Salt is good for you?

Go to you cupboard and take out your container of salt. More than likely there are two very distinctive items on the label. One is a well know logo the other is most often over looked.

The distinctive logo that is probably on your salt is of a little girl holding an umbrella in the rain. Am I right? The other most often over looked item is the word IODIZED. I mean we don't say "Pass me the iodized salt please." Do we? Or "That comment was like rubbing iodized salt in the wound."

We do however hear that salt is bad for us. And of course too much of a good thing is always bad. But in moderation as in all things salt; iodized salt that is, is not only tasty but is is an important part of preventive medicine.

Iodised salt is table salt mixed with a minute amount of potassium iodide, sodium iodide or iodate, is used to help reduce the chance of iodine deficiency in humans. Iodine deficiency commonly leads to thyroid gland problems, specifically endemic goiter. Endemic goiter is a disease characterized by a swelling of the thyroid gland, usually resulting in a bulbous protrusion on the neck. While only tiny quantities of iodine are required in a diet to prevent goiter, the United States Food and Drug Administration recommends 150 microgrammes of iodine per day for both men and women, and there are many places around the world where natural levels of iodine in the soil are low and the iodine is not taken up by vegetables.

Today, iodized salt is more common in the United States, Australia and New Zealand than in Britain.

In the U.S. in the early 20th century, goiter was especially prevalent in the region around the Great Lakes and the Pacific Northwest. Goiter began receiving serious attention as a result of the World War I draft pointing to the problem in Northern Michigan and Wisconsin. At this time, many men were disqualified from military service as a result of the public health problem. This raised questions beyond the ability of these men to serve in the war. Many asked: if they could not do this, how useful were they in everyday civilian life?

David Murray Cowie pioneered the salt iodation process in America. A professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan, Cowie was concerned about the widespread problem of goiter in Michigan (nicknamed the "goiter belt" of America). Aware of the Swiss process of adding sodium iodide or potassium iodide to table and cooking salt, Cowie decided that a simple way to address the problem of iodine deficiency would be to merely implement the Swiss solution in America. He had noted that adding iodine to aquatic environments in the Pacific Northwest seemed to decrease the incidence of goiter among fish species. Public opinion also supported his effort in that "important discoveries of vitamins and their roles in food nutrition" were happening during the period. Cowie appealed to the Michigan State Medical Society, a "productive group which concerned itself with the search for answers to difficult medical questions pertaining to the health of the state's residents". Read more...