Iodine

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Iodine

Postby HealthFreak » Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:41 pm

If a person never uses table salt (iodized) and doesn't take a multi-vitamin will they get enough iodine? When salt is added to processed foods do they use iodized salt? For example when I look on the label of a McDougall cup of soup or most soups in a can they have added sodium. What kind of salt do they use in general?
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Re: Iodine

Postby JeffN » Thu Jun 19, 2008 7:05 pm

HealthFreak wrote:If a person never uses table salt (iodized) and doesn't take a multi-vitamin will they get enough iodine? When salt is added to processed foods do they use iodized salt? For example when I look on the label of a McDougall cup of soup or most soups in a can they have added sodium. What kind of salt do they use in general?


Hi

Good questions.

I recommend you check out this threads where this issue is thoroughly discussed.

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Postby TominTN » Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:30 am

Hi, Jeff.

Is this the thread you meant?

http://drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=38121
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Re: Iodine

Postby HealthFreak » Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:32 am

JeffN wrote:
HealthFreak wrote:I recommend you check out this threads where this issue is thoroughly discussed.


You forgot to add the thread. Thanks.
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Postby HealthFreak » Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:00 pm

It shed some light on the issue but has not resolved all of my questions. I never add table salt to anything that I eat. From the thread I gathered that most processed food uses iodized salt. I do eat processed food several times a week, even though my goal is to cut it out as much as possible. The processed food I do eat is whole grain and as low fat and low sodium as I can find. The iodine issue bothers me a little because too much is really bad and too little is really bad also. I bought some kelp pills to supplement with, but I'm scared to take them very often. One pill provides around 100% of the daily RDA.
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Postby JeffN » Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:01 pm

TominTN wrote:Hi, Jeff.

Is this the thread you meant?

http://drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=38121


Yes. Thanks!

There is no one single simple answer but the thread discusses the issue.

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Postby prairiedream » Sat Jun 21, 2008 9:31 am

I wrote to Kraft one time to ask them if they used iodized salt in their processed food and they wrote back and said "no, it's not iodized." So that's at least one manufacturer that doesn't use iodine in its salt. Not that I should be eating processed Kraft foods to begin with, but before I gave up salad dressing, I was eating the Catalina dressing on my salads, and for a while it was the only extra salt that I was allowing in my diet, so I also had worries about iodine.
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Postby HealthFreak » Sat Jun 21, 2008 4:02 pm

I subscribed to The Nutrition Action Health Letter after listening to one of Dr McDougall's podcasts. I really like it. Last month's edition was all about supplements. They ran down every vitamin and mineral and talked about possible deficiency's, supplementing etc. Their recommendation for iodine was, don't worry about it, it's not an issue. Those are my own words but basically they said it is not a concern and does not need any supplementing.

http://www.cspinet.org/nah/index.htm
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Re: Iodine

Postby dorsy » Sun Jun 22, 2008 2:32 pm

HealthFreak wrote:If a person never uses table salt (iodized) and doesn't take a multi-vitamin will they get enough iodine? When salt is added to processed foods do they use iodized salt? For example when I look on the label of a McDougall cup of soup or most soups in a can they have added sodium. What kind of salt do they use in general?



When I was a kid in school we learned that people got goiters because they didn't eat seafood which contains iodine. They told us that in places in our country that did not have access to seafood, the goiter rate was high. I always thought that eating fish supplied enough iodine for health.
Of course, I went to school in the dark ages.

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Postby HealthFreak » Sun Jun 22, 2008 9:53 pm

Carroll wrote:
HealthFreak wrote:Their recommendation for iodine was, don't worry about it, it's not an issue.


What did they base this on? It seems odd to me because I do believe there was a good reason to start iodizing salt and studies have shown iodine deficiency to be a concern for those avoiding iodine sources like dairy and iodized salt, so I'd really like to know more about how they came to this conclusion.


I'm think they said don't worry about iodine because they assume that the general population eats a lot of iodized salt. That's my guess. The health letter didn't elaborate on it.
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Postby Faith in DC » Mon Jun 23, 2008 11:49 am

Hopefully Jeff will see this. I've been following this thread because I have symptoms of low sodium.

First off, I basically got out of the habit of using table salt back in 1975. I became a mcdougaller in 1994 though those early years we could eat some faux meats. It was about 6 years later that I got a goiter.

Now in the past two years I've repeatedly came back with a low sodium in my blood. NOW, I am not perfect, and do eat some restaurant food once a week. I still don't salt my food. I will use tamari sauce and other high sodium things but not often. OH and I do use canned or right foods soups.

Is this all related to me not using salt? I've cut back my water, which was a habit to drink on, but even on friday, my sodium was one point too low, which is good for me. It has gotten into a dangerous level. Choloride also tends to run low with it. Friday's test it came in just normal.
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Postby HealthFreak » Mon Jun 23, 2008 12:40 pm

I've started taking a kelp pill each day. It has 100% of the RDA for iodine.
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Postby JeffN » Mon Jun 23, 2008 1:25 pm

geoffreylevens wrote: One point though is that there is a world of difference between ordinary table salt as used in packaged foods and restaurants vs untreated sea salt.


On sea salt

http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5966

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Postby Faith in DC » Mon Jun 23, 2008 1:29 pm

One time my potassium was too high, I guess because I eat so many fruits and veggies, so the sodium to potassium ratio was off. Of course, I'm thinking the iodine because of the goiter, though the damage is done there.

I did start using some sea salt but it's so infrequent that I guess it doesn't help. I just am not use to salting my food. But thanks. I just feel like I've created many problems in my body while I tried to get healthy.
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Postby JeffN » Mon Jun 23, 2008 1:30 pm

Faith in DC wrote:Now in the past two years I've repeatedly came back with a low sodium in my blood.


Dietary sodium is not directly related to serum sodium levels.

Low serum sodium levels may be related to dehydration, vomiting, diarrhea, diuresis, burns, drugs, or ketonuria. Also, depending on fluid volume, it may be related to too much of the hormone vasopressin, not enough of the antidiuretic hormone (SAIDH), hypothyroidism, Addison's, heart function, kidney function, or liver function.

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