Iodine deficiency is often seen as a problem of the past, but this isn’t entirely true. During the 20th century, the iodization of salt became one of the most effective public health interventions for preventing conditions caused by a lack of this mineral, including goiter (enlargement of the thyroid gland) and preventable damage to neurological development.
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No matter your diet, get your blood checked once in a while guys and gals. If you know your deficiency it is very easy to correct.
FYI the title is true for vegans and anyone outside of the US because the main source of iodine is from the cleaning liquid used on dairy equipment in the US that gets into the milk. Since this is not common everywhere you should consume iodized salt or take a supplement.
So the lactose intolerant are right up there? Greaaat. Any sources on this?
Iodised salt
In a way, iodized salt has an image problem.
No, it has a flavor problem. It tastes bad, which detracts from the saltiness and flavor of iodized salt. However, it turns out the food naturally richest in iodine is seaweed, which works out great for vegans and vegetarians.
In blind taste tests people can not identify iodized salt
I don’t think seaweed is the microplastic source we should be fixating on:
Recent studies have found microplastics in bottled water (Gambino et al., 2022), food and agricultural products (He et al., 2021), beet sugar (Yurtsever and Cüvelek, 2024), takeout food containers (Du et al., 2020), beverages (Jin et al., 2021), and seafood (Garrido Gamarro et al., 2020; Al Mamun et al., 2023). Seafood is one among the primary sources through which humans can accumulate microplastics (Smith et al., 2018)
Since most animals eat plants, almost any problem you have at the plant level compounds or worsens at the animal level. Fish and “seafood” are the typical animal source of iodine, but they either eat algae, filter feed or eat animals who filter feed, so the microplastics accumulate. Generally, the lower down the food chain you eat, the fewer microplastics/heavy metals you’ll get.
About other animal based sources, land animals are not magical iodine producers, they also need to get it from their diet like us and are usually supplemented iodine. Just use some iodized salt for cooking, idk if it has different concentrations in the US but I’ve never heard a single person saying it tastes bad. Or eat some seaweed, the iodine is incredibly concentrated anyway and it probably has fewer microplastics than other dietary sources.
Source is Wikipedia:
The production of ethylenediamine dihydroiodide, provided as a nutritional supplement for livestock, consumes a large portion of available iodine
