Thursday Deep Thoughts: Goiters

In my constant quest for vintage pictures, I came across this ad for iodized salt. It really struck me funny. This is such a pretty little picture and goiters are sort of gross and ugly. So, in my constant quest for learning new things...be they particularly useful or not...I did some digging and reading.

In case you don't know...a goiter is a noncancerous enlargement of the thyroid gland, visible as a swelling at the front of the neck, that is often associated with iodine deficiency. Also called struma. Pretty unsightly...ew!

I didn't know about the cause being a lack of iodine. Huh. So, I decided to read a bit more about iodized salt and goiters. I wanted to make sure that my family wasn't going to be getting any goiters! I try to keep things lightly salted...and frankly, I had to check cuz I wasn't sure my salt was iodized.

Here's what I discovered about it:
Iodine was introduced into salt earlier this century when it was discovered that certain areas of the US had a marked deficiency in iodine in the diet of people, and people developed a neck swelling (goiter). The Great Lakes region is one of these areas where the soil is lacking iodine. Goiter can be caused when the thyroid gland swells because of a lack of iodine in the diet. Most medical advise now states that iodine in salt is no longer necessary due to our food sources arising from all over the world.Steve Sample

Interesting to me was a more recent post...
An article in the March/April 2006 issue of The Saturday Evening Post reported that “Government experts … warn that iodine deficiency—a serious health threat in developing nations—could resurface in this country.” The problem is this: Americans are eating more fancy salt—like kosher salt, sea salt, and fleur de sel — that don’t contain iodine, and less table salt, like Morton’s, which is typically fortified with iodine. Americans are also eating more meals in restaurants, and most pro kitchens use kosher salt.

I guess if you prefer fancy salts or light salt you can just try to eat lots of iodine full foods...like

* Seafood and sea products (fish, shellfish, seaweed, seaweed tablets, kelp).
* Dairy products (milk, cheese, cream, yogurt, butter, ice cream, powdered dairy creamers, other dairy products).
* Egg yolks or whole eggs or foods containing whole eggs.
* Foods or products that contain these additives: carrageen, agar-agar, algin, alginate, nori (these are food additives that are seaweed by-products).
* Commercial bakery products.
* Red Dye #3.
* Chocolate (for its milk content).
* Molasses (sulfured).
* Soy products (soy sauce, soy milk, tofu).
* Some beans – red kidney beans, lima beans, navy beans, pinto beans, and cowpeas.
* Potato skins.
* Rhubarb.