In article <152...@felix.UUCP> asylv...@felix.UUCP (Alvin E. Sylvain) writes:

I believe that I can explain the nature of the claimed difference.
Please don't attribute to me the opinion that I believe this is
true; I am non-committal on the matter, except where I specifically
note otherwise.

The nature of the "health-food fanatic" argument is that naturally
occurring chemicals are available in a context in which they are
mixed with some number of adulterants that may have nutritional or
buffering effects that we may or may not know about.

Here is the problem: something is never the "same identical thing"
as something else. The health food argument is basically made
by analogy to the situation with mother's milk. Artificially composed
infant formula has been advertised as equal or superior to breast
milk, in spite of the fact that it contains only a few dozen
nutritionally significant substances at most, whereas mother's
milk contains hundreds, including substances that are important
in the proper development of immune response. "Health food fanatics"
will argue that naturally occurring chemicals may contain adulterants
that are similarly beneficial.

In some cases this can be refuted; in fact, in the case of sea salt,
there are some adulterants that are likely to be detrimental, such
as heavy metals (though they may occur only in insignificant
quantities). In other cases, we may simply not know whether the
naturally occurring substances contain some trace component that
is nutritionally significant. A "health food fanatic" may really
be fanatic, or may be arguing, more moderately, that we should
eat the naturally occurring version just in case there is something
important in it that we don't know about. Sometimes the processes
we use to make food-production more convenient or economical have
undesirable side-effects, such as introducing adulterants whose
effects we do not know, or whose effects are known to be harmful.
As an example, antibiotic-treated cattle are reported to bear bacteria
that have developed resistance to antibiotics. If any
of these bacteria happen to be human-disease agents, treating an infection
caused by them may be complicated by this resistance.

True enough. On the other hand, a little prudence in selecting one's
foods doesn't hurt, either.

In article <1990Oct8.192338.25...@ariel.unm.edu> I write:

This is for the container of salt.  For popcorn salt, they add
tricalcium phosphate.

--
Brian Evans             |"Momma told me to never kiss a girl on the first
bevans at gauss.unm.edu | date...But that's OK...I don't kiss girls."

...

But you can get it iodized or plain...  I was under the impression the
iodine is to prevent goiter (as another poster also noted...)  I've
bought both iodized and plain and never noticed a difference in moisture
absorption.  (I think the Morton's plain also has the "When it rains,
it pours" slogan on the box, but am unsure about that.)

Similarly, the American middle-west.  Where, since it was isolated from
seafood (another major source of nutritional iodine), goiters and other
thyroid problems had always been a major health problem until the
introduction of iodine supplements (like iodized salt).

N

We don't use salt from the box.  Oh, maybe twice a year I'll get a fit
of industry and make biscuits or something that needs plain salt, but
if I'm rubbing a chicken or making a marinade we want enough other
flavors in it that I use soy sauce or something like that.  Question
is, since we use table salt much less than the norm, is my kid growing
up more prone to thyroid problems than kids that eat iodized salt
frequently?

Probably a *stoopid* question, sorry, but I had to ask...

--
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Actually, quite a good one.  If you're near a coast or have seafood with a
bit of regularity, not to worry.  I grew up in Wyoming some *mumble* years
ago, when things still came in by railroad, and for us, iodine was a concern.
However, salt and ITS dangers should be more of one, probably.  Ask your
pediatrician, but you're almost certainly fine.

--
--Jan Yarnot--                  "Never set the cat on fire,
                                 You only will annoy it."

CSUS depends on my every word.

hmm...if i live on a coast & have seafood properly, i don't have a
problem...that could be problematic.  i live in maine, whihc is
pretty coastal, but we never eat seafood, as we are gradually
becoming more & more vegetarian.  so what do we need to replace
the missing iodine.  i do not cook woth salt, even in things like
biscuits (which do not need salt to rise by the way  and salt in
yeast breads only inhibits rising).  we do have soy sauce fairly often
tho.  what else is edible (no dulce or anything else revolting) and
provides iodine?

                                        -ailsa

If you're wealthy enough to have access to a computer, your kids probably
get a varied enough diet, especially if you eat ocean fish every once in a
while.  It's the people who subsist on corn meal, okra, and peanut oil and
live hundreds of miles from the coast whom iodized salt helps.

Eric Pepke                                    INTERNET: pe...@gw.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute MFENET:   pepke@fsu
Florida State University                      SPAN:     scri::pepke
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052                    BITNET:   pepke@fsu

Disclaimer: My employers seldom even LISTEN to my opinions.
Meta-disclaimer: Any society that needs disclaimers has too many lawyers.

There are no stupid questions...the answers....well....

Chances are that your kid won't suffer hypothyroidism if he eats
anything that you don't specifically make without iodide.  That
is, it's in cheese, soy sauce (as you mentioned), so many things
it's hard to think of any.  Most of the food that you buy at the
local supermarket that has any salt in it probably has iodized
salt (such as in soup, bread, sauce, pickled anything, etc.)

And depending on where stuff was grown, the fruits and vegetables
will have enough.

The USRDA of iodine is small:  150 mcg.

--
Brian Evans             |"Momma told me to never kiss a girl on the first
bevans at gauss.unm.edu | date...But that's OK...I don't kiss girls."

first off--I suggest you read the label on your soy sauce.  As for the
real question here . . .  Iodine is a necessary nutrient.  Seafood is
the commonest source of it.  If you're eating a reasonable amount of
seafood, you're probably getting enough iodine in your normal diet.
In the immortal words of all advice columnists--Check With Your Doctor.

On the contrary--it's a very *smart* question.  Your avoidance of salt
is probably due to concern over the heavy use of salt in the American
diet and you're trying to cut down.  Now you find out that that's not
all you get from it and you want to know if what you're missing is
important.  Well--it *is* important, but there are other ways to get
dietary iodine.

        --Hal

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The reason for iodized salt is, as Paul Gillingwater says, to provide an
important nutrient that is normally not available in adequate quantity
to those who do not eat seafood. Iodine is naturally present in most (all?)
seafood so, if you eat fish you don't need iodized salt.

Iodine is also present in the soil of those areas downwind of nuclear
accidents (along with naturally occurring iodine), and is readily metabolized
by plants, eaten by cows, and provided in a nice, concentrated form in
milk, for those who like thyroid cancers :-(

Non-iodized salt is also available from Morton's, and it is the addition of a
small amount of silica to the salt that prevents it from clumping in high
humidity. For example, notice that most (all?) popcorn salt, which is very
fine, is not iodized and doesn't clump, either.

Michael Lampi

Veggies grown in an area where there is iodine in the ground will also
have some iodine content.

--
Ron DeBlock     N2JSO                   If God had meant for Man
r...@mtunf.att.com                       to see the sun rise, He
!mtunf!rdb                              would have scheduled it
                                        later in the day.

The iodine is added as a dietary supplement.  The anti clumping agent
is often aluminum<mumble>.  Read the fine print on the salt package.

Or, if you're a vegan, a bit of seaweed will do nicely.

Most of this sort of problem is academic these days, what with the common
availability of various fresh foods.  If we lose out transportation net,
there will be a lot very sick people for a while...

this is easily dealt with, if you suspect the problem, by ingesting a
small amount of some iodine salt, such as potassium iodide, periodically.

What the body can't use, it dumps overboard, leaving you with a lower
uptake of iodine-131.

--
------------
  The only drawback with morning is that it comes
    at such an inconvenient time of day.
------------

I've seen the repeated claim that sea-salt has a different composition
than salt from other sources.  And I've tasted sea salt, and yes, it
seems to taste different.  The explanation has been that sea-salt has
a bunch of minerals in it that are not found in "other" salt.

 But this doesn't make sense.  Commercial salt is mined from salt
deposits, and these deposits come from dried up seas.  Wouldn't the
mineral composition from these seas have been (about) the same as that
of the ocean?

  Do salts mined from different deposits have substantially different
tastes?  Is tables salt processed in a way that changes it's
compostion?

David Throop