QUESTION:
My GP recommended about 30 years ago that I cut out salt and salty foods from my diet, which I did. Now I don't like the taste of salty foods. Am I at risk of not having enough iodine in my diet?
ANSWER:
In decades past, iodised table salt was a staple on the Kiwi dinner table, providing the much-needed iodine lacking in our local produce and meats because of New Zealand's low soil-iodine levels. However, subsequent public health campaigns to reduce our copious salt intake had the unfortunate side effect of lowering our iodine intake. This led to iodine deficiency re-emerging in the 1990s. Fortunately, in the past decade matters have been improved since bread has been fortified with iodised salt.
Iodine is an essential mineral that the body cannot make so we need a regular supply in our diet. It is an integral part of thyroid hormones that maintain our body's metabolic rate and support normal growth and development in children and infants. Low soil and groundwater levels of iodine are common throughout the world and result in diets that are low in iodine.
This story is from the March 30 - April 5, 2024 edition of New Zealand Listener.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 30 - April 5, 2024 edition of New Zealand Listener.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Morning songs
On a recent early and glorious Saturday morning - it was 4°C outside I let the complaining chickens out. Chickens never stop complaining.
Upwardly mobile
Climate-friendly e-scooters are proliferating but there are stumbling blocks for users and non-users.
A potent brew
There's a correlation between moderate coffee drinking and reduced risk of colorectal cancer - but evidence of a causal link is still percolating.
Food saviours
A little bit of silliness lightens the mood on the serious topic of food waste.
Ode to old masters
The Polynesian sound and Auckland's ska-punk scene are remembered in new releases.
Weaving Welsh with waiata
Te reo meets Cymraeg in a musical project partly spearheaded by Kawiti Waetford, an opera singer with connections to Wales.
Culture warrior
Activist and scholar Ngahuia te Awek6otuku achieved several firsts in society but had to fight many battles to get there.
An age-old problem
Is our lifespan fixed, or might we be able to slow down or even abolish ageing? And what would we do if we could?
When Jim becomes James
'What would white people do to a slave who had learned to read?' This impressive reimagining of Huckleberry Finn seeks to find out.
Manhattan transfer
A Kiwi movie star led the charge for an Anzac garden atop New York's Rockefeller Centre that's still in use today.
