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I have seen and read some comments from the post: What is the difference between sea salt and regular table salt?

My questions are.

  1. Does Rock or Natural salt contain iodine?
  2. Does Table Salt contain Iodine or has Iodine been removed?
  3. Does "Iodised" / "Iodized" table salt have Iodine added?

I have been having a discussion with a friend on whether Iodine is added to salt.

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Valamas
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2 Answers2

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Iodine is commonly added to table salt, hence the term "Iodized".

This is purely a public health issue, much like fluoridation of water. The human body needs small quantities of Iodine for good health, and salt was the method chosen to give it to us. Just as fluoride is added to water, and Vitamin D is added to milk. It actually has nothing to do with the product, it's just a convenient carrier.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodised_salt for more information.

Chris Cudmore
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  • Does Iodine naturally occur in salt? – Valamas Nov 10 '11 at 22:05
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    @Valamas No for all practical purposes. See the Wikipedia article on sea salt, if it is present at all, then it is one of the "minor constituents" which are 0.01% taken all together. And for your question 2, if there was iodine in the salt in the first place, they wouldn't remove it - it would be expensive and serve no purpose. – rumtscho Nov 10 '11 at 22:37
  • This page http://blog.realsalt.com/2010/08/does-real-salt-have-the-iodine-we-need/ states "Real Salt does contain naturally-occurring iodine". So I am still looking for a concise answer. Sure, the gut reaction is to believe wikipedia which I usually do. – Valamas Nov 10 '11 at 22:53
  • @Valamas: Rest of that quote: "but not enough to satisfy the recommended daily allowance of 150 micrograms." I think the recommended daily salt intake is order of 2 grams, so in order to get 150 micrograms it'd have to be 0.0075% iodine. And like rumtscho pointed out, the total of all the "minor constituents" is only 0.01%. "No for all practical purposes" and "yes, a teeny tiny bit" are consistent. – Cascabel Nov 10 '11 at 23:46
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    Also, from one of the references on the wikipedia page: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) recommends...equivalent to 46–76 mg I/kg salt." and ""It is a myth (often also false advertising) that “natural” sea salt contains significant amounts of iodine. The iodide content of seawater is only...2.1 mg I/kg NaCl. ... In evaporatively prepared salt, the iodide/chloride ratio is even lower because of iodine loss; crystallization processes leave iodide selectively in the mother liquor. ... <0.7 mg I/kg." – Cascabel Nov 10 '11 at 23:49
  • Thank you very much everyone. This will help my "discussion" with my friend. – Valamas Nov 11 '11 at 00:09
  • Many governments are recommending adding iodine to other food (bread etc) other than salt as many people are tending towards a lower salt diet – TFD Nov 11 '11 at 03:07
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In an effort to prevent goiter related to iodine deficiency, authorities ruled that iodine be added to U.S. salt products in 1924.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2377052/How-adding-iodine-salt-America-smarter.html#ixzz3YsW6Dod7

rumtscho
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Wahab
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    Perhaps you could add some more details from the link here? Link-only answers are discouraged because they become useless in the future if the link dies and at the moment this seems mainly promotional. – PeterJ May 01 '15 at 10:29
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    I think this does qualify as an answer, even though a short one. So I wouldn't delete it. But I'm downvoting because The Daily Mail is a very unreliable source. – rumtscho May 01 '15 at 11:21
  • As bad as it is, goiter is hardly the worst effect of chronic iodine deficiency either. It's shown to cause significant developmental problems for children of iodine deficient mothers. http://www.thyroid.org/iodine-deficiency/ It's quite common in lots of places outside america too. New Zealand has effectively no naturally occuring Iodine in the soil, therefore salt, and now bread is iodized in NZ. see:http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/preventative-health-wellness/nutrition/iodine for a good breakdown of how much and why. – Leliel Jan 31 '17 at 20:43