If salt is no longer a supplier of iodide, but there is no longer outbreaks of iodine deficiency like goitre, how are we all getting enough iodide in our diets?
In: Biology
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You’re getting plenty of iodized salt unless you cook all your own food.
You can also get iodine from other places. Eggs, dairy, some fish, and some vegetables are good sources of iodine.
we’re not. People are very quick to think diseases and deficiencies don’t exists anymore when they’re not right in your face. Said people will then find themselves in a position to make laws like banning iodine in salt….until eventually the deficiencies will come rearing back.
We’re a very stupid species.
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Many people do not. Around the world, it’s estimated that 2billion people have an iodine deficiency; in Canada it’s apparently ~12%. I just checked the U.S. figure, 17% of US adults, and it has increased by 50% since late 1970s because of changes in nutrition and food production (link [here](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12011-018-1606-5). People are honestly stupid and forgetting the horrors nutritional deficits used to cause, just like they forget the horrors of preventable diseases like measles. Just as FYI, in many much poorer countries like Serbia it is illegal to sell non-iodized salt in retail (it can only be sold for industrial uses).
Natural sources of iodine are meats and seafood. Also any animal products like dairy. For much of human history, meat was very expensive. You wouldn’t have any more than a single pound of meat a week if you were poor, let alone dairy products. So the poorest Europeans in places without inexpensive seafood would occasionally have iodine deficiency problems. Even then goiters among the rich who refused to eat the peasant dish of seafood weren’t uncommon. When we identified iodine as the culprit we added it to the food that everyone adds to their foods, salt. This meant even the poorest could get enough iodine, even if they didn’t get much meat.
These days, thanks to several factors, meat and dairy are relatively inexpensive. So even poor people can afford to have enough iodine rich food in their diet without it being added to salt. In fact the American diet is so rich in iodine that uniodized salt provides little to no risk of iodine deficiency, except among the poorest of the poor.
Iodized salt is not the only place we can get iodine from. It’s available in lots of seafood and animal products. The widespread fortification of salt with iodine was more useful in an era when substantial parts of the population may still be living primarily off of potatoes and grains. Anyone who cares enough about their salt to only buy fancy kosher salt is likely cooking a sufficiently varied diet that it won’t be an issue. There’s surely some vegan foodie out there at risk of iodine deficiency, but vegans are already managing all kinds of dietary lacunae, so what’s one more?
Though for what it’s worth, iodized salt is still cheap and plentiful. The other side of the foodie learning curve is realizing that some things don’t require kosher salt (e.g. salting water) or are actively improved by table salt (e.g. salting french fries). That means you’ll have a paper canister of table salt on your counter, and it might as well be iodized.
Some folks don’t. Iodized salt is still quite commonly available though, and many people eat at least some fish or shellfish, which provide it.
The podcast Revisionist History did a really great episode on how-why we decided to put iodine in salt.
https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/way-to-go-ohio
People;e with any sense get iodized salt from their grocer. If you use it at home, you likely hit your requirement.
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