The Best Places To Source The Iodine Needed In Your Diet – By Author Brenda Davis

Intro

And finally iodine so people eating plant-based are definitely at higher risk for iodine deficiency why number one we do tend to avoid iodized salt and number two we do not consume the common sources of iodine which are fish and dairy products so if you look at the iodine intakes and status of vegans well they they have uh shortfalls we have a multiple studies showing vegans having lower than optimal intakes and status where iodine is concerned but the risk is highest in places where they have low.

Iodine content in their soil and in north america we have reasonable iodine content in the soil but in europe we we have some places like italy in the uk and even finland a number of the countries in europe really have very low levels of iodine in their soil iodine deficiency causes goiter if it's severe which is an enlarged thyroid and your thyroid enlarges to try to trap iodine and it can cause cra it can cause creatinism which is the number one form of mental retardation in.

The world um it can cause stillbirth and miscarriage so it's it's really really important that women who are you know planning on getting pregnant that they be iodine replete mild deficiency even just mild deficiency can rob your baby of 10 to 15 iq points and this can very significantly affect learning ability.

Iodine RDA

So if you look at the rdas you're looking at about 150 micrograms for for anyone over the age of 14 years a little bit more during pregnancy and lactation but look at this for babies birth to 12 months you're looking at a 110 micrograms for birth to six months and 130 for babies seven to 12 months that's a lot when you look at the relative weight of a baby versus an adult it's almost as high as adult requirements so it's a very important nutrient so.

Iodine Sources

What are the sources well iodized salt is a source seaweed and seafood are huge sources dairy is a source because iodine is used to clean cow teats it's not that it's naturally there it's there because we use it in in cleaning the teats some grain products iodine is a dough conditioner in those products some fruits and vegetables are reasonable sources as well and eggs is a are a source if you look at.

Common Foods

The iodine content of common foods you can see seaweeds between 16 and almost 4 000 micrograms in a gram of seaweed it's unbelievable and then you've got cod and then iodized salt and then milk yogurt eggs tuna you know this is all animal products animal products and then when you go down to look at the fruits and and vegetables you're looking at between about 3 and 12 or 13 micrograms in a serving so they're fairly low amounts and so we really hard to get enough just.

From fruits and vegetables and even greens.

Supplements

So for 150 micrograms of iodine we could use a supplement whether it's a a multi or a single nutrient iodine supplement iodized salt you can get iodized sea salt with all without other additives which you would want to read the label and make sure there's there's not uh these these woody call to make the salt flow properly uh there's sometimes additives that you really don't want but you can read the label and you don't want to be eating a lot of salt anyway but you can.

Get enough from about two mils which is about about a half a teaspoon will give you enough and now seaweed is a to me a healthier choice it's uh it's got a lot of value uh so you can get in in about us you know a tenth or a sixteenth of a teaspoon of kelp you'll get of kelp powder you'll get about 150 micrograms that's just a tiny sprinkle you don't even taste it in your super on your salad that's a very reasonable way nori is.

Is the lowest in iodine of of the seaweeds you need about one and a half sheets of nori to give you 150 micrograms and then rame or dolce uh you need a couple you know half a teaspoon so it's again quite concentrated in iodine as well so these are really good choices the amounts in seaweeds vary so widely and it's important to know that the upper limit is 1100 micrograms if you exceed that you can end up with thyroid issues and so we need to be.

Careful of not overdoing the seaweed and just being really conscious especially if you're using kelp you can very easily consume toxic amounts so if you're using kelp it's very tiny amounts.

Goitrogens

What about the goitrogens in foods well goitrogens are substances in food that can reduce the thyroid iodine uptake and our production of thyroid hormones but they're usually only a problem if someone has thyroid disease or iodine intake is insufficient so there so let's say you're on a raw food diet and you're not eating seaweed and you're eating a lot of cruciferous vegetables and a lot of goitrogens it can actually contribute to your problems with making enough thyroid.

Goitrogenic Foods

Hormone so what foods are goitrogenic well cruciferous vegetables flax seeds peanuts pine nuts peaches pears strawberries millet soy beans sweet potatoes spinach and green tea are all fairly reasonable sources of goitrogens so should we avoid them absolutely not.

Moderate Goitrogens

healthy people don’t need to avoid these very nutritious foods but we need to make sure we get enough iodine some people with thyroid disease may need to moderate their intake of goitrogens and there are ways of doing that so if you cook like just steam lightly your goitrogenic vegetables that will help to reduce the goitrogens you can ferment the vegetables that also reduces the goitrogens and just increase the variety of foods that you eat so don’t focus on just millet as your grain for example vary that so that you’re not getting as much of the goitrogens and then where where thyroid function is concerned we also need to be aware of getting enough selenium and of course the richest source in a plant-based diet is brazil nuts vitamins a d iron and zinc are also very important to thyroid function and the other thing we need to know is if you have some problems with thyroid you may have compromised ability to absorb vitamin b12 and so you need to be very conscious of your b12