SALT WARS

The jury is still out on whether iodine is hero or villain, as the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court deliberated on the subject.

- By Sonali Acharjee

The science remains unequivocal: iodine deficiency can cause goitre, hypothyroidism and irreversible developmental delays. In the most severe cases, lack of iodine during pregnancy results in cretinism-a condition of stunted growth and profound mental impairment in children. The World Health Organization estimates that over 1.9 billion people worldwide are at risk of iodine deficiency, making it one of the leading causes of preventable brain damage.

And iodisation through common salt remains the best and easiest method to enrich diets with iodine.