Iodine

I remember years ago when I first started working as a nutritional health coach, a lady randomly told me that I am smart, but if I want really intelligent babies to make sure I supplement with iodine before conception,while I am pregnant and when I am breastfeeding.  This sparked my curiosity and research about iodine. 

A growing number of the US population and in developed nations around the world are becoming deficient in iodine for a number of reasons including:

• the depleted soil 

• food choices more and more people are drinking nut milks instead of dairy (which is high in iodine) 

• a move away from animal products in general 
• less intake of iodized salt and also iodized salt simply not having as much iodine as it claims

There are also some chemicals in our environment that interfere with our absorption of iodine such as processed nitrates, fluoride and bromide.  

Iodine a micro nutrient/mineral is important for much more than not developing a goiter as so many of us learned in school.

Iodine is necessary for many things it supports:  

• thyroid health (a component of thyroxine and other thyroid hormones)

• fertility

• lack of iodine has been linked to autoimmune issues 

• hormonal health--healthy detoxification of estrogen/excess estrogen

• ovarian health 

• breast health (lots of interesting studies on iodine consumption and breast cancer this goes back to it being good for managing estrogen) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5327366/  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2452979/ also breast have an increased uptake of iodine.

• metabolism

• neurological development

• IQ ..brain health

• detoxification 

• basically every cell in your body

Also iodine deficiency is more common in women than men, because estrogen inhibits absorption of iodine (oh estrogen!), while testosterone may promote absorption. Notice how more women than men seem to have hypothyroidism?

Food for thought, the societies with lowest breast cancer mortality rates also eat tons of sea vegetables (ahem china & japan) the iodine the foods supply could be a major player in this in.

the RDA for iodine is as follows:

• birth to 6 months 110mcg
• 7-12 months 130mcg
• 1-8 yrs 90mcg
• 9-13 yrs 120 mcg
• 14 yrs and older 'adults' 150 mcg
• pregnant women 220 mcg
• breastfeeding women 290 mcg

Personally I don't do a supplement, but I like to use kelp or dulse granules at times instead of salt (the kelp granules pictured above contain 970% of the RDA for iodine in 1 tsp). I also love (actually I'm obsessed with) seaweed. Spirulina, chlorella (sea veggies in general), fish/seafood, cranberries, eggs, potatoes, navy beans, grass fed butter, are also good sources of iodine

Unless you know for sure you have a deficiency or have symptoms common of iodine deficiency (extreme fatigue, hormonal issues, slow metabolism etc)  I wouldn't do a supplement, because iodine can easily be overdone--as of late I've been seeing many alternatives medicine practitioners/nutritionists saying most everyone (especially ladies) should do a supplement. I like to be on the side of caution and get it from food. Also generally speaking a multivitamin will have some iodine.

You can also try the Iodine patch test talked about here:

basically you apply a patch of topical iodine on your skin and if its still there at the end of the day you probably have enough iodine, if it has disappeared you're probably deficient. --the lighter you are the easier it will be to see the results from this test. A blood test or iodine loading test will of course be more accurate. 

If you find yourself having to supplement I prefer a nascent colloidal iodine from kelp like the one pictured above OR a wholefood iodine supplement like this one from nutrigold  that comes from organic hebridean seaweed.

Thanks for reading! And as always take my word for it, but do your OWN research! :)