K. When my wife was pregnant three years ago none of the nutritional supplements I examined (e.g. USP certified products like Nature Made) contained iodine. Partly because of the research and partly because she just doesn't like to cook with much salt, I searched high-and-low for a supplement. The research recommended 80-100 micrograms (mcg). The only supplement I found with such a small amount was a Whole Foods brand product, which I bought with some apprehension given the lack of certified quality control. Too much iodine can have similar deleterious effects as too little iodine, as it likewise screws with thyroid function. When my wife was pregnant the second time around I bought another bottle of iodine supplements, as well as the exact same Nature Made prenatal vitamins. It wasn't until a few months later did I actually read the list of ingredients on the Nature Made bottle to discover that, sometime in the intervening two years, they began adding iodine! D'oh! So of course she stopped taking the separate iodine supplements. Presuming the Whole Foods-brand pills were truly in the 100-microgram range, then all was good. The supposed safe upper limit of iodine intake (for pregnant and non-pregnant adults) as recommended by American doctors is actually far below the average intake for many Japanese populations, for whom no known bad effects are known. That said, most of the iodine supplements on the market I saw just had ridiculous and possibly dangerous amounts of iodine. It's a good development that Nature Made (and presumably other reputable prenatal supplements) have begun adding iodine. For the record, my son turned out to be the smartest kid in the whole, wide world. ;)
- wahern 9y ago
  You can downvote me all you want but in 2014 even the American Academy of Pediatricians began recommending iodine supplementation, presumably based on the same research I had been reading at the time: https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/Pregnant-and-Brestfeeding-Women-May-Be-.aspx https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages... Having a high-quality, upper middle-class diet isn't a simple answer. For example, cruciferous vegetables like broccoli inhibit the uptake and use dietary of iodine. Whatever the causes of the recent regression in wealthy societies, the fact of the matter is that the more modern studies 1) actually measured iodine levels, 2) measured outcomes, and 3) used large, randomized controlled studies. It's a good thing prenatal manufacturers are adding iodine, because even smart people (or perhaps _especially_ smart people) are stubborn and think they know better.
cellularmitosis 9y ago
Indeed, I started vitamin D supplementation after hearing Dr. Rhonda Patrick speak about it in-depth on the Joe Rogan podcast.

jmulho 9y ago

Other good sources include seaweed, supplements, and apparently milk (because an iodine solution used to clean tanks leaches into the milk!). I like to use a piece of kelp in soups, the same way you would use a bay leaf. Or throw a handful of re-hydrated wakame in soup at the end, the way you would use parsley. This video has a lot of info on iodine sources (including what to avoid): https://nutritionfacts.org/video/avoiding-iodine-deficiency-2/ https://nutritionfacts.org/video/avoiding-iodine-deficiency-...

taxicabjesus 9y ago

The first time I went to visit my Thai friend [1], she sprinkled salt in the water she was using to rinse her vegetables. I asked 'why': she said something about the iodine disinfecting the vegetables. I pointed out that her salt did not actually have iodine in it... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14140086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14140086 (my previous comment about this passenger) I looked into the matter a little bit. The Thai king had instituted an iodized salt program. Public relations campaigns helped the Thai people appreciate all the different roles of iodine. Iodine is a good antiseptic (it shreds most single-celled organisms by combining with a protein that's not on the cell membranes of multi-celled organisms, iirc), but my friend's strategy to 'disinfect' her vegetables with slightly-salted water was probably an exercise in futility, even if her salt had iodine... > I just looked it up and found out that Morton Kosher salt is not iodized, which is what I've been using for a few years now. I remember some research that found Thai women of reproductive age had much better iodine levels if they ate seafood, than if they got their iodine from salt. Additionally, foods that are grown near the ocean [2] have much better iodine levels than foods grown in regions where almost all the iodine has washed out of the soil (Michigan, etc). Ocean spray 'mists' iodine back onto the land, which increases the iodine content of the food grown thereon. [2] http://iodinehistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/an-iodine-road-trip.html http://iodinehistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/an-iodine-road-tri... There's another interesting post on this blog about old fear-mongering about "too much iodine", because patient's thyroids weren't taking up the radioactive iodine that doctors were giving them for 'diagnostic' purposes: http://iodinehistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/i-was-right.html http://iodinehistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/i-was-right.html Too much iodine seems to suppresses the thyroid activity, so it is a concern. But this is mostly a problem for people who use supplements. I think one should consume 'enough' iodine to fully saturate their thyroid... A little more than it takes to prevent goitre [3] (when the thyroid swells to try to increase the amount of iodine it pulls out of the blood), but not too much... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goitre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goitre

dmurray 9y ago
Growing up I was taught (in Western Europe) to wash lettuce and other leafy veg in salted water to kill bacteria, or possibly insects or insect eggs. I always understood that it was the salt acting as a disinfectant, not any iodine additive. I'm now questioning whether this was ever necessary.