Eat Your Vitamins by Mascha Davis

Author:Mascha Davis [Davis, Mascha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Adams Media
Published: 2020-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

RECIPE

Since there are only trace amounts in foods, most intake in the United States comes from water.

Iodine

Iodine is essential for proper functioning of your thyroid, a tiny, butterfly-shaped organ at the base of your neck. The thyroid is also where most of the iodine in your body is stored. Iodine deficiency is quite common worldwide and has devastating effects. Deficiency in the US greatly declined after salt became fortified with iodine; however, iodized salt is not mandatory in the US, and some research, such as a 2015 article in the journal Nutrients, estimates that only about half the population consumes it. In fact, intake of iodine in the West in general has actually decreased in recent decades, for numerous reasons, such as the way food is processed and depletion of the soil. Pregnant women are most at risk for inadequate intake, since iodine needs increase to meet those of the growing baby.

Description

Iodine is like a control lever for critical hormone production that directly affects key processes like your metabolism. If there’s too little or too much iodine in the body, it throws the thyroid out of whack and can cause symptoms like fatigue, weight gain, and other thyroid problems. Your thyroid gland makes hormones called T3 and T4, which have iodine as a key component. A condition called goiter—enlargement of the thyroid gland, which is visible as a swollen lump in the neck—is the result of lack of iodine over time. Goiter occurs because the thyroid actually grows larger in an attempt to gather more iodine from circulating levels in the body.

A lot of iodine comes from the ocean, so areas closer to the coast tend to have more iodine in their soil and thus their food, which absorbs some of the iodine from the soil. If you don’t live close to the ocean, you may need to pay attention to your iodine intake to make sure you are getting enough.

Role in the Body

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.