Are you sure you're getting enough iodine?

[in2herbs]

The addition of iodine in table salt began in the US in the early 1920s to help decrease the occurrence of goiters, or swelling of the thyroid gland. Knowing the importance of iodine in the diet, for more than 30 years I have added 2 oz. of iodized table salt daily to the wet feed of each horse on my property. I have purchased this iodized table salt in 25# bags at the local bulk food grocery store that caters to the commercial and restaurant businesses. During the past year or so, however, the store has carried only evaporated salt. Not knowing what evaporated salt was I did some research and learned that evaporated salt does not contain iodine (unless it is specifically added and labeled as such.)

Iodine is a mineral/electrolyte needed by humans and animals. Restaurants and manufacturers of commercially-prepared foods (generally) use only evaporated salt in their baking/manufacturing process. So, if your required daily amount of iodine is not in the restaurant food you eat, is not in the salt of commercially-prepared food you consume, and you do not salt your food with the required daily amount of iodized salt or eat iodine-rich foods, what is the source of your iodine? Just because your consuming sodium does not mean you are consuming iodine.

To prevent thyroid disease and help maintain a normal electrolyte balance read the label to be sure you’re getting iodine, or consume foods that naturally contain iodine. If your doctor tells you to lower your salt intake because of high blood pressure ask him or her how to go about supplementing with iodine so you don’t end up with thyroid disease.

[dewsgirl]

1. No matter what the context, the mention of iodine brings

thoughts of radiation poisoning.

[in2herbs]

8. Blue green algae is good for radiation poisoning. In fact, the WHO has been offering it to

survivors of Chernobyl and tracking its performance for decades and the last article/study I read held that blue-green algae was more effective in protecting the survivors (from cancer) who were taking it than what they had originally thought. Imagine, people living in the heart of the Chernobyl incident who are still alive and cancer free.

In the proper amount, blue-green algae is a good antihistamine, too, as it builds and supports the immune system without activating a histamine reaction. I've seen it in action and include it in my daily vitamin regime.

[dewsgirl]

15. Thank you, I've just started taking supplements. I will check blue green algae out.

[defacto7]

2. Kelp

[in2herbs]

5. Kelp is said to be good for thryoid support but I don't think it can be consummed in large enough

daily quantities to be equal to iodine. I have hypothyroidism and tried kelp but it didn't make an improvement, perhaps my hypothyroidism was too far advanced by that time????

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Daily vitamin.

[in2herbs]

6. What daily vitamin provides iodine? I know one can purchase iodine supplements but they are not

called or sold as "vitamins."

[sinkingfeeling]

9. I take Centrum Silver for women. It has 150 mcg of iodine, 100% DV.

[in2herbs]

14. Thanks. I'll try it. nt

[BigmanPigman]

4. I specifically bought table salt with iodine

a few weeks ago when everyone was getting sick. My parents always made me gargle with warm salt water when I had a sore throat and it helped. I thought iodine was added to salt like fluoride was to water, for our health.

[in2herbs]

7. I thought iodine was added to all salt until just recently, that's why I posted the information. I

don't believe that all public water systems add fluoride to their water. In some areas of the country it's still too political. I,too grew up brushing my teeth and gargling with salt water.

What I don't understand is if iodine is important for health (which it has proven to be) why it's not required to be added to all salt sold for human consumption.

[BigmanPigman]

10. I just Googled it and it was added in 1924,

almost 100 years ago. From what I read we get enough of the iodine we need from the amount we typically get from using table salt. If you cut salt from your diet or use Sea Salt, decorator salts, etc you may need to supplement your diet.

[in2herbs]

12. Yes, as my post recited it was in the 1920s that iodine was added to table salt but, the point of

my article was that it was not required to be commercially used, probably because most of the food people ate was home-cooked.

For many years Sea Salt was not iodine-added. Now you can find it with iodine added as it says so on the label. Most commercially prepared or restaurant prepared foods contain enough salt for flavoring so more salt does not have to be added. Do you add iodized salt to the restaurant or commercially-prepared food you eat? In what amount and do you do it everyday? Medical professionals say that 1/2 to 3/4 tsp of iodized salt every day is what is needed to maintain average iodine levels. So to be healthy, this recommended amount would be in addition to the iodine-free salt already contained in restaurant or commercially prepared food. Because salt is sodium not iodine, this additional amount might place one in the position of high blood pressure (or other conditions) bc it's the sodium (salt) that doctors say to cut out if you have high blood pressure.

In my research I couldn't find any reason for exempting iodized salt from human consumption commercial use which is odd because it was first mandated to be used in table salt to prevent goiters and thyroid disease.

BTW: You are right, most table salt is iodized, but not all table salt is iodized, so unless you are consuming iodized table salt you are just consuming sodium and unless you are adding 1/2 to 3/4 tsp of iodized table salt to your food every day you are not getting enough iodine.

I had no idea about this until recently, thinking like most people, that sodas, breads, donuts and everything else with sodium was providing me with the daily requirement of iodine.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. I use kosher salt in all my cooking and baking and sea salt

for table salt. Neither have iodine, which is why I made sure my daily vitamin has it.

[in2herbs]

13. I hate to take too many pills so what daily vitamin is it you take that provides the necessary

daily amount of iodine? I sometimes have to supplement my potassium, another mineral/e-lyte, but mostly in hot weather.

[Duppers]

16. According to the NIH

"You can get recommended amounts of iodine by eating a variety of foods, including the following:

Fish (such as cod and tuna), seaweed, shrimp, and other seafood, which are generally rich in iodine.
Dairy products (such as milk, yogurt, and cheese) and products made from grains (like breads and cereals), which are the major sources of iodine in American diets."

[in2herbs]

17. Good morning. Cod is one of the fish no longer harvested because it's numbers has declined. The

suggested replacement is pollock, which does contain iodine. If the list you provided includes food you eat in the right quantity to get enough iodine every day then you would be OK. But read the label of your bread. The one I've always bought does not list iodine nor does some of the other brands I inspected. Same with cereal, yogurt and cheese. Being that iodine has its own designation on the Periodic Table, it should be listed if included. Instead it's just sodium. Sometimes ingredients are not listed if too low in quantity, but I notice that potassium gets listed when it's added to food and that's something we don't need everyday, so why don't they list iodine even if low in quantity????

I was going to be contacting some manufacturers and posing the question to them about whether they use iodized salt in their manufacturing process. I don't expect an answer, however, but will post any answer(s) I receive.

As for eating seaweed, yuck, but I don't like sushi either!

[Duppers]

18. Excellent info! Thank YOU!

Nope, we don't do seaweed or sushi either - no way.

The NIH should update their website info re: cod. I remember reading that cod had been overly "harvested" but I had carelessly just forgotten when posting.

Hubs & I are on salt-restricted diets, which he adheres to religious. I know he doesn't get enough iodine in his diet but since he had thyroid cancer & his thyroid removed, that element is not an issue. But I need to research more. I do eat a lot of shrimp, a plate full at least once a week.

Yes, please post when you get an answer - you're doing a great service.

Thanks again, herbs!

[wishstar]

19. I take Nature Made daily multivitamin (for over 50 )with that has 100% daily required iodine

plus eat seafood and some of the other foods with iodine.

I also use iodine whenever I get a cut or scrape or skin infection and have found it helpful in healing since I never get a rash or allergic response the way I do from neosporin and other ointments.

[in2herbs]

21. I started this post because I couldn't find iodized salt for my horses and from there

realized the lack of iodized salt in the human diet. I am hypothyroid so have a personal interest. I am going to do a follow-up on this issue once I get some questions I have submitted to manufacturers answered.

The article you cited affirms my initial conclusion and states "But here's the rub: between 75% and 90% of sodium in the average American's diet comes from prepared or processed food, and most food companies don't use iodized salt." Another claim in your article states "In the 1950s and 1960s, the use of iodine-based disinfectants in the dairy industry and iodine-based conditioners in the commercial baking industry put many Americans on track to getting too much iodine." I have found this claim to be false as some of the info I have gathered states that Canada requires iodine in all of its salt. So why are Canadians not at risk but Americans are on track to getting too much iodine when we don't add iodine to all of our salt/food?

Also, there is sodium iodine and potassium iodide. My initial research based on comments posted claimed that Centrum Silver for Women contains iodine but a listing of their ingredients does not list iodine, so I am thus far concluding that the iodine contained in Centrum Silver for Women is potassium iodide.

What is the difference between IODINE and IODIDE? Potassium iodide and iodine are often confused with each other or used interchangeably because of a similar component: iodine. Iodine is the element found on the periodic chart. However, the molecular form, which consists of two atoms of iodine stuck together, is not found in nature. Iodide is the salt, which could for example, be iodine combined with calcium or potassium, and can be found in seaweed sources and mineral deposits.

Thanks for the link. If you have further comments I'd like to hear them.