I am looking into iodine. Nascent iodine seems to be the best, but I am still researching it. Does anyone have any factual knowledge about iodine. I know you can get it in kelp, but that has a mercury risk. Also there is the kind you put on your skin as it is too difficult for the stomach to deal with. Nascent iodine you take one drop three times a day on an empty stomach in water or fruit water as it tastes a bit unpleasant. Anybody actually taking it?
Iodine
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Thanks amberfunk. I have now turned my attention to finding iodised salt. Where do you get yours as I am finding it hard to track down?
Lou
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I wasn't planning to reply to this thread because I don't know that much about Iodine. But I have a little bit and this is what I can tell you.
The mRDA of iodine is extremely small. Basically microscopic. But it varies. and is higher in certain people. I think its highest for pregnant women. The consequences of an iodine deficiency are pretty bad. So a while back in the USA it was decided to iodize salt to reduce the chances and occurrences of iodine deficiency. Plus the toxicity level of iodine is pretty high. So it was totally unlikely if not impossible to OD on iodine in salt. most multivitamins don't contain iodine.
Here in America most of the table salt we buy is iodized. but you don't have to buy iodized salt. There are plenty of non-iodized versions. Especially now with what i call boutique salts. Like the blues and blacks etc. I also recall reading somewhere that American restaurants and makers of ready made meals do not use iodized salts.
Iodine also occurs in lots of kinds of food. Even plant foods. But if your crops are grown inland or in soil depleted of minerals this can be an issue. This can be more of an issue in the populations of third world countries where malnutrition is already a concern.
Anyway, if you don't add iodized salts to your foods, and don't eat animal products, and your crops are grown inland or in depleted soil, you could be vulnerable to an iodine deficiency. I did read somewhere that there has been an increase of iodine deficiency cases in the UK. Enough so that, they have started thinking about also adding iodine to table salt.
I'm not sure why you are worried about iodine. but you could take a multi that contains iodine (most don't but there a few that do) . Most iodine supplements are made from kelp. and the issue with kelp is not mercury but arsenic. But there should be no issue if you follow the directions.
I've been doing some more reading about this. Since I rarely add salt to my foods, and I don't know the iodine content of the foods I do eat, I'm thinking of going to buy some powdered kelp and just adding a little to my smoothies. Just to be sure.
FYI
https://veganhealth.org/iodine/
https://www.vegansociety.com/search/node/iodine
https://www.onegreenplanet.org/foodandhealth/iodine-in-a-vegan-diet/
https://www.vivahealth.org.uk/should-we-be-worried-about-iodine
The mRDA of iodine is extremely small. Basically microscopic. But it varies. and is higher in certain people. I think its highest for pregnant women. The consequences of an iodine deficiency are pretty bad. So a while back in the USA it was decided to iodize salt to reduce the chances and occurrences of iodine deficiency. Plus the toxicity level of iodine is pretty high. So it was totally unlikely if not impossible to OD on iodine in salt. most multivitamins don't contain iodine.
Here in America most of the table salt we buy is iodized. but you don't have to buy iodized salt. There are plenty of non-iodized versions. Especially now with what i call boutique salts. Like the blues and blacks etc. I also recall reading somewhere that American restaurants and makers of ready made meals do not use iodized salts.
Iodine also occurs in lots of kinds of food. Even plant foods. But if your crops are grown inland or in soil depleted of minerals this can be an issue. This can be more of an issue in the populations of third world countries where malnutrition is already a concern.
Anyway, if you don't add iodized salts to your foods, and don't eat animal products, and your crops are grown inland or in depleted soil, you could be vulnerable to an iodine deficiency. I did read somewhere that there has been an increase of iodine deficiency cases in the UK. Enough so that, they have started thinking about also adding iodine to table salt.
I'm not sure why you are worried about iodine. but you could take a multi that contains iodine (most don't but there a few that do) . Most iodine supplements are made from kelp. and the issue with kelp is not mercury but arsenic. But there should be no issue if you follow the directions.
I've been doing some more reading about this. Since I rarely add salt to my foods, and I don't know the iodine content of the foods I do eat, I'm thinking of going to buy some powdered kelp and just adding a little to my smoothies. Just to be sure.
FYI
https://veganhealth.org/iodine/
https://www.vegansociety.com/search/node/iodine
https://www.onegreenplanet.org/foodandhealth/iodine-in-a-vegan-diet/
https://www.vivahealth.org.uk/should-we-be-worried-about-iodine
Thank you Lou. I have looked at all your links, very interesting, and they oppose each other sometimes. I have always, as far back as I can remember, lacked energy and been pale, my mum would put rouge on me. In my twenties my doctor told me always to have iron supplements in the cupboard, which I have done. But my friend was diagnosed with an under active thyroid, after a long long time, and she mentioned that my symptoms are similar to hers. I do not do doctors any more, so I looked into iodine as I don't seem to get a lot of it in my diet. I'm over sixty now, better late than never.
Jamie in Chile
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Iodine is one of the things that is at risk of being low on a vegan diet, but it's very hard to estimate the total amount in your diet.
I put iodine in tap water and then drink that. I need to purify the tap water since it is not reliable here and I like to drink tap water since it is cheaper and better for the environment than boiling water or using mineral water. The amount needed to purify a day's water corresponds reasonably closely with the amount I need a day, so it works well. You need to be very careful with the dosage however, because you can get too much. Due to the risk of miscalculating the amounts, I hesitate a bit to recommend this approach.
Iodized salt is simpler. I also use iodized salt. Normal salt is iodized. It won't say iodized on the front and you aren't looking for anything special. Just regular table salt and then read the ingredients. Just wanted to check you knew that. According to: https://www.bda.uk.com/foodfacts/Iodine: "Iodised salt is not widely available in the UK but can be found in some branches of several supermarket chains." It also says: "As government recommendations are to reduce salt intake for health reasons, you should not rely on iodised table salt as a means of increasing your iodine intake." I think this comment is debatable, since it depends on your existing diet. If you eat a lot of processed foods, you likely eat more salt as these foods already have it, in larger quantities than when you manually scatter in on your food. However if you eat a lot of fruit, vegetables, salad, non-processed foods, then likely you are fine to scatter around extra salt.
I also read that cranberries and strawberries are high in iodine, but I have not checked this in detail.
I put iodine in tap water and then drink that. I need to purify the tap water since it is not reliable here and I like to drink tap water since it is cheaper and better for the environment than boiling water or using mineral water. The amount needed to purify a day's water corresponds reasonably closely with the amount I need a day, so it works well. You need to be very careful with the dosage however, because you can get too much. Due to the risk of miscalculating the amounts, I hesitate a bit to recommend this approach.
Iodized salt is simpler. I also use iodized salt. Normal salt is iodized. It won't say iodized on the front and you aren't looking for anything special. Just regular table salt and then read the ingredients. Just wanted to check you knew that. According to: https://www.bda.uk.com/foodfacts/Iodine: "Iodised salt is not widely available in the UK but can be found in some branches of several supermarket chains." It also says: "As government recommendations are to reduce salt intake for health reasons, you should not rely on iodised table salt as a means of increasing your iodine intake." I think this comment is debatable, since it depends on your existing diet. If you eat a lot of processed foods, you likely eat more salt as these foods already have it, in larger quantities than when you manually scatter in on your food. However if you eat a lot of fruit, vegetables, salad, non-processed foods, then likely you are fine to scatter around extra salt.
I also read that cranberries and strawberries are high in iodine, but I have not checked this in detail.
I take a north Atlantic kelp capsule every day. The mercury you get is miniscule compared to what you would get from something higher up the food chain like a tuna and I believe the benefits of sea vegetables outweigh the risk.
I also have a couple different bottles of liquid iodine and one of them is Atomidine, a 'nascent' iodine but nascant iodine is only some kind of psuedo science Edgar Cayce stuff. I don't use that one much but I do ocassionally have a few drops in water of another, conventional kind which is made of iodine and potassium iodide.
I also have a couple different bottles of liquid iodine and one of them is Atomidine, a 'nascent' iodine but nascant iodine is only some kind of psuedo science Edgar Cayce stuff. I don't use that one much but I do ocassionally have a few drops in water of another, conventional kind which is made of iodine and potassium iodide.
Thank you everybody. Jamie, you mention strawberries, I checked and they are high in iodine as long as you do not cook them, so jam would be no good. I have been eating strawberries all Summer, and feeling quite good, I noticed my hayfever stopped as well. I have bought some pink himalayan salt, but will ration it if I have strawberries, they are still in season and very nice at the moment. I understand too much iodine is not good for you, but am not clear on the symptoms of too much in the system.
Lou
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Pink Himalayan salt does not contain as much iodine as iodized salt. but it has lots of other trace minerals. So it's still a good purchase.
It is hard to estimate how much iodine is in our vegetables and fruits. It does depend on the soil. It's probably a good amount if your crops are grown close to the ocean. But still, it might be hard to meet ALL your iodine requirements from produce.
Interesting factoid: 100 years ago portions of the USA were called the goiter belt because of iodine deficiencies. (from soil depletion and rarity of seafood). It was then suggested that iodine should be added to salt (which is still voluntary). Today goiter is pretty rare in the US.
For us vegans, who don't add iodized salt to our foods, it seems like maybe the best bet is to add a quarter tsp or less of dried kelp to some of our foods (salad dressings, smoothies, soups, etc.). Kelp has so much iodine that you actually have to be careful that you don't add too much.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/315081.php
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=69
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/iodine-rich-foods
It is hard to estimate how much iodine is in our vegetables and fruits. It does depend on the soil. It's probably a good amount if your crops are grown close to the ocean. But still, it might be hard to meet ALL your iodine requirements from produce.
Interesting factoid: 100 years ago portions of the USA were called the goiter belt because of iodine deficiencies. (from soil depletion and rarity of seafood). It was then suggested that iodine should be added to salt (which is still voluntary). Today goiter is pretty rare in the US.
For us vegans, who don't add iodized salt to our foods, it seems like maybe the best bet is to add a quarter tsp or less of dried kelp to some of our foods (salad dressings, smoothies, soups, etc.). Kelp has so much iodine that you actually have to be careful that you don't add too much.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/315081.php
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=69
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/iodine-rich-foods
Jamie in Chile
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I vaguely recall that a problem with relying on seaweed for certain nutrients is that the amounts vary a lot depending on the seaweed. I am not sure if this is true for iodine specifically, but it might be worth checking for anyone planning on this approach.
https://www.healthline.com/health/iodine-poisoning has more info on what happens if you take too much. I have just googled this and don't know how reliable this website is, but at a glance the advice seems sensible and some parts of it are consistent with what I already found elsewhere.
https://www.healthline.com/health/iodine-poisoning has more info on what happens if you take too much. I have just googled this and don't know how reliable this website is, but at a glance the advice seems sensible and some parts of it are consistent with what I already found elsewhere.
Lou
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@jaime.
You are right.
Kelp can have as much as 2000% of the mRDA per gram. You have to be careful not to take too much. The product that I was looking at recommends like a quarter teaspoon a day.
Other types of "sea vegetables" have anywhere between 10% and 500% of the mRDA per gram. And I don't think many of the packages include iodine on the nutrient label. So it might be a little tricky to figure it out.
You are right.
Kelp can have as much as 2000% of the mRDA per gram. You have to be careful not to take too much. The product that I was looking at recommends like a quarter teaspoon a day.
Other types of "sea vegetables" have anywhere between 10% and 500% of the mRDA per gram. And I don't think many of the packages include iodine on the nutrient label. So it might be a little tricky to figure it out.
Jamie in Chile
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I have just read back my post and this one part was inaccurate, sorry about that.
I meant to say that the amount needed to purify a day's water is within the tolerable limits, but it is actually much more at the higher end of what's tolerable rather than the lower end of what's tolerable (as implied by "need").
To purify unsafe water, you need about 1000 micrograms/Litre by my estimation. Primary source from memory was I think: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1638306/pdf/envhper00309-0035.pdf Even then, you should leave it some hours to kill viruses/cysts in addition to bacteria. I leave it overnight.
The 1000 micrograms per litre as an amount to purify its itself debatable also, but going by that figure you would of course get 1000 micrograms of iodine from 1 litre of purified water and 1000 micrograms is already the maximum reccomended amount. (The minimum is 150 micrograms.)
If you drank tap water all day with 1000 microgram/L as your only beverage, you would go several times over the reccomended amount. However, given what I read about scientific studies on populations that have gone over that amount - notably the Japanese - the 1000 micrograms per day upper limit is likely very conservative.
So I drink 1-3 litres of purified water on most days and supplement with mineral water, boiled water, or other drinks above that amount. I am not going to drink tap water with iodine for close to 100% of what I drink. I also sometimes go for some days without drinking it at all.
So just to clarify, if your tap water is perfectly drinkable - e.g. if you live in North America or Western Europe - then you certainly don't need to add iodine to ALL your drinking water at 1000mcg/L purely to meet your iodine needs. You could add it at that concentration to just one glass or water to get above the minimum, or reduce the concentration by a factor of ten if you were adding it to all drinkable water.
Also, to add further, I hope no-one just reads what I've wrote and decides to just go ahead with it. I suggest you either a) don't use this approach to meet iodine needs b) verify this strategy and dosage levels with a relevant professional or c) go back and read the original research and verify yourself. After all, I may have made a mistake. I may be saying something wrong. It is just forum talk. It's not like I have any relevant professional knowledge.
If you are going to go buying bottles of iodine and start making your own calculations, and pouring it into drinking water, which is what I am doing, there are risks. You better know what you are doing. If you put milligrams instead of micrograms for example you are going to drink 1000 times too much and give yourself very serious iodine poisoning.
Also anyone with thyroid conditions, pregnancy possibility, or specific dietary conditions probably should just especially completely ignore all of this advice and see a professional.
Sorry for going on at too much length about this, but after the first post I made I think it was necessary to add this just in case.
mcg = micrograms
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Jamie in Chile
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The British Dietectic Association has a short and useful fact sheet at http://www.btf-thyroid.org/images/documents/BDA_IodineFoodFactSheet.pdf
They suggest 600 mcg as an upper limit, which seems very conservative. 1000 mcg I mentioned is the normally reccomended maximum amount in the US.
Low iodine is also a serious issue in pregnancy, and this issue is rarely mentioned. Pregnant vegans should look especially carefully at their iodine, or perhaps even any woman/couple of child bearing age that is in a relationship or sexually active, because your foetus could be developing badly due to low iodine before you even realize you are pregnant with an unplanned child, or before you have had time to research nutrition issues.
They suggest 600 mcg as an upper limit, which seems very conservative. 1000 mcg I mentioned is the normally reccomended maximum amount in the US.
Low iodine is also a serious issue in pregnancy, and this issue is rarely mentioned. Pregnant vegans should look especially carefully at their iodine, or perhaps even any woman/couple of child bearing age that is in a relationship or sexually active, because your foetus could be developing badly due to low iodine before you even realize you are pregnant with an unplanned child, or before you have had time to research nutrition issues.
