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We use sea salt from our local health food store. I've ignored the notation "this does not contain iodine, a necessary nutrient". Recently I read that you *definitely* need to consume iodized salt b/c your thyroid needs the iodine when you are pregnant (we're ttc).

I don't really understand all this. If it's so necessary, why didn't mother nature put it in our wonderful sea salt? What other food sources contain iodine--sea veggies, I suppose?

Any thoughts on this?
 

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Sorta hijaking here sorry. I never add salt to my food, if I buy something premade that has salt in it already fine I eat it but I don't ever add any. I think my thyroid is sorta out of wack, I wonder if that is from lack of iodine during my pregnancies? Although I do eat cheese, meat and bread frequently enough to have gotten some iodine.
 

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Personally I wouldn't worry too much about not using Iodized Salt.

I had thyroid cancer a few years ago. Part of the treatment required me to be on a 100% iodine free diet. This is virtually impossible in the United States. Among the things I could not have because of iodine content, any canned foods(salt in the canning process, even if "salt-free" may contain another source of iodine), any dairy products (they use iodine to wash the equipment), any baked goods that I did not make from scratch myself using absolutely no dairy in the process, roasted nuts (I was able to buy raw nuts and roast them myself), anything with any red dye (including the medication that the pharmacy tried to give me as a necessary part of my treatment - had to switch to a different kind), any food that was not made from scratch using all raw ingredients, etc... This was all really fun considering that I was so sick I could barely get myself the 20 feet from my bed to the kitchen to get something to eat, let alone have to have everything from scratch and only a limited list of acceptable foods.

The wonderful people who have decided to put additives in our food are probably making sure that you are getting plenty of iodine. I know people need it, but it just makes me mad that the powers that be decided that people can't be trusted to include it in their diets on their own. Okay, my rant is over.

The point is, unless you are a vegan who grows all of her own food, bakes her own bread and never eats out, odds are you are getting enough iodine without adding iodized salt to your food.
 

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Before the salt was iodized, goiters and other thyroid issues were much more common. When that was done, the incidence went down in this country.

I'm reading up on thyroid now, since I have some sort of problem causing mine to be enlarged. It is possible to get too much iodine, but it's also possible to get too little...

If you're not using much processed food or dairy, I'd say go for the iodized, judiciously sprinkled on after cooking so you taste it and thus don't use too much... According to the book I'm reading, using sea vegies too often can easily get you too much iodine. And that's not good either.
 
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