If I stop using iodized salt am I going to get goiters?

[Diogenes the Cynic]

I like to cook a lot and all the cookbooks and foodie shows say you should use kosher salt. I've been resisting because I'm afraid to go without the iodine I recently broke down and bought some kosher salt. It does, indeed, seem to taste better and flavor the food better. I think I would prefer it to the other stuff but if I start buying it exclusively, I'm worried that my family and I are going to get goiters. I'm not even sure what a goiter is but I know I don't want one. How rational is my fear. Have I been conditioned by the Morton people to believe I need something which I don't need at all or can get elsewhere.

So what's going to happen if I just quit using iodized salt completely? Also, do processed foods (canned, frozen, etc) use iodized salt?

[Ensign Edison]

It used to depend on where you lived. The closer you are to the sea, the more iodine gets into the soil, of course. But it's not really so much a problem in the US these days. Many processed foods do in fact contain iodized salt, and most people's diets aren't centered on locally-grown produce. If you're worried, eating seafood (animal or plant) regularly instead would certainly do the trick.

[BobT]

A goiter is an enlarged thyroid gland. It's the ultimate double chin.

[Squink]

Small to moderate-sized goiters are relatively common in the United States. The Great Lakes, Midwest, and Intermountain regions were once known as the "goiter belt." The routine use of iodized table salt now helps prevent this deficiency.NIH (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000383.htm)

[Ensign Edison]

Small to moderate-sized goiters are relatively common in the United States. The Great Lakes, Midwest, and Intermountain regions were once known as the "goiter belt." The routine use of iodized table salt now helps prevent this deficiency.NIH (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000383.htm)

A couple cites that iodine is available from other sources than iodized salt:

http://www.thyca.org/rai.htm:

These foods and ingredients are high in iodine.

* Seafood and sea products (fish, shellfish, seaweed, seaweed tablets, kelp). These are all very high in iodine and should be avoided.
* Dairy products (milk, cheese, cream, yogurt, butter, ice cream, powdered dairy creamers, other dairy products).
* Egg yolks or whole eggs or foods containing whole eggs.
* Foods or products that contain these additives: carrageen, agar-agar, algin, alginate, nori (these are food additives that are seaweed by-products).
* Commercial bakery products.
* Red Dye #3.
* Chocolate (for its milk content).
* Molasses (sulfured).
* Soy products (soy sauce, soy milk, tofu).
* Some beans – The National Institutes of Health diet says to avoid these beans: red kidney beans, lima beans, navy beans, pinto beans, and cowpeas.
* Potato skins.
* Rhubarb.

NIH also says (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002421.htm): "Seafood is naturally rich in iodine. Cod, sea bass, haddock, and perch are good sources. Kelp is the most common vegetable seafood that is a rich source of iodine. Dairy products and plants grown in soil that is rich in iodine are also good sources."

[Harmonious Discord]

Iodine deficiancy is a health problem in more ways than an enlarged thyroid. Someone with a goiter has a lump that can look like a grapefruit on the neck. I remember seeing an older farmer women whan I was a kid that had one. Not a pleasant site. You can use non iodized salt safely for a lot of your cooking. Make sure that you include it in meals sometimes. I keep Iodized salt for hamburgers and the like, and use the other in food where the taste ruins the food.

[Metacom]

Have you considered purchasing kosher salt and iodine supplements? You can get it in a pill...

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Thanks for the info. I think I'll heed HD's advice and keep a can of the iodized stuff around for table salt and the like and use the kosher for cooking.

[antechinus]

Brassica crops such as broccoli and cabbage contain thiocyanates. Thiocyanates inhibit iodine uptake, which leads to reduced thyroid function.

It is very important, especially for children and pregnant women, that iodised salt is used when foods high in thiocyanates are eaten. Children who grow up deficient in iodine suffer poor brain development.

BTW, brassica crops are very good for you. It is said they protect you from certain cancers. Just dont forget the iodised salt.

There was a case in Australia where dairy cattle grazing on pasture with brassica crops gave milk with high thiocyanate levels. Local children who drank the milk ended up with goitre. I will try and find a cite for this.

[Harmonious Discord]

Have you considered purchasing kosher salt and iodine supplements? You can get it in a pill...

My mother was comenting on having to take awful tasting Iodine tablets as a kid once a week at school. She also stated that a lot of adults had goiters. One thing we both thought of was that all the people we remember were women. It could be a once a month menstral linked problem, or the fact that the men ate something at lunch when not home. The woman that stayed at home never consumed the stuff the husband got in town or at the office.

[antechinus]

I found this PDF document, Newsletter of Thyroid Australia Ltd, February 2005 (http://www.thyroid.org.au/Download/Flyer_2005.1_Iodine.pdf).

Examples of well known goitrogens include:
• sulphur containing thionamides present in vegetables of the Brassica family
(cabbage, turnips, sprouts),
• cyanoglucosides present in some cassava plants and tobacco and
• complex fl avonoids present in some grains such as millet and barley.

The WHO says, “Iodine
defi ciency is the worldʼs most prevalent
– yet easily preventable – cause of brain
damage”. Where

Characteristics of IDD for children

Child Endemic goiter
Juvenile hypothyroidism
Stunted physical growth and impaired mental development
This article points out that the Australian dairy industry has traditionally used iodine sanitizers to clean equipment. The iodine contamination of milk from these has been a major source of iodine in our diet for the last 40 years. The problem is that the dairy industry is starting to use chlorine based sanitisers, which will lead to reduced iodine in our milk.

Couldnt find anything on the case of the cabbage consuming cows.

[Good Egg]

I've always had a goiter. Should I look into getting it removed?

[antechinus]

And cyanide from food (eg cassava - tapioca) and cigarettes (yes, cigarette smoke is high in cyanide) is converted to thiocyanate by rhodanase. So in some parts of the world where cassava is a staple and not prepared thoroughly to remove the cyanide, goitre and cretinism is a big problem.

Pregnant women who smoke or eat lots of cabbage and don't have sufficient dietry iodine are asking for a retarted child.

[MelCthefirst]

Apparently NZ has started getting more than its fair share of goitre due to lack of iodine in the diet. We've moved more to using sea salt which doesn't contain iodine and we also don't have much in our soil.