Iodized Salt
What is it, why did we add it, and do we still need it?
Iodine is an element that was discovered in seaweed ash in 1811 by French chemist Barnard Courtois. The chemist messed up a bit in his experiment and saw purple vapor being formed. He then realized he discovered a new element, and he named it iodine after the Greek word meaning violet.
Courtois discovered iodine in seaweed, and that is because it is found naturally in the ocean and in earth’s crust that was once covered in water. Iodine in the soil is taken up by the plants, and this is important because we need iodine in our diet for healthy brain development and thyroid health. The Great Lakes and Pacific Northwest have low levels of iodine in their soil and in the 1920s were experiencing high levels of Iodine Deficiency and goiter development.
Early records of Chinese medicine indicate that there was a decrease of goiters when seaweed was consumed, and Swiss companies began adding iodine to salt for the same reason. At the request of the U.S. government, Morton Salt Company began creating iodized salt. The initiative helped and the region went from 30% hyperthyroidism to 2%. Today it is rarely seen in North America.
We harvest most of our iodine from natural gas fields in Chile and Japan using one of two methods. The blowing out method and the ion exchange method:
Based on information from the Kanto Natural Gas Development Co., Ltd.
Iodine is a trace element; do we need to be harvesting it so extensively from around the world? Our thyroid needs only about 70mcg/day of iodine. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends we consume about 150mcg/day of iodine. Currently, we consume much more than that at 210mcg/day. With so many of our health problems stemming from our consumption of salt, does it make sense to push heavy salt intake to fix one health problem that we are not currently facing and assist in the health problem that is proving to hurt us? In fact, because iodine is an unstable element, the levels recorded at the factory are not the same by the time the package reaches our home and especially after it sits on our pantry shelf. Plus, 75–90% of the average American sodium intake comes from processed foods that do not use iodine in their salt.
What about those individuals still living in the “goiter belt?” Well, the truth is we are not a culture that subsists on local diets. The people of these regions are eating food from all over the country and world, and do not have to worry about their low iodine levels locally. Without salt, which for health and practical reasons does not seem to make sense in great quantities for our diet, we can still get iodine from other sources. The best way to get iodine is from seaweed and shellfish. Dairy is high iodine, but not naturally so. The iodine solution used to clean the teet of the cows transfers to our milk. Fruit and vegetables are variable based on iodine levels in the soil, but cranberries, strawberries, navy beans, and kale seem to generally have higher levels.
I barely know what iodine is, yet I’ve been pouring it into my food all of my life. Researching online is difficult because of the drastic viewpoints on both sides. All I can do is try to read as much as I can, and with the given information make an educated decision. I do not know enough to make the statement that iodine should or should not be in our salt, but at least I am now on the track to having a better understanding of what is I eat and where it comes from.
