Philosophical Vegan Forum

If not, where are you (vegans) getting your Iodine?

I do, although seaweed is the healthiest source.

I do whenever I can, But finding Iodized Sea Salt is hard.

Sea Salt is the only kind I use anymore as its better for you and tastes better.

I do. It's mandatory in India.

Shadow Fox wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2015 4:22 am I do whenever I can, But finding Iodized Sea Salt is hard.

Sea Salt is the only kind I use anymore as its better for you and tastes better.

You can mix salts together (like any other spice mix) to improve flavor, and include some iodine. Besides, all salt is technically sea salt, because the earth was all ocean to begin with. I think it's good to get some potassium salt in the mix too (salt substitute). There's a good example of how mixing salts improves taste, because salt substitute is pretty bitter by itself.

Shadow Fox wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2015 4:22 am I do whenever I can, But finding Iodized Sea Salt is hard.

Sea Salt is the only kind I use anymore as its better for you and tastes better.

I totally agree that it tastes better. We buy iodized sea salt at home and it's pretty easy to find (at least in Canada) - check the ethnic aisles of your local supermarket - there are a lot of Italian and Greek companies that manufacture iodized sea salt, but they aren't always grouped together with the regular salt...if that makes any sense. If you have an Italian import store near you, that's also a good place to look! (Usually the actual salt is from Greece, but it's really easy to find in Italian stores around here, for some reason). Hope that helps!

Something else to consider about mixing salts is that it could lower the chances of one contaminated source being a problem. I was reading about how sea salt is more often contaminated with microplastic and other man-made fibers, or how salts have been known to be contaminated with other things at times. You never know.

As with beer, if the average among 12 brands is applied, an individual who purchases sea salt at a grocery store and adds it to their foods, could be ingesting an extra 180 anthropogenic particles annually. However, the present study reveals an even larger range among salt brands than beer brands, which translates into as few as 40 particles to nearly 680 particles per year.
—Anthropogenic contamination of tap water, beer, and sea salt

When the amounts of microplastics (MPs) and the amount of salt consumed by Turkish consumers per year are considered together, if they consume sea salt, lake salt or rock salt, they consume 249-302, 203-247 or 64-78 items per year, respectively.
—Contamination of table salts from Turkey with microplastics

Fatal outcomes due to barium-related poisoning are not uncommon. In the early 1930s, a pattern of illness, termed Pa-Ping, which caused a few deaths in the Sichuan province in China, was observed and investigated. The cause of the disease was due to large-scale food poisoning from the very high proportion of barium chloride in table-salt that was mined in the area.
—A Case Report of Acute Severe Barium Chloride Poisoning

Also, it may be significantly healthier to mix some salt substitute in with your favorite flavored kind (than relying on sea salt or iodized entirely).

Potassium in table salt in elderly men was associated with a 40% decrease in cardiovascular disease compared with normal table salt in a randomized controlled trial.
—Low micronutrient intake may accelerate the degenerative diseases of aging

This study showed a long-term beneficial effect on CVD mortality and medical expenditure associated with a switch from regular salt to potassium-enriched salt in a group of elderly veterans. The effect was likely due to a major increase in potassium and a moderate reduction in sodium intakes.
—Effect of potassium-enriched salt on cardiovascular mortality

However, Hyperkalemia from Dietary Supplements indicates that it is better not to over salt things with a substitute like potassium chloride especially.

The daily intake of potassium in a patient with normally functioning kidneys is recommended around 2000 to 3500 mg per day (50 to 90 mEq)... Though it is rare, fatal hyperkalemia has occurred from the use of salt substitutes. In the majority of cases in the literature where hyperkalemia has occurred, it is due to massive ingestion of potassium supplement in suicidal patients with normal kidney function. Patients who have impaired renal function or heart failure are at even greater risk for life-threatening hyperkalemia. A case report highlights that one tablespoon of Nu-Salt was enough to produce fatal hyperkalemia in a suicidal patient with normal renal function.

A careful history is essential to elucidate the cause of hyperkalemia. Though historically thought to be a rare cause of hyperkalemia, we propose that salt substitutes are an under-recognized and underdiagnosed etiology contributing to hyperkalemia in patients with chronic kidney disease. Some cardiac and blood pressure medications further compound the hyperkalemia, causing the "perfect storm"; and hence, dietary history is essential in patients presenting with electrolyte problems.

It seems that they quantify a massive ingestion of potassium (3 teaspoons) as being less than that of sodium, which could be about twice as much (or more in adults) before causing extreme hypernatremia (yet the recommended intake of sodium is only 2350mg/day, which might mislead one into thinking potassium chloride would be safer, for having a suggested limit of 3500mg/day; perhaps this is because they say "hypernatremia is a common electrolyte disturbance, most often caused by volume depletion", i.e., dehydration, and less sodium is recommended for that scenario). . .

Relatively modest doses of sodium have been reported to cause fatality. In two children, the lethal dose was estimated to be less than 10 g of sodium (less than five teaspoons of salt) and the lethal dose was estimated to be less than 25 g sodium in four adults (less than four tablespoons of salt). The mechanism of salt ingestion causing death is believed to be related to hypernatremia with the serum sodium levels in reported fatalities ranging from 175 to 255 mmol/L. Ingestion of as little as two tablespoons of salt has been reported to increase serum sodium levels by as much as 30 mmol/L with the potential to cause severe irreversible neurological damage . . .

Although salt substitute may be tolerated about as well as sodium, by chance, the first article also said "Normal kidneys can maintain potassium balance if the intake is increased to 500 mEq/d slowly over a prolonged period. This ability of the kidneys to handle a lethal potassium dose is called K+ adaptation". Apparently the person who ingested a fatal tablespoon had not adapted to it that much (which would have been closer to two tablespoons). I wouldn't want to supplement beyond the (50 mEq or 3/4 teaspoon) low end of that daily value range, anyway, as potassium can be abundant in foods as well.

The same goes for potassium iodide in dietary supplements (causing a "storm" in the body), which I was reviewing in the other topic about iodized, or iodised, salt here... Well, from that I think it's most important to remember that drinking the recommended daily amount of water is as imperative as limiting salts to recommended amounts too (or having less of any salt with either less water or more diuretic drinks, other than water that is, and not too much water either, etc). In other words, hydration requires a balance of water and electrolytes, and not too much or too little of one or the other(s)... as iodine is lost in sweat too, for example. Replacing what's in sweat should include sufficient water, of course (or only water if you're nauseous, and then you might need an IV for the rest, I guess)... yeah, well I was reading that ultra-marathoners recovered better if they ate soup in conjunction with running (something to do with exercise-associated hyponatremia, which can occur in more casual activites too), so it's apparent that individual results may vary, and in various ways to do with fluid balance.

Usually the guidelines like recommended daily values would say enough, but they don't necessarily say why that is, or when it isn't, and people don't always consider them together as constituting a fluid balance (when drinking more tea than water, for example, which also interferes with iron absorption from plants), but either low or high salt diets can be more dangerous at times. They say "the prevalence of asymptomatic exercise-associated hyponatremia is greater than that of symptomatic", and "mild hyponatremia even within the normal sodium range and hypernatremia are both associated with increased total mortality and major CVD events in older men without CVD which is not explained by known adverse CV risk factors" . . ., this is a good example of why water intake should be considered as carefully as salt and such.

Otherwise, it seems that iodine intake from more sources than fortified salt is common (and fortification is voluntary in the US), while a fluid imbalance between sodium and potassium is perhaps more typical than iodine deficiency. Contemporary Dietary Intake: Too Much Sodium, Not Enough Potassium, yet Sufficient Iodine . . . not to say that veganism is contemporary, it all depends, but these nutrients seem less likely to remain balanced by accident, since this also has to do with the weather, activity, age, etc., so there would be more ways for an imbalance to occur than diet alone (like if you always ate a set amount, yet sweat more during the summer months, and the iodine evaporated out of your salt container in humid weather too).

cornivore wrote: ↑Sat Jan 19, 2019 4:01 am However, Hyperkalemia from Dietary Supplements indicates that it is better not to over salt things with a substitute like potassium chloride especially.

Or why lite salt (half salt) may be the safer option.

Maybe, then again, both could be safer together. Unless sodium absolutely had to be restricted, it may help prevent potassium levels from getting too high.

Diets high in potassium have been associated with reducing hypertension and heart failure; however, optimal renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitor dosing is often limited by hyperkalemia, which can lead to life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias and increased mortality. Potassium binders are effective at reducing potassium levels. Although some use sodium as the potassium exchange ion, thus increasing sodium intake, a new potassium binder uses another exchange ion and therefore does not increase sodium intake. When treatment options require agents that may precipitate hyperkalemia, particularly in patients at high cardiorenal risk, drugs that do not add to the sodium load may be preferred . . .

For some people, extra sodium may interfere too much with potassium. As far a too little potassium goes, salt could perpetuate Hypokalemic Periodic Paralysis, so it seems that those need to be balanced together, or strange things can happen.

The goal of preventive treatment is to reduce the frequency and intensity of paralytic attacks. This may be achieved by avoidance of triggering factors, adherence to a diet low in sodium and carbohydrate and rich in potassium, and with the use of oral potassium supplementation.

Hyperkalemia can also cause paralysis . . ., so either too low or high potassium can be an issue, and salt could either help with that or not (but staying within recommended intakes of those should be okay for most people, I presume).