Micah Stanley
Central Europe is said to be an iodine deficiency area. Iodized salt, iodized finished products, and iodine-rich animal products should help provide the population with a good supply of iodine. It doesn’t always work – and it’s not always healthy either. We explain how you can get enough iodine in a healthy and purely plant-based way.
Iodine – Poison or nutrient
Just like zinc or iron, iodine is a vital, essential trace element. So the human body has to get it with food. But opinions on iodine differ more widely than on any other trace element.
While some condemn iodine as a terrible poison that should be avoided as far as possible, others advise taking it in large quantities. We currently recommend the happy medium, namely to supply the body with the officially recommended amount of iodine – with no more and no less.
Iodine for the thyroid
As is well known, it is the thyroid gland in particular that needs iodine and cannot fulfill its tasks without iodine. The thyroid gland can only produce its hormones with the help of iodine. If there is a lack of thyroid hormones, the metabolism in the entire body comes to a standstill.
However, an iodine deficiency is not the only possible cause for the typical symptoms of hypothyroidism, so other possible causes should first be clarified before an alleged iodine deficiency is treated with iodine tablets.
Take iodine: Only in the case of iodine deficiency
In conventional medicine, iodine tablets are repeatedly prescribed for mild symptoms of hypothyroidism. From the point of view of naturopathy, this is not recommended without further ado – especially not if the personal iodine status of the individual patient has not even been checked beforehand.
Because iodine is considered a critical trace element. If hypothyroidism is suspected, iodine should only be given if there is actually a clear iodine deficiency.
What if the hypofunction is not caused by an iodine deficiency, but has a completely different cause? What if it is a symptom of an unrecognized chronic thyroiditis Hashimoto’s thyroiditis?
This autoimmune disease is being diagnosed more and more frequently. Nevertheless, even today many therapists do not necessarily think about initiating appropriate examinations in order to exclude this disease (before iodine administration).
If an unrecognized Hashimoto is present and the patient takes too high a dose of iodine tablets, the disease can accelerate.
It is also known that a mild iodine deficiency, paradoxically, does not lead to hypothyroidism nearly as often as a slight excess of iodine through artificial iodine administration (iodized salt, dietary supplements with iodine). An excess of iodine can block the thyroid gland and even more so lead to hypothyroidism. But hyperfunction is also conceivable if there is an excess of iodine.
So anyone who thinks they are doing something good for themselves by taking excessive amounts of iodine as a purely prophylactic measure can also be wrong – and the shot backfires. Normal amounts of iodine (150 – 200 µg per day) can of course be taken in order to be well supplied – especially with a diet low in iodine.
Test iodine status – determine iodine deficiency
Before taking iodine from food supplements, it can make sense to have your personal iodine status checked.
Interestingly, not even the Arbeitskreis Jodlack e. V. – an association dedicated to nothing more than remedying iodine deficiency (which he believes is widespread). We were advised to confide in your doctor about this. Because this can be seen from the thyroid blood values whether there is an iodine deficiency or not.
However, the thyroid values only give an indirect indication and – as explained above – could also be too low or too high for other reasons. After all, iodine deficiency or excess iodine is not the only cause of hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism.
A urine test is the best way to determine your personal iodine status. A result of less than 100 µg/l iodine in the urine indicates a deficiency. In pregnant women, values of less than 150 µg/l are already an indication of an insufficient supply of iodine.
Animal foods are particularly high in iodine
Due to the ubiquitous iodization of ready-to-eat foods of all kinds (with iodized table salt), the iodine content of many foods is already quite high. Animal foods in particular (meat, dairy products, eggs) are now very rich in iodine, as animal feed has been iodized for a long time. While only about 1 percent of the iodine added to feed is found in meat, it can be more than 10 percent in dairy products and eggs.
Between 1.3 and 2.3 mg of iodine per kilogram of feed are added to cattle feed. Additions of up to 5 mg are permitted.
Curiously, with a diet containing meat and milk and frequent consumption of ready-made products, one is usually very well supplied with iodine – often even oversupplied, which is problematic in the case of an overactive thyroid gland, because this is further fueled by a large amount of iodine.
Naturally, optimize your iodine supply
Foods that provide natural iodine are primarily sea fish and seafood, but they are not suitable for a vegan diet. Therefore, in the following, we only present purely plant-based foods for iodine supply.
Seaweed contains a lot of iodine
Seaweed is a very iodine-rich food. For example, they can be eaten in the form of a small side dish. For this one deviates z. B. Hijiki (1 teaspoon of the dried seaweed is enough) in water for 7 to 10 minutes. Then pour off the soaking water, rinse the algae thoroughly and prepare them together with vegetables and/or rice.
Other seaweed (wakame and kombu) can be added to soups or sprinkled over salad in the form of seaweed flakes (eg, seaweed or “seaweed for a salad”).
There is also seaweed in oil, which goes very well with raw vegetables and on vegetable plates or tastes delicious on bread.
However, seaweed is really extraordinarily rich in iodine and tiny amounts of it are enough to cover the daily iodine requirement (see also the next but one section: How much iodine do seaweed contain).
These seaweeds exist
There are many different types of seaweed, all of which also have different iodine contents. But even within one and the same type of algae, depending on the region of origin, there can be strong fluctuations in the iodine content.
- Kelp is the English term for seaweed, so it refers to a variety of seaweed, mostly brown and red seaweed, often just the dense forests of kombu off the coast of Japan.
- Kombu (Laminaria japonica) is the most iodine-rich algae. Usually, only soups or tea are made from it. It is often removed from the food before consumption. However, there is also a kombu powder that is used as a kind of natural flavor enhancer for seasoning.
- When dried, Arame (Eisenia bicyclis) looks like a tangle of black-green threads. Arame tastes very good and goes well with all vegetable and pasta dishes that should have a fishy touch.
- Wakame (Undaria pinnatifida) is also soaked before cooking or preparing. For wakame salad, the seaweed does not even have to be cooked beforehand.
- Hijiki (Sargassum fusiforme) belongs to the brown algae and is also called berry kelp.
- Sea spaghetti (Himanthalia elongata) also belongs to the brown algae. They are also called belt tang and come from the Atlantic or the North and Baltic Seas. Once soaked, they can be cooked al dente like pasta and then added to stir-fries or salads.
- Sea lettuce (Ulva lactuca) is a green alga, not to be confused with the sea lettuce mentioned above, which is a flake mixture of five different types of seaweed.
- Dulse (Palmaria palmata) is a red seaweed and an ingredient in the above flake blend. Dulse is also available as a powder that can be used for seasoning.
- Nori is not a special type of seaweed, but the Japanese term for edible seaweed. These are mostly red algae, e.g. B. the purple kelp (Porphyra tenera), which tastes hearty and is pressed into smooth leaves and used for sushi. However, nori can also be combined with vegetables, mushrooms, onions, etc.
Seaweed contains so much iodine
We do not have the iodine content of every type of algae. So just a selection below:
- Kombu: 240 to 4,900 µg/g iodine
- Wakame: 93 to 185 µg/g iodine
- Nori: 30 to 45 µg/g iodine
- Sea spaghetti: 2,000 µg/g iodine
- Arame: at least 600 µg/g iodine, higher levels up to 5600 µg/g are possible
- Dulse: approx. 500 µg/g iodine
- Hijiki: about 500 µg/g iodine
- Sea lettuce: up to 240 µg/g iodine
(Lithothamnium calcareum: 33 to 34 µg iodine (calcareous algae that are contained in natural calcium supplements or herbal drinks))
Soaking the algae and then boiling them can reduce the iodine content by 14 – 75 percent, so that there is no need to worry about excess iodine, especially with nori or other algae with a lower iodine content, if the preparation and dosage are appropriate.
Fluctuating iodine levels in seaweed could pose risks
However, the iodine content of algae in the literature varies considerably. The Federal Food Code, for example – a database for the nutrient content of food and a standard instrument for evaluating epidemiological nutritional studies – indicates a wide range of fluctuations in the iodine content of seaweed, but these values are still significantly lower than the values we have listed, which we source withdrawals.
So if you take the federal food key as the basis for your algae consumption, you could possibly be consuming too much iodine from algae, which could be problematic for patients with hyperthyroidism or inflammatory thyroid diseases.
In a statement regarding the iodine content of dried algae and seaweed products, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment BfR also states an extreme range of 5 to 11,000 mg, so it would be ideal to only use algae from those manufacturers who have the specific iodine content can indicate with their products. We are currently (October 2020) clarifying whether there are corresponding manufacturers and will inform you of our results here shortly.
Cover iodine requirements in daily nutritional practice
Traces of iodine (1 – 4 µg/100 g) can be found in almost all vegetables and fruits.
As can be seen from the information above, foods of plant origin that are particularly rich in iodine include green leafy vegetables, brassicas, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, and legumes.
Flavoring these foods with a salt that has been “iodized” with the kelp seaweed provides more iodine. Of course, you can also use this salt to bake bread, etc.
The Sango Sea Coral can very well be considered as an additional and natural source of iodine, of course only if it is needed to optimize the calcium/magnesium supply since it is primarily a calcium/magnesium source.
If you only want to take iodine, you can find dietary supplements with iodine in the table above and choose one there.
If microalgae (spirulina or chlorella) are part of your dietary supplements, they too will provide some iodine – and if seaweed is part of your diet then you don’t have to worry about a possible iodine deficiency.
