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US Gained a Decade of Flynn-Effect IQ Points After Adding Iodine To Salt

cold fjord writes "I wish it was always this easy. Business Insider reports, 'Iodized salt is so ubiquitous that we barely notice it. Few people know why it even exists. Iodine deficiency remains the world's leading cause of preventable mental retardation. According to a new study (abstract), its introduction in America in 1924 had an effect so profound that it raised the country's IQ. A new NBER working paper from James Feyrer, Dimitra Politi, and David N. Weil finds that the population in iodine-deficient areas saw IQs rise by a full standard deviation, which is 15 points, after iodized salt was introduced.... The mental impacts were unknown, the program was started to fight goiter, so these effects were an extremely fortunate, unintended side effect.'"

270 comments

  1. The question you are all asking... by Megane · · Score: 5, Informative

    What is the Flynn Effect?

    --
    #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
    1. Re:The question you are all asking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I wasn't asking it as I've been taking my iodized salt.

    2. Re:The question you are all asking... by hedwards · · Score: 2

      The Flynn effect has to do with the effect swash buckling has on women, duh.

    3. Re:The question you are all asking... by datavirtue · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, I was busy jumping to conclusions with only a scant amount of knowledge in hand--which was gleaned from the headline and half of the summary.

      --
      I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
    4. Re:The question you are all asking... by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

      The Flynn effect has to do with the effect swash buckling has on women, duh.

      Presumably that's where the expression "in like Flynn" comes from.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    5. Re:The question you are all asking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Lies.

      Sincerely,
      Master Control Program

    6. Re:The question you are all asking... by avgjoe62 · · Score: 2

      Strong with the /. this one is...

      --

      How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?

    7. Re: The question you are all asking... by mad_ian · · Score: 0

      Actually, that's "in like Flint", and it comes from a set of movies in the 60s, which spoofed the Bond movies and their ilk. The Austin Power movies spoof the Flint films more than the Bond films.

      --
      ~Donald / Just RTFM
    8. Re: The question you are all asking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Like_Flynn

    9. Re: The question you are all asking... by similar_name · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, it is "in like Flynn". The movie was also spoofing the saying. However, it is common for people to think is "in like Flint".

    10. Re: The question you are all asking... by Macgrrl · · Score: 2

      The movies in question are well worth a look if you like the whole Bond genre, even funnier if you've watched and enjoyed Hudson Hawk. The two movies were Our Man Flint and In Like Flint.

      --
      Sara
      Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
    11. Re:The question you are all asking... by davester666 · · Score: 2

      How can you eat it?

      One spoonful and I have to practically drown myself in water to get the taste out of my mouth.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    12. Re: The question you are all asking... by Dishevel · · Score: 5, Funny

      I like my heroes to be WAY over the top. That is why mine is Buckaroo Banzi.

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
    13. Re:The question you are all asking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nor should anyone else worth their salt.

    14. Re: The question you are all asking... by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Good catch. Yet another guy who didn't take his iodized salt. Damn.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    15. Re:The question you are all asking... by internerdj · · Score: 4, Funny

      You are doing it wrong. Most Americans buy the kind that has the flavored coatings. You can find it on nearly every aisle of what is commonly called a grocery store. Just be sure to stay out of the area labeled produce.

    16. Re: The question you are all asking... by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the enlightenment. I was one of the misguided, who believed it was Flint. Off to the salt mines.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    17. Re:The question you are all asking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Almost all salt sold in the US today has iodine, plenty enough to ward off retardation and goiter. Just sprinkle a little on you popcorn or french fries.

    18. Re:The question you are all asking... by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You are doing it wrong. Most Americans buy the kind that has the flavored coatings. You can find it on nearly every aisle of what is commonly called a grocery store. Just be sure to stay out of the area labeled produce.

      On a more serious note....many of us who enjoy cooking, avoid iodized salt due to the taste encroachment.

      I cook almost exclusively with kosher salt, both for the grain size and for lack of iodine.

      I cook from scratch...so, hoping that I get my iodine from natural sources. I live near the gulf, so I eat a good bit of sea food, which helps.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    19. Re: The question you are all asking... by Dr.+Sheldon+Cooper · · Score: 1

      Salt yours what?

      --
      Bazinga.
    20. Re: The question you are all asking... by axl917 · · Score: 1

      Ahh, Buckaroo Banzai, the Americanized bastardization of Doctor Who. I try to forget about that movie, much as I try to forget about the Heavy Metal "anime".

    21. Re: The question you are all asking... by Dishevel · · Score: 1

      Buckaroo was completely different and not as good as the Dr.

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
    22. Re: The question you are all asking... by rwise2112 · · Score: 1

      Buckaroo was completely different and not as good as the Dr.

      But Buckaroo is a renaissance man, top neurosurgeon, particle physicist, race car driver, rock star and comic book hero, and probably the last hope of the human race. How is that not better?

      --

      "For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert"
    23. Re: The question you are all asking... by Dishevel · · Score: 1

      How is that not better?

      He has Jeff Goldbloom dressed in a cowboy outfit as a sidekick.

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
    24. Re: The question you are all asking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Must be some time warp because I grew up w that expression in the 19 mid 40s and 50s. My dad kind of grinned but my mom discouraged it.

    25. Re: The question you are all asking... by default+luser · · Score: 1

      Buckaroo was completely different and not as good as the Dr.

      It's hard to argue who was better when The Doctor of that era had a penchant for wearing a "decorative vegetable."

      Both were completely out of their gourd :D

      --

      Man is the animal that laughs.
      And occasionally whores for Karma.

    26. Re:The question you are all asking... by GNious · · Score: 1

      I cook from scratch...

      Must be annoying constantly having to create universes..

    27. Re:The question you are all asking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Creating universes is the best part of cookkery!

    28. Re: The question you are all asking... by kermidge · · Score: 1

      Thanks for that. That was my memory of it also, and when "In Like Flint" came out, I and most people I knew caught the reference easily. I don't know from which possible source came my first seeing the phrase, even where, but it was late Fifties. What I do recall is I and a few classmates finding occasion, no matter how contrived, to use it daily for a few weeks 'cuz it was an "in" thing to us.

    29. Re:The question you are all asking... by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      I cook almost exclusively with kosher salt, both for the grain size and for lack of iodine.

      How can I square the cognitive dissonance of trying to work out the logic in a fundamentally logic-free situation?

      Given that iodine and even the modern "chemical element" are concepts generated centuries if not millennia after the ossification of Jewish dietary laws (design by committee; probably using a set of darts, a blindfold and a donkey's bottom; logic not desired), how in the name of sanity could you end up with a judgement on the kosherness (?) of iodized versus non-iodized salt?

      OK ; I did some reading, and it's the grain size and texture that is relevant, and the influence of those characteristics on the salt's usability for the process of "koshering" meat, not the salt's inherent "kosherness" itself. Which is about aS BIZARRE (damn caps-lock!) as it sounds, but what you expect from a religion. but the sources I've seen have indicated that "koshering salt" can be iodized or non-iodized.

      BTW, have you ever ordered a bottle of sodium iodide from a chemical company to see what it tastes like? I actually find it quite pleasant. It might not be so wise as a routine cooking ingredient - it would be easy to exceed recommended maximum doses - but if you're into taste sensations, it might be one to add to your list (or whatever it is that gastronomes do ; not my bag to be honest). £40-odd, depending on assay.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    30. Re:The question you are all asking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, I was busy jumping to conclusions with only a scant amount of knowledge in hand--which was gleaned from the headline and half of the summary.

      This is also known as the Kardashian Effect - the opposite of the Flynn Effect - it has at least countered (Fox News, George W Bush and Boy Bands suggest it could be substantially more potent) the affect of Iodine in the US population.

    31. Re: The question you are all asking... by rwise2112 · · Score: 1

      He has Jeff Goldbloom dressed in a cowboy outfit as a sidekick.

      So he has help hacking alien spacecraft! Again, what's the downside?

      --

      "For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert"
  2. derp.... by wbr1 · · Score: 0

    But I um... thought... um.. it was good for.me to um..... have a what's the.word Jenny? A diet low is salt. I may not be smart, but I know what high blood pressure is...

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
    1. Re:derp.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Right, but salt is still vital to our bodies survival...even if you are diagnosed with high blood pressure the doctor will tell you not to cut salt out just cut it down.
      Heart disease is so complex they may even tell you that you need to increase you salt intake some.

    2. Re:derp.... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 5, Interesting

      But I um... thought... um.. it was good for.me to um..... have a what's the.word Jenny? A diet low is salt. I may not be smart, but I know what high blood pressure is...

      Just a note that, according to my doctor, and many articles I've read, excessive salt in the diet is NOT a problem for many/most people, but only those sensitive to it. Good explanations can be found:

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    3. Re:derp.... by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Cutting salt out of a diet that includes non-synthetic substances is probably impossible. If it lived on earth, it probably has salt in it.
       

    4. Re:derp.... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      excessive salt in the diet is NOT a problem for many/most people, but only those sensitive to it.

      People with West African ancestory (as most African-Americans are) tend to be the most sensitive. East Asians tend to be the least sensitive. People of European descent tend to be in the middle. This correlates well with areas where salt was historically rare/common. In West Africa, salt was often brought in caravans across the Sahara, and was very expensive, and thus unavailable to common people. In China, for centuries, even peasants could afford to drench their food in salt-laden soy sauce.

    5. Re:derp.... by tmosley · · Score: 1

      I think it is probably more about balance, especially between sodium and potassium. I know I started feeling a LOT better, and my blood pressure fell when I started using KCl instead of table salt.

      As I recall, there is a tribe in South America that gets practically all of their electrolytes through KCl, and they have something like zero incidence of heart disease.

    6. Re:derp.... by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 1

      My cardiologist told me to add a little salt to my diet.

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    7. Re:derp.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's also interesting that IQ scores tend to be spread that way as well.

      Salt is the spice we are looking for!

    8. Re:derp.... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's also interesting that IQ scores tend to be spread that way as well.

      IQ scores tend to be correlated with a history of urbanization and economic specialization. In a primitive society, innovation and original thinking are unlikely to lead to any benefit, and might lead to a disaster such as a crop failure or empty snares. But in an urbanized society with specialized jobs, successful ideas can be leveraged for disproportionate benefit. East Asia had large urban populations long before the West. In Europe, Jews were urbanized during the middle ages when almost everyone else was a rural serf. East Asians have average IQ scores about 5 points higher than Europeans, and Ashkenazi Jews are higher still.

    9. Re:derp.... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 3, Informative

      Cutting salt out of a diet that includes non-synthetic substances is probably impossible. If it lived on earth, it probably has salt in it.

      Salt is actually pretty important nutritionally and for osmoregulation. Way too much/little is bad for you, but some salt is required. It's so important that part of our taste mechanism is dedicated to salt. Alton Brown summed it up nicely saying (okay, I'm paraphrasing) that while many things taste sweet (good eats), sour (bad eats) or bitter (poisonous eats), only one thing tastes salty - salt.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    10. Re:derp.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your body will have problems if the sodium concentration gets way too low. Typically this is due to too much water, but in rare cases has been due to low sodium intake, including situations of consuming large amounts of potassium based salt instead. Plus there is a long list of conditions and medicines that mess with the ability of the body to remove potassium, so it is easier in many cases to have a potassium sensitivity than a sodium sensitivity. Although since a large part of salt in most people's diets is going to be sodium based anyway, replacing as large chunk as possible with potassium isn't likely to go into the territory of too little sodium (although could be too much potassium for some people).

    11. Re:derp.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From your first link:

      If you have high blood pressure, sodium can cause you to retain too much water. By retaining more water in your blood vessels, you are making your heart work harder, which causes an increase in pressure along the arterial walls. This is why people with high blood pressure are often prescribed diuretics, to eliminate excess sodium from the body to reduce the heart’s work load.

      In other words: if you have high blood pressure, excessive sodium will make it higher. How does that make it a myth?

      From your second link:

      Lots of evidence shows that eating more salt raises blood pressure.

      From your third link:

      Dr. Robin Felder put 183 people on a salt-free diet and monitored their blood pressure for seven days. He then gave the same people a week of meals high in salt,

      Yeah, out of the three sources you offer, I'm really going to believe the guy who did the ludicrously unrealistic experiment with a small sample size. I'll stick with the conventional wisdom as confirmed by the other two, thanks.

    12. Re:derp.... by wiredlogic · · Score: 1

      Most sensitive to what? A high fat, high calorie diet maybe. Salt, however, is NOT causative agent of heart disease. Your body naturally regulates sodium levels and readily excretes what it doesn't need. It's what we've been doing since our ancestors were swimming in the sea. The anti-salt movement is all about scaremongering and not about rational science.

      --
      I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
    13. Re:derp.... by Culture20 · · Score: 1

      nazi Jews are higher still

      They'd have to be higher than a kite to want to be nazis.


      Sorry, I know I'm selectively editing and taking phrases out of context, but it really stood out.

    14. Re:derp.... by dryeo · · Score: 1

      I like to eat seaweed, especially when it first turns hot and I'm exercising. Seaweed (usually dulse in my case) has the advantage of a good ratio of sodium and potassium along with other salts and lots of iodine as a bonus.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    15. Re:derp.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't know what the Ashkenazi are? Truly there's no correlation between low /. UID and intelligence, some of you old timers are really uninformed.

    16. Re:derp.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Says a member of the fucking SALT CARTEL. Perhaps you have some financial motive... work in the salt industry?

      (Sarcasm... but actually, as I have high blood pressure, when my doctor says cut back on salt, I do.)

    17. Re:derp.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This. It is the terrible diets in the majority of the West that are the problem, not salt availability.
      That is only really true with lactose in milk and cheese industries that never really took off as much in the East.

      Salt has been readily available in many areas with people that are "sensitive" to salt.
      I mean, look at North Europe areas, they ate fishy things out the ass and some people still end up ill as hell because terrible diet and high salt.
      As salt increases, so too does the other nutrients required in managing those levels. These are very rarely found in prepackaged meals and the like. (even some heavy in veg, they have usually been drained or overcooked so destroying the nutrients in the first place)

      The whole "high salt = high blood pressure" thing is complete bullshit.
      It is founded on incorrect testing methods that have stuck around because nobody is willing to do an actual locked down test because it would literally be a many years long experiment where people would need to live to very stricts diets and lifestyles.
      All of these tests were uncontrolled, all of them, every single one of them. None of them took in to consideration other factors, or all factors. They have as much backing as "all apples are unhealthy because I say so" does.
      There are about a billion and one other things that cause the high blood pressures. Salt isn't even remotely one of them.
      Salt is lethal in its own ways separate from these things if too much is taken in a period of time. But that is still pretty high. Much much higher than the silly low rec limits that exist in most areas right now, just like any nutrient is.

      Maybe one day there will be a global test over the internet with very strict requirements and people that will be happy to live to a strict lifestyle for >90% of the time. But until then, all of those tests are null and void as far as real science is concerned. It is as useful as stupid poll-projection abuse by people who failed statistics classes.

      Salt is incredibly useful for the body, and there are many mechanisms to clear it from the body very efficiently.
      There are a very small group of people that are genetically sensitive to it, but that is like on the same levels of people that have skin hydrophobias.

    18. Re:derp.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Did you just call a six-digit UID that begins with a 9 a "low /. UID" and an "old timer"?

    19. Re:derp.... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

      only one thing tastes salty - salt.

      There's more than one salt. NaCl just tastes the saltiest.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    20. Re:derp.... by dkf · · Score: 2

      Way too much/little is bad for you, but some salt is required.

      OTOH, if you eat processed food you probably get sufficient without adding any.

      --
      "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
    21. Re:derp.... by Another,+completely · · Score: 1

      There's more than one salt. NaCl just tastes the saltiest.

      You think? I've always thought that doppelzout Dropje was saltier than any NaCl snack because it used ammonium chloride (NH4Cl). That stuff is proper salty.

    22. Re:derp.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, I don't know the difference between Ashkenazim and Sephardim either.. please enlighten us about the old diaspora. I only know the Sephardim ended up in Spain and then the (Spanish) Netherlands, e.g. Baruch de Spinoza.

    23. Re:derp.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just put it next to your Geiger counter first (if it is harvested from the East Japan Sea). Not because of the Iodine (that's decayed by now) but the Strontium and Caesium.

    24. Re:derp.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Salt, however, is NOT causative agent of heart disease.

      Metabolic disorder is the main cause of heart disease. Uric acid is the main cause of metabolic disorder. An imbalance between sodium and potassium creates the condition that allows sodium urate to accumulate.

    25. Re:derp.... by jittles · · Score: 1

      Hey man my UID might not indicate it, but I've been on Slashdot since 1999!

    26. Re:derp.... by ranton · · Score: 1

      as I have high blood pressure, when my doctor says cut back on salt, I do

      Even though salt does not lead to high blood pressure, high blood pressure does make excessive salt intake bad for the body. It is basically the cause / effect link that the US public has backwards.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    27. Re:derp.... by minstrelmike · · Score: 2

      My cardiologist told me to add a little salt to my diet.

      But maybe he just wanted you to come in for checkups more often ;-)

    28. Re:derp.... by dryeo · · Score: 1

      Dulse is from the east coast of Canada, shouldn't be too radioactive.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    29. Re:derp.... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      As any fule kno, they were keen flute players who lived in Arizona & New Mexico.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  3. All now negated by fluoride by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    But with fluoride added to the water supply, we can reverse those gains..
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/fluoride_b_2479833.html

    1. Re:All now negated by fluoride by ebno-10db · · Score: 1

      So Gen. Jack Ripper wasn't so crazy after all, huh?

    2. Re:All now negated by fluoride by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what the government really wants is, people that don't qualify as retarded, but are still dumb. The system is Perfect.

    3. Re:All now negated by fluoride by morcego · · Score: 2

      Yeah. Don't forget to stop vaccinating children also, while you are at that.

      --
      morcego
    4. Re:All now negated by fluoride by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, that causes the sapping and impurifying of bodily fluids.

    5. Re:All now negated by fluoride by icebike · · Score: 2

      But with fluoride added to the water supply, we can reverse those gains..
      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/fluoride_b_2479833.html

      It all traces back to this guy: http://www.quackwatch.com/11Ind/yiamouyiannis.html

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    6. Re:All now negated by fluoride by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 1

      Don't forget the "salt will kill you" campaign. I remember that as far back as the 80s.

    7. Re:All now negated by fluoride by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why the fuck is this modded up? Are there really that many idiots out there?

    8. Re:All now negated by fluoride by flyingfsck · · Score: 1

      I live in the desert. Here, if you don't eat more salty snacks, then you end up in hospital if you drink too much water on a hot day.

      --
      Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    9. Re:All now negated by fluoride by ChrisMaple · · Score: 2

      Please don't depend on Dr. Mercola (or the Huffington Post, for that matter). Mercola either don't know the difference between, or deliberately and dishonestly equates, insecticides and insect repellants. He is very careless about a number of other faddish issues.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    10. Re:All now negated by fluoride by real-modo · · Score: 2

      ... and using AC electricity (the radiation!!).

      Actually, it'd be good if the chemtrail/fluoride/anti-vax people did stop using electricity. They'd be too busy doing their laundry to bother rational people.

    11. Re:All now negated by fluoride by bfandreas · · Score: 2

      Dr. Mercola is listed on Quackwatch and is under close scrutiny by the FDA. He also keeps dodgy company:
      http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/mercola.html

      --
      20 minutes into the future
  4. But now people in the US try to avoid it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And now we've got people in the US trying to avoid "iodized salt" because it's a "processed food" and they want "natural mineral salts". Of course they don't even know why salt is iodized -- they think it's a "preservative" (you know, cause salt goes bad) or somesuch -- and while they might be getting enough iodine elsewhere they certainly aren't regulating their intake to ensure as much. It's almost as bad as the folks who want "pectin-free" jam.

    1. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 2

      . . . so don't use the salt, and just take iodine . . . straight up, or on the rocks . . .

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    2. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by amiga3D · · Score: 2

      I knew when I was a kid that the iodine was added for thyroid health. I remember asking my Dad about it after sitting at the table one day staring at the little girl in the raincoat on the Morton salt box. He grew up in the 30's so I guess they heard about it back then.

    3. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by gman003 · · Score: 3, Funny

      You haven't been taking your iodine, have you?

    4. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      so they use sea salt instead, what's the problem?

    5. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That it doesn't have enough iodine in it, and they don't get enough in the rest of their diet -- literally the problem that iodized salt solves.

    6. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by tmosley · · Score: 0

      Yeah, and those damn Greek boy-lovers too. FUCK GREECE FUCK DEMOCRACY! Oh wait, I forgot, ad hominem is a fallacy.

    7. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pectin is a part of fruit. Iodine is not a part of salt. Therefore the analogy is invalid.

    8. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, it's ridiculous. The anti-processed anything at all cost crowd long ago went off the cliff in my opinion. On the bright side, it's a sort of self-selection test of fitness for the next generation.

    9. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by adolf · · Score: 2

      I live in Ohio (right in the middle of the goiter belt) and I don't buy iodized salt. I just buy the bulk-packed sea salt that my local coffee house sells for cheap -- not because it doesn't have iodine added to it, but because it tastes better to me.

      But that doesn't even matter, because I only add salt to things where it is useful.

      I toss some in when cooking pasta, or cooking down onions or other vegetables, or making pickles, and that's really about it. There is no salt shaker on the dining room table.

      I don't ever add it to my food on purpose as a seasoning. Indeed, I don't even really like salt: When I'm at the store buying a bag of tortilla chips, I study the labels to try to ascertain which brand uses the least amount of salt because too much absolutely detracts from the other flavors that I actually want.

      So how much iodine am I missing out on by buying weird salt instead of standard-issue iodized table salt? Not much.

      Regulating my intake of iodine? Sheesh. If I wanted a perfectly balanced diet, I'd just gobble up some Soylent Green and call it a day (same as yesterday, or tomorrow...).

      (All that said: I do eat a fair bit of seafood, thanks to advances in preservation, transportation, and the marvels of refrigeration. I'd hazard a guess that my iodine intake is just fine, especially compared to folks in this area back when goiters were reasonably common. And I eat seafood because it is yummy, not because it may contain iodine.)

    10. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you can buy selenium as a dietary supplement, and its the cause of massive pollution at Kesterson reservoir in California. You can buy BHA at the heatlh food store, and others decry BHA/BHT in their cereal boxes. Wheat gluten is used as a meat substitute, while decried as a source of allergic reaction. Nitrites in food prevent botulism, and also cause cancer. Vegans may have to watch out for cochineal in their soft drinks, as its bug juice. and many drinks say they are "gluten free" which is i believe a non water soluble protein, and which would be really disgusting if it existed in any drink except in trace amounts. imagine soda with little chewy nuggets of wheat, wheaties soda!

    11. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      1) What was said was not an analogy.

      2) The fact that pectin is part of fruit is the point. That's why the anti-iodized salt people aren't as bad as the people that don't want pectin in their jam.

    12. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by budgenator · · Score: 1

      Yes actually it is part of salt, table salt or sea salt are complex mixtures of primarily sodium, potassium and calcium halide salts those halides are primarily chlorides, fluorides, iodides. Mid-western soils are iodine depleted so we need more iodine than is naturally in the salt to make up the difference.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    13. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The old saying about sodium being bad for you is a myth. Recent research reports this. FDA has been lying about this for decades as part of the effort to say "Carbs are good, fat is bad" mantra they've been preaching. Same with cholesterol and (naturally) saturated fats.

    14. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by TMB · · Score: 1

      Salt is an ingredient whose apparent strength depends strongly on how acclimated you are to it. So if you don't use much salt, it doesn't take much for food to taste like nothing but salt, but if you use a fair bit then you need a fair bit or food tastes bland.

    15. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by adolf · · Score: 1

      The old saying about sodium being bad for you is a myth. Recent research reports this. FDA has been lying about this for decades as part of the effort to say "Carbs are good, fat is bad" mantra they've been preaching. Same with cholesterol and (naturally) saturated fats.

      You preach to the choir, AC. Perhaps you should have read what I wrote: I'm not avoiding sodium or iodine, I'm avoiding salt. There's lots of edible salts out there...

      And I don't care if salt [is/is not] bad for me. I just don't particularly like the taste of it. It is a useful ingredient in my kitchen because of how it chemically reacts with some foods during the process of preparing them, not because I enjoy the flavor.

      I really do not care what the FDA has to say about the matter: I simply eat what tastes good to me, and I'm always on the hunt for new things. This gives me a highly varied diet of which I suppose the only real constants are beer, coffee, and water.

    16. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I avoid iodized salt, mostly because it tastes terrible but also because many contain aluminum and/or dextrose. There are many delicious salts in the world worth trying. But it is also important to get iodine in the diet. I get mine from sea vegetables, a lesson people in the US could learn from the Japanese.

    17. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you not have a television either?

      ref Onion.

    18. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by adolf · · Score: 1

      Salt is an ingredient whose apparent strength depends strongly on how acclimated you are to it. So if you don't use much salt, it doesn't take much for food to taste like nothing but salt, but if you use a fair bit then you need a fair bit or food tastes bland.

      I suppose that makes sense.

      Perhaps salt is like capsaicin or alcohol in this way: People around me cringe when I load up a baked potato with some sour cream, shredded cheese, and an entire finely-chopped fresh ghost pepper. To me, it's quite warm, but nowhere near painful. To them, it's probably unimaginable pain -- a splash of Tabasco on the same potato would probably be too much.

      People around me also cringe when I drink tequila neat, one sip at a time, savoring the flavors, whereas the uninitiated either refuse to touch the foul liquid or demand it served mixed or in shots -- never to be tasted (or at least tasted as little as possible).

      But salt? Never had a fondness for it. Perhaps it makes sense that it is an acquired taste as well, but at this time I don't see its merit as a seasoning. :)

    19. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by fermion · · Score: 2
      And of course other try to over simplify the situation by claiming that processed food is required for us to be healthy.

      It is not. You know what food contains half the iodine you need in a day. A potato. Each one real baked potato a day, maybe a glass of milk if you so desire, include some sea salt, which does contain natural iodine along with other trace minerals. In fact mined salt also contains trace minerals, but they are removed, and then the iodine in added back in, albeit in higher quantities.

      This is not to say the fortified salt is not incredibly beneficial. In a world where fresh food is in short supply, a world that existed up to the end of WWII, such things were essential public health issues. Of course we now live in a country, the US, where fresh food is pretty much universally available, and it is only our choice to eat highly processed food that makes such supplements important. For instance potatoes, one of natures perfect food, has a bad reputation so we only eat french fried. We all try to pretend to be rich, so we eat a lot of meat, which has no fiber or vitamins or minerals.

      As far as jam is concerned, the purpose was to provide year round access to vitamins. Fruit is not going to keep, but jam will. The purpose of pectin is to allow you to make jelly, which is based on juice, not fruit. So again we are dealing with a less nutritious product. Jam is, by definition, added pectin free. Just like sea salt has not added iodine. Or an Apple has no added sugar. This is important because it is often the concentration that causes problems. For instance the arsenic in yucca can be dealt with by letting it soak overnight.

      Finally salt is used as a preservative. It is a natural product that allows things, like jerky, to be labeled preservative free. It is what allows us to have cold cuts. Many processed food contains large amounts of salt for this reason. Sugar is also a preservative, which is why it is added to jams and jellies. I know this is not what you said, but it what people are actually talking about.

      So really this is just a bunch of copy from the processed food industry, which makes a pretty penny by telling us that we cannot possible survive on fresh vegetables and fruit.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    20. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by Macgrrl · · Score: 1

      Nom nom nom, seaweed snack packs.

      I'm being slightly sarcastic as I don't enjoy seaweed snacks, but I recall a Japanese exchange student bringing some to school one day. They were like the fun sized Mars bars packaging, but cellulose.

      --
      Sara
      Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
    21. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by adolf · · Score: 1

      Do you not have a television either?

      I have around $25k in home theater gear that is actively used, but I do not subscribe to traditional television services.

      Why do you ask?

    22. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by real-modo · · Score: 1

      Tricky ethical ground, this.

      How much right does one person have to maim another - cause them pain and cause their teeth to fall out ( withhold fluoride), stunt their intellectual development (withhold iodide), cause them to become paralysed, blind or deaf, or asphyxiated (not protect them from polio, German measles, tetanus)?

      I'd argue both that people shouldn't be allowed to harm other people (their children and grand-children) in these ways, and that the rest of us are ethically bound to prevent that harm and risk of harm to future adults, no matter what their parents think.

      "The sins of the fathers shall be visited on the sons" is Old Testament thinking. Are we not civilized, now? Did the children choose their parents?

    23. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by cas2000 · · Score: 2

      that's not tricky at all, not even an ethical dilemma - children have rights of their own, completely independent of their parents. they are not the property of their parents, they are not chattels.

      if a child's parents are neglecting them (by withholding nutrition or medical treatment) or abusing their rights in other ways, then the state has a duty to step in and uphold the rights of the child.

    24. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe the USA is so broad that only the people on the sea strips (Eastern Seaboard and Seattle and California) have heard of this bio-organic product called "sea salt". What happens if you correlate fish, seaweed and sea salt intake with political ideas?

    25. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      I don't ever add it to my food on purpose as a seasoning.

      Out of interest, if/when you go out do you find the food saltier than you used to?

      I've been cutting back on salt massively. I very rarely add any to the food I cook. I found my taste has changed and I now find food out can taste quite salty sometimes, compared to previously.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    26. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by cryptizard · · Score: 1

      Of course we can survive on fresh produce, but I'm not sure it is as universally available as you claim. Food deserts are quite common in US cities, particularly lower class and minority neighborhoods. Food fortification is still tremendously beneficial in those places.

    27. Re: But now people in the US try to avoid it by adolf · · Score: 2

      I have had an aversion to unnecessary salt for as long as I can remember, so it's not a new thing to me. I don't have anything to compare to.

      But generally, yeah: I find food at restaurants to be pretty salty compared to the stuff I make at home.

    28. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by compro01 · · Score: 1

      It is not. You know what food contains half the iodine you need in a day. A potato.

      That only applies if the soil the potato was grown in has adequate iodine. While that may be a given in most of North America, there's considerable portions of the world (e.g. Switzerland, Ethiopia, North Korea, parts of China) where this does not apply.

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
    29. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That only applies if the soil the potato was grown in has adequate iodine. While that may be a given in most of North America, there's considerable portions of the world (e.g. Switzerland, Ethiopia, North Korea, parts of China) where this does not apply.

      It's was a problem in North America too.

      The differences by geography were vast, making the effects easy to isolate. Seawater, for example, is rich in iodine, but glaciers depleted iodine rich soil in places like Michigan

      The table following lists Idaho, America's #1 potato producer as being #1 in America for having goiter due to iodine deficiency. So that potato is not some magical cure. The post you replied to is just wrong about lots of things. Meat has fiber, vitamins and minerals. The definition of Jam in US, EU and Canada all allow added pectin.

    30. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Supplements are useful. It is just that there are arguments against using supplements as opposed to eating a varied diet. The point we are in the western world is that we tend to eat junk food then think we can supplement for nutrition. This is clearly not working for us. This is different from eating real food and supplementing for what is not present in the diet.

      There are many things that are allowed in the US. For instance, the tomato is a vegetable. Many of these laws are there to allow cost saving to producers while making the consumer believe they are receiving a premium product. Allowing pectin in jam is one example of this. In much of Europe, I believe, meat can have significant amounts of filler and still be meat. For much of my childhood beef burritos and Jack in the Box tacos were advertised as Beef in big letters and then 'flavored' in small. Laws do not set the facts, they only set up a fact pattern that can be used in court to justify otherwise immoral behavior.

      Chicken has no dietary fiber, less than 10% of most vitamins except for b-16. Beef has B-6 and B-12 and some minerals. So yes, it was inaccurate to say that meat was not a source of minerals, but within the standards of the spurious statement of this thread, it really has no significant vitamins. Of course this will depend on the stock feed to the animal. But if we are going with US government data, one can't claim a source one second then throw it out, we go back to the potato which has almost 5 grams of dietary fiber, as much b-6 as chicken, Magnesium, a lot of Vitimin C, and Iodine at levels up to 50% of the daily needs, which is a better way of saying it.

      As far as vitamins and minerals are concerned, lets end with this. It is not just enough to stick these in food. They must be absorbed. That is why expensive supplements speak of highly absorbed sources. Even in real food absorption, or bioavailability, is an issue. We are increasingly seeing studies which show a calcium regimen does not help with osteoporosis, which a real food diet along with strengths exercises does. One reason is that in many cases the product in vitamin supplements are just excreted, causing damage to liver by the way. Another issue might be that high protein, from sources such as milk and meat, significantly reduces the ability of the body to create a net gain of calcium. There are many peer reviewed studies on the issue.

    31. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've heard a couple people complain that iodized salt tastes distinctly different from non-iodized. I've never noticed a difference, but I haven't done a side-by-side taste test (meanwhile I know I need the iodine so I'm going to prefer iodized).

    32. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know what food contains half the iodine you need in a day. A potato.

      From what I googled a potato and a boiled egg are enough. And you have to eat the potato's skin, since that's where all the iodine (and most of the vitamins and minerals besides iodine) come from (which is why I never skin my potatos, even when french frying them). But yeah, you can get plenty of iodine by eating the right foods (like that glass of milk or a bowl of strawberries).

      For instance potatoes, one of natures perfect food, has a bad reputation so we only eat french fried.

      You eat french fries with your steak?? You don't have hash browns with your breakfast? However, you're right about the "bad reputation". Potatos are only bad if you're a fatass. Salt also has a bad reputation, even though it's fine unless you have high blood pressure. My ex-wife used to have fainting spells from low blood pressure, her doctor's prescription was for her to eat more salt.

      We all try to pretend to be rich so we eat a lot of meat,

      That's just silly. We eat meat because animals are tasty and we're omnivores. We evolved to eat meat or it would taste bad to us,

      ...which has no fiber or vitamins or minerals.

      Bullshit. You should stop listening to whatever ignoramus is feeding you that stupidity.

      Meat contains a number of essential vitamins and minerals. It is an excellent source of many of the B vitamins, including thiamine, choline, B6, niacin, and folic acid. Some types of meat, especially liver, also contain vitamins A, D, E, and K.

      Meat is an excellent source of the minerals iron, zinc, and phosphorus. It also contains a number of essential trace minerals, including copper, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, chromium, and fluorine. The Table provides a comparison of the vitamin and mineral content of different types of meat.

      There's a hilarious punk rock song that fits this comment, I wish I could think of who did it (Antiflag maybe?) titled "Stupid Fucking Vegans". Homo sapiens is an omnivorous species. We NEED meat, even though most westerners probably eat more than is necessary.

    33. Re:But now people in the US try to avoid it by kermidge · · Score: 1

      A couple of the grade schools I attended in mid to late Fifties used to hand out iodine tablets one per student once or twice per week for the prevention of goiter. IIRC a few families objected and had to sign a waiver.

  5. Old Joke by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 0

    >> saw IQs rise by a full standard deviation

    George W. Bush moved from D.C. back to Texas and the same thing happened in both places.

    1. Re:Old Joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Recall that DC voters re-elected Marion Barry.

    2. Re:Old Joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You've obviously never been to Texas.

    3. Re:Old Joke by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      It's a representational government.

    4. Re:Old Joke by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Recall that DC voters re-elected Marion Barry.

      DC voters don't like to get pushed around by the federal government, and they get pushed a lot. Marion Barry was a scoundrel, but he was sent to prison in what was a clear case of entrapment by federal agents. They were almost certainly targeting him because of his politics. How many other citizens have been handed free unsolicited cocaine by the US government? His reelection was just DC voters giving congress the finger.

    5. Re:Old Joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice try Marion Barry.

    6. Re:Old Joke by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1
      From wikipedia:

      By this time, however, Barry was openly suffering from the effects of longstanding addictions to cocaine and alcohol; he would later admit that he lost control of his drug habit soon after being sworn in for a third term.[3] His public appearances were marked by glassy eyes and slurred speech.

      This was 1986, well before his arrest. Whether he was entrapped is moot, he was clearly guilty of egregious illegal drug use.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    7. Re:Old Joke by swalve · · Score: 1

      How many citizens would smoke the unsolicited crack, free or not?

  6. The path is not over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Still a long way to go america, add some more iodine maybe.

  7. Not the only public health benefit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Simply meeting the basic needs of the general public brings huge gains.

    There used to be a stereotype that all southerners were lazy and terrible workers. Turns out they were really just riddled with parasites (That train your energy and make you tired) Basic sanitation (Even things a simple as proper outhouses dug deep enough) solved that problem amazingly well. Many poor nations struggle with this problem today, however.

    The Army started school lunch programs because malnourished children were growing up stunted and short (among other health problems), and made for awful soldiers.

    1. Re:Not the only public health benefit. by ebno-10db · · Score: 1

      There used to be a stereotype that all southerners were lazy and terrible workers. Turns out they were really just riddled with parasites.

      What kind of parasites, and why did they have more of them than damnyankees? Serious question.

    2. Re:Not the only public health benefit. by Ken+McE · · Score: 2

      You get more insects and disease in general in places where it's warmer.

    3. Re:Not the only public health benefit. by Intropy · · Score: 5, Informative

      I believe you are referring to hookworms, which were found in an estimated 40%-70% of people living in the Southern US in the early 1900s in sufficient amounts to cause disease. They cause anemia and fatigue. They're expelled in feces, and can live in soil for a while. The problem was them digging out of outhouses through the soil and finding their way into people walking around barefoot. The solution was to dig deeper outhouses, so that the hookworm couldn't live in the soil long enough to reach the surface, and to wear shoes. On the flip side, there's serious current research into using small-scale hookworm infestation as a treatment for inflammatory diseases, including crohn's and multiple sclerosis.

    4. Re:Not the only public health benefit. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

      What kind of parasites, and why did they have more of them than damnyankees? Serious question.

      A number of energy and grown sapping diseases, such as malaria and yellow fever, were common in the American South in the 19th century, but uncommon in the North. But the biggest culprit was probably hookworms, which cause "intellectual, cognitive and growth retardation". Average IQ in the South increased significantly as hookworms were eradicated in the early 20th century.

      We might get another gain if we eradicate toxoplasmosis, a parasite spread by cats. It is believed by some to depress intelligence and novelty seeking behavior in humans.

    5. Re:Not the only public health benefit. by flyingfsck · · Score: 1

      Wow, parasites that can be trained? Maybe all they needed was better schooling - for the parasites.

      --
      Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    6. Re:Not the only public health benefit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Several Reasons. As Ken stated, being a warmer climate allows disease to become more resilient. Also, the South has always been more agriculturally based than the North because of simple geography - The North industrialized more due to an abundance of natural harbors (Long Island Sound provides Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York with a protected inlet for ships to enter; the Connecticut River is large enough for small freighters to go into New Hampshire and Vermont; Massachusetts Bay offers protection for fishing ships) and a relatively short growing season, whereas the South has few natural harbors, longer growing seasons, and considerably more rainfall. Unfortunately, working out in the fields for your lively hood increases the risk of exposure to parasites and such. Also being in Agriculture is a dirtier and more disease rattled lifestyle even now. Though the conditions have improved considerably in the last century, by its very nature a rural existence will always be dirtier and less sanitary than an urban one.

    7. Re:Not the only public health benefit. by OwMyBrain · · Score: 1

      We might get another gain if we eradicate toxoplasmosis, a parasite spread by cats. It is believed by some to depress intelligence and novelty seeking behavior in humans.

      Well that would certainly explain this.

    8. Re:Not the only public health benefit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All explained on RadioLabs podcast:

      http://www.radiolab.org/2009/sep/07/

  8. Salt in Food is Ubiquitous in the US by ScottCooperDotNet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I try to avoid salt when possible because so much food is overloaded with it, so I'm a little over the daily recommended value instead of double of it.

    Salt isn't just a preservative but a way to make lesser-quality food taste better, so the market gives a financial incentive to salt up everything.

    1. Re:Salt in Food is Ubiquitous in the US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's a perfectly valid point ... which has nothing to do with iodine in salt.

    2. Re:Salt in Food is Ubiquitous in the US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like a bowl of soup at basically any restaurant. My lips burn after eating something like that due to the excessive salt. How about a 7-11 burrito with like 1500mg of sodium? Yikes.

    3. Re:Salt in Food is Ubiquitous in the US by hedwards · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's a valid concern, but another part of it is that iodized salt isn't usually what they're using in processed foods. So, not only do you get tons of salt, but it doesn't even have the trace minerals that would benefit you.

      And yes, the main reason that salt is in so many foods is because it increases appetite and enhances flavor.

    4. Re:Salt in Food is Ubiquitous in the US by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      It's not that bad. It's really only a gram and a half.

    5. Re:Salt in Food is Ubiquitous in the US by tmosley · · Score: 2

      Put a gram and a half of salt and a half in a cup of coffee and drink it.

    6. Re:Salt in Food is Ubiquitous in the US by deimtee · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's a gram and a half of sodium. It's 3.8 grams of salt.

      --
      I'm guessing that wasn't on their radar screen...
    7. Re:Salt in Food is Ubiquitous in the US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You accidentally wrote "and a half" twice.

    8. Re:Salt in Food is Ubiquitous in the US by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Salt isn't just a preservative but a way to make lesser-quality food taste better

      Adding salt, sugar, etc. to foods enhances the richness of their flavor. The mixture of taste and smell makes for wonderful flavors greater than the sum of their parts, and is a major art form for humans.

      Similarly, greens and blues are used by painters to make lesser-quality canvases look better.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    9. Re:Salt in Food is Ubiquitous in the US by jittles · · Score: 1

      I try to avoid salt when possible because so much food is overloaded with it, so I'm a little over the daily recommended value instead of double of it.

      Salt isn't just a preservative but a way to make lesser-quality food taste better, so the market gives a financial incentive to salt up everything.

      I avoid salt because my taste buds are extremely sensitive to it. A salting that tastes good to most people can often result in my tongue feeling like its burning. If I can taste the salt, I don't like it.

    10. Re:Salt in Food is Ubiquitous in the US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes too much salt does that to you.
      especially in coffee ;-)

    11. Re:Salt in Food is Ubiquitous in the US by kermidge · · Score: 1

      Then you're going to the wrong restaurants. No kitchen where I cooked over-salted anything - it is simply not done and gets in the way of proper seasoning anyway. Salt was often the last thing added, and only to the point of just enough, if that. In commercial kitchens making up food for hundreds at a time, if anything foods were under-salted, given the propensity of diners to shake salt and pepper onto almost everything by reflex. The only items with extra salt had it intrinsically as part of drying or curing - anchovies, ham, and the like. But these days cooks may be cooking differently, I suppose, so maybe there are no right restaurants left.

    12. Re:Salt in Food is Ubiquitous in the US by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      I hate coffee. With salt or without.

  9. Understood by german endocrinologists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Germany was at the forefront of endocrinology during their 2nd industrial revolution that preceded similar industrialization in america.

    Their endocrinologists knew that Hyperthyroidism could be treated with a bath with a very dilute amount of Hydrofluoric acid added. They eventually synthesised 3-Fluorotyrosine which was even more vectored to the thyroid gland. The reason this works is normal thyroid hormone is made from conjugated tyrosine with Iodine located at the meta potitions of both rings, no special enzyme positions the Iodine here it is simple thermodynamically favourable for halogens. Once at the target tissue the halogen is removed by the Deiodinase enzymes, Type II is the most important, it requires selenomethionine unlike the Type I and III, and selectively turns T4 into T3. Inside the target cell the Iodine is liberated where it performs an essential role in the nucleus. If Fluorine is located on the tyrosyl it poisons the Type II deiodinase and you result in a form of subtle hypothyroidism where your body loses the ability to move through the normal dynamic range of high and low energy states. To compensate for the inability to convent T4 to the more potent T3 you produce more T4 all the time. You end up unable to relax. An effect also produced by the ability of Fluoride to very selectively target Acetylcholineesterases, required for termination of muscle nerve signals, leading to increased agitation and an inability to properly wind down and relax. Finally Fluoride is potent against Aconitase modifying the Citric-Acid-Cycle in unfavourable ways.

    Clearly these are all long evolved stress responses to the ubiquitous toxin that is Fluorine. Henry Mousian was the 10th person who tried to isolate it an succeeded, all the others died. He died a premature death. chlorine and bromine are not nearly so deadly.

    Fluorine is very ubiquitous in the earth crust, generally over 200ppm it is more common in the earths crust than carbon! So this enemy has existed for all time, harvard has recently found RNA riboswitches in bacteria that have been shown to specifically sense fluorine to activate defences. Humans do not have these, instead we have G-protein coupled receptors, through which all our hormone and many neurotransmitters function. These are also very sensitive to compounds that form from Fluorine and another ubiquitous element, Aluminium. AlF3 actives g-protein coupled receptors and modulate our sensitivity to our own hormones. there is a theory that the GPCR evolved to sense Fluoride !

    Although the role of iodine in the thyroid was to continue to be understood upto WWII as together with Niacin it was one of the two most significant factors that determined mortality from Nuclear weapons.

    1. Re:Understood by german endocrinologists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      3-fluorotyrosine is in the Merck Index, and so is Sodium Fluoride, both were used to treat hyperthyroidism. 3-Fluorotyrosine is also called Pardinon, ive personally wondered about the naming of this as in Italian it translates as Leopards do Not. :) Probably just a coincidence, whats in a name?

    2. Re:Understood by german endocrinologists by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      Not surprising, there's been quite a few studies done on kids born after WWII in east and west germany. The most telling was when soviets cut salt rations. Well for my own story, my mother was born in East Germany in '50, and has goiter, among a pile of other issues relating to iodine deficiency. This didn't happen to kids in the west side of Germany. She avoided the mental retardation due to Cretinism luckily(but ended up with the stunted growth), though many of her childhood friends didn't avoid any of it. I've met a few that managed to either come to Canada after the wall, or came over with their parents via west germany. It's very easy to see the differences. Short(my mother was 4'8" at her prime, one of her childhood friends came in at 4'0"), some are deaf, or deaf-mutes, or have severe stance and gait problems.

      It's kind of funny or perhaps sad, but when she was in the underground(aka smuggling from west to east), one of the highest in-demand items besides music, was salt and sugar.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    3. Re:Understood by german endocrinologists by 3.5+stripes · · Score: 1

      Ma sei sicuro che si traduce cosi?

      --


      He tried to kill me with a forklift!
    4. Re:Understood by german endocrinologists by minstrelmike · · Score: 1

      It's kind of funny or perhaps sad, but when she was in the underground(aka smuggling from west to east), one of the highest in-demand items besides music, was salt and sugar.

      It's kind of interesting that salt and sugar (and music) was what most caravans carried overland in ancient times.
      Here I thought it was for flavoring but if your tribe didn't eat salt/iodine, it probably wasn't able to stay a tribe for multiple generations.

  10. Re:Gained I.Q. with Iodized salt - by ebno-10db · · Score: 0

    Redundant. Gen. Ripper has already commented.

  11. Re:Gained I.Q. with Iodized salt - by pecosdave · · Score: 1

    Missed it. Of course I've been first and marked redundant before, so - meh.

    --
    The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
  12. Bah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Didnt even go from dumber to dumb then just shifted the bell curve to the right.

  13. Re:Gained I.Q. with Iodized salt - by hondo77 · · Score: 2
    From the study:

    The standardized weighted mean difference in IQ score between exposed and reference populations was -0.45...

    ...The estimated decrease in average IQ associated with fluoride exposure based on our analysis may seem small and may be within the measurement error of IQ testing.

    Your loss looks like it might be a rounding error.

    --
    I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
  14. Re:Good idea by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Great!

    Any way we can distribute extra iodine to /. trolls and flamers?

    As much as possible, please!

    I'm wondering about the internet in general as a symptom of a larger problem. So these people got a little better at figuring out hos things tick or how to solve a puzzle. Know what they did with it? They tied themselves up in knots with conspiracy theories and bollox like that. Perhaps the answer is to cut out some of that Iodine.

    There are days when I just don't want to see the crap that's going on on the interwebs.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  15. Re:Good idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just get the fuck out you little cry baby
     
    Waaaa!!! Waaaaaaaa!!!!!!!

  16. Re:Gained I.Q. with Iodized salt - by hedwards · · Score: 2

    -.45 is well within the margin of error for IQ testing. And really, any differences of IQ under 3% is not worth even considering. A person who cares can easily gain 10 IQ points just based upon environment alone.

    What's more IQ itself is a narrow measure of aptitude primarily focused upon success rates at school. Even if the drop in IQ were more meaningful, it would still not necessarily mean that people were getting less intelligent, it could mean that their aptitudes were changing to focus on other things.

  17. You need to iodize salt because it is mined. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 0
    Only when the salt is mined you need to artificially add iodine. Almost all the salt used in USA comes from salt mines under the Great Lakes. There is a mile deep deposit of salt there and we simply mine it out. This salt has no natural iodine. But most places get their salt by evaporating sea water. The sea salt has so many other minerals too. Most important of it is the sea weed. That is full of iodine. So you don't have to artificially add iodine to them.

    But the kind of powdered salt used here is known more commonly as "table salt" to distinguish it from "sea salt" or "rock salt". If you buy table salt, even in traditionally we-dont-need-no-artificial-iodine here countries (like India) you need to buy iodized version usually.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:You need to iodize salt because it is mined. by Nutria · · Score: 0

      The sea salt has so many other minerals too. Most important of it is the sea weed.

      Since sea weed isn't a mineral, I suggest you reassess your writing style.

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    2. Re:You need to iodize salt because it is mined. by longk · · Score: 1

      No, not really, most places don't. Even "sea salt" isn't from the sea in most cases. (They can call it sea salt based on theories that the mines were once, long ago, part of a sea.)

    3. Re:You need to iodize salt because it is mined. by Ogre332 · · Score: 1

      If this is the case, why is it that the container of Mortons Sea Salt I have in my cabinet state that it "does not contain iodine (a necessary part of a healthy diet)" or words to that effect?

      --
      Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a Q-Tip. - Homer Simpson
    4. Re:You need to iodize salt because it is mined. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sea salt's iodine level is low--typically about 20% of the level of iodized table salt.

    5. Re:You need to iodize salt because it is mined. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1

      Looks like I was totally wrong, and the replies help me clear my preconception. Thanks to mods for modding the wrong info down.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    6. Re:You need to iodize salt because it is mined. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Morton employee here, we have to add iodine to sea salt, you wash the sea salt to remove impurities like sea weed and brine shrimp. Iodine is added after we wash the salt. The way you make sea salt (basically letting the sun evaporate water to drop out salt crystals) does not drop out seaweed, plus we filter that before filling out settling ponds, so there is not much there anyway. Most impurities get removed with the top brine removal. The sea salt popularity is about 80% marketing scam, and 20% crystal size/taste issues, which we have replicated in our process. We can make a salt out of a pan experts cannot tell is not sea salt. the size and shape of the crystal has amazing taste variations, the basics being how long the salt taste lasts (aka pretzel salt is a dense small surface area salt that lasts in the mouth, salt on chips is high surface area for quick salt hit, but low density so it does not linger overly) and feel (shape of crystal and how it hit the tongue or interacts with ingredients)

      And you are right, there are big mines under the lakes (we have 2) but most of the salt now comes from deposits in other areas, we have mines all over, Ohio and Kansas are the leading sources for Morton Salt, the lake salt is only used on roads.

  18. Some observations about Iodine by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 4, Informative

    A lot of people in the US live in the so-called Goiter Belt, which is a band of the northernmost state (or two) of the US. Roughly speaking, the other states were once a vast inland ocean swamp, so the soil become infused with Iodine form the ocean. This gets into the water supply, with the result that Northern residents have far less Iodine in their diet than southern states.

    Another source of Iodine used to be bread - Iodine was used as a dough conditioner in bread, so a little bit got into the food chain that way. Some of the effect we're seeing might also be due to the rise of manufactured bread in the US.

    More recently, however, bread makers have started using Bromine instead of Iodine. Bromine binds to Iodine receptors so not only are we no longer getting Iodine from bread, we're less able to process the Iodine we do get.

    There's also the question of how much Iodine we need to be healthy. There's good evidence for the minimum amount to prevent disease, but that may (and for those of you in the medical community, note that I'm saying "may") be lower than the optimum amount.

    Note that doctors will tell you that 150ug is the maximum Iodine you should ever take (more would be toxic!) and yet occasionally use Iodine to enhance contrast in radiological studies, which puts as much as 20 mg in the blood stream. The RDA value is 100x less than used by doctors in some studies studies to treat disease.

    There's also disagreement as to what the minimum daily intake should be.

    We really should be studying these things. Unfortunately, a supplement that anyone could buy which will clear a patient's symptoms is incompatible with an expensive FDA-tested drug that requires office visits to administer. The medical community won't make money on supplements, so they aren't studied very well. There's enormous economic pressure against research into health (as opposed to research into disease).

    1. Re:Some observations about Iodine by cold+fjord · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Did you see the goiter rate charts in the article? I found them astonishing.

      I was also surprised by the low rates in Oklahoma and New Mexico. I wonder if that is because they were getting their salt from Texas? Texas did have a very low rate.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    2. Re:Some observations about Iodine by russotto · · Score: 2

      Note that doctors will tell you that 150ug is the maximum Iodine you should ever take (more would be toxic!)

      No, the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) is not intended as a maximum dosage! The long-term upper intake level is 1.1mg. Note long-term.

      and yet occasionally use Iodine to enhance contrast in radiological studies, which puts as much as 20 mg in the blood stream.

      It's not used all that much, because many patients have a bad reaction to it.

    3. Re:Some observations about Iodine by brycen · · Score: 2

      And when it comes to how to supplement iodine in remote areas, it turns out to be pretty easy:

          A new approach to combatting iodine deficiency in developing countries: the controlled release of iodine in water by a silicone elastomer.
          A Fisch, E Pichard, T Prazuck, R Sebbag, G Torres, G Gernez, M Gentilini
          Am J Public Health. 1993 April; 83(4): 540–545. PMCID: PMC1694489 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1694489/

      As long as the local shamans don't feel it takes away their business....

  19. Re:You cant raise a population's IQ! by datavirtue · · Score: 1

    We were having a good time till you showed up.

    --
    I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
  20. I'm surprised that it was a surprise... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    'Cretinism', the sufficiently-severe-to-be-clinically-obvious manifestation of iodine deficiency has been known for a considerable length of time, in places without sufficient soil iodine. I would imagine that smaller gains would only be a surprise if you thought that everybody not obviously diseased was fully healthy, rather than frequently mildly subnormal.

  21. Iodized salt raised IQ! by Mister+Liberty · · Score: 0

    quote:
    Iodized salt ... in 1924 ... raised the country's IQ

    One wonders how on earth they determined this cause/effect relationship.

    1. Re:Iodized salt raised IQ! by JustOK · · Score: 2

      They had no clue what was going on. They ate some salt, then figured it out.

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
  22. Re:Good idea by Black+Parrot · · Score: 4, Informative

    They tied themselves up in knots with conspiracy theories and bollox like that. Perhaps the answer is to cut out some of that Iodine.

    That's what the lizard men want you to think.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  23. Unfortunately... by msauve · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's been offset by the introduction of fluoride in the water supply, which is simply Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and an international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids. Hence, Dancing with the Stars.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    1. Re:Unfortunately... by interval1066 · · Score: 1

      LOL!

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
    2. Re:Unfortunately... by DigiShaman · · Score: 0

      Often there's an element of truth in jest. Specifically regarding Communist infiltration and indoctrination (nothing to do with fluoride nuttery theories btw).

      "Education is a weapon whose effect depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed." -Joseph Stalin.

      Basically, indoctrination via propaganda was seen as an effective way of maintain power and control of its populous and that of neighboring satellite nations.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    3. Re:Unfortunately... by ridgecritter · · Score: 1

      General Ripper, is that you?

    4. Re:Unfortunately... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      OK, somebody somewhere has to start this:

      "Populous" is an adjective, meaning "having a large population". "Populace" is a noun, meaning "the general public; the masses".

      Please use the correct word. Thank you.

      And incidentally, are you claiming that indoctrination through education is something exclusive to communists? Or that it has anything to do with either iodine in salt or flouride in water?

    5. Re:Unfortunately... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What porpoise did that serve?

    6. Re:Unfortunately... by pspahn · · Score: 2

      You're guest is as well as mein.

      --
      Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
    7. Re:Unfortunately... by texwtf · · Score: 1

      Another bitter Portlander?

    8. Re:Unfortunately... by real-modo · · Score: 2

      flouride

      Ah, Muphry's Law. Still all-powerful.

    9. Re:Unfortunately... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      The angry looking one.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    10. Re:Unfortunately... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A known treatment for the consequences of watching Dancing with Stars include iodine pills. Remember to replenish your stockpile, like a marshal would do.

    11. Re:Unfortunately... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Education is a weapon whose effect depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed." -Joseph Stalin.

      So, we're busy shooting our feet off?

      Makes sense.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  24. Re:IQ intellectuals by tmosley · · Score: 1

    Because you can only do one or the other, apparently.

  25. Has anyone seen a reality TV? by splitsevin · · Score: 1

    I'm unconvinced.

    --
    The enemy of my enemy is quite possibly also my enemy. I've made a lot of enemies.
    1. Re:Has anyone seen a reality TV? by minstrelmike · · Score: 1

      You are not convinced because you have lousy expectations.
      It isn't whether Reality TV is bad or not, the real question, undecidable for now, is how much worse would reality TV be today if we hadn't improved our IQ 90 years ago?
      Just imagine, that crap you see on uToob could smell a whole lot worse.

  26. Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And yet American politicians have an cumulative IQ that is lower than the world's average. They must have been hooked to an iodine extractor at birth.

  27. Re:You cant raise a population's IQ! by tmosley · · Score: 1

    Clearly you have never had the pleasure of visiting Lake Woebegone.

  28. Re:Gained I.Q. with Iodized salt - by pecosdave · · Score: 0

    Offtopic? Really? I can go for other negative mods, but really Offtopic is stretching it.

    --
    The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
  29. Fresh ground coffee, not iodized salt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Back in the day people's impressions of coffee were formed from an occasional cup of Maxwell House or Folger's while waiting to get their car fixed.

    Then a wave of indy coffeehouses burst onto the scene in the '80s (most of them since taken over by Starbucks, but hey...) and now even McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts are providing pretty decent cups. Science and engineering were saved.

  30. Re:IQ intellectuals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, but people who have not innovated in an intelligent way haven't proved themselves to be intelligent; IQ tests are meaningless.

  31. That is why americans eat so salty... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    probably.

  32. WAKEY WAKEY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CNS-letter.jpg

    The evidence really is overwhelming. I dare you to read just the first article here. It is published in a very prestigious journal. Educate yourself please. We are trying to help you. The industries and corporations which have captured america's government do not love you. The toothpaste is a lie. Colgate will not make you sexy. See the brainwashing for what it really is, breakout of the master-slave paradigm.

    Chemico-Biological Interactions 188 (2010) 319–333
    Molecular mechanisms of fluoride toxicity

    Unfortunately this copy is missing colour and some excellent diagrams. Google for a better copy.

    http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:iYgtU-HidMIJ:www.researchgate.net/publication/45281342_Molecular_mechanisms_of_fluoride_toxicity/file/79e415101a1cc46320.pdf+Chemico-Biological+Interactions+188+(2010)+319%E2%80%93333+Molecular+mechanisms+of+fluoride+toxicity&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk

    DOI: 10.1097/MNM.0b013e32834c187e
    Association of vascular fluoride uptake with vascular
    calcification and coronary artery disease

    http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ghbGfaMZNBMJ:intraspec.ca/Association_of_vascular_fluoride_uptake_with.3.pdf+DOI:+10.1097/MNM.0b013e32834c187e+Association+of+vascular+fluoride+uptake+with+vascular+calcification+and+coronary+artery+disease&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk

    Crit Rev Oral Biol Med
    14(2):100-114 (2003)
    THE BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY
    OF METALLIC FLUORIDE: ACTION,
    MECHANISM, AND IMPLICATIONS
    Liang Li
    cro.sagepub.com/content/14/2/100.full.pdf

    REVERSAL OF CLINICAL
    AND DENTAL FLUOROSIS
    Gupta ET AL.
    INDIAN PEDIATRICS
    Vol 31- APRIL 1994

    1. Re:WAKEY WAKEY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course there are papers on florine toxicity mechanisms, because it is toxic at high enough concentrations, as are many things that the body actually needs. The question is exactly what concentrations, and if there are benefits that outweigh the costs. The very paper you link to mentions a couple potential cases of hormesis, where there are beneficial, stimulating concentrations and higher toxic concentrations.

  33. Re:IQ intellectuals by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

    IQ tests are meaningless.

    Baloney. IQ tests may not precisely measure "intelligence", but they are clearly measuring something. IQ scores are strongly correlated with economic success (higher salaries and lower unemployment), reduction in criminal behavior, and better health. Things that lead to higher IQ scores tend to raise these correlated factors as well, whether it is better nutrition, less lead exposure, or even coaching on the thinking skills required for the test (which seems to indicate that good "test taking skills" are actually broadly useful critical thinking skills).

  34. Salt? No lead! by nicoleb_x · · Score: 1

    Jeez, most everybody knows that it was lead from gasoline that lowered the quality of the IQ test and thus raised the IQ test results.

  35. I use potassium salt you insensitive clod. by nbritton · · Score: 1

    I use a potassium / sodium / iodine blend, like Morton Lite Salt, in everything I cook or bake, and one of those sea salt grinders at the table. This keeps everyone at the table happy, and heathly.

  36. Hey, an iodized salt thread by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 2

    Can anyone explain why my Morton's Popcorn Salt isn't iodized?

    1. Re:Hey, an iodized salt thread by physicsphairy · · Score: 4, Funny

      For movie watching a high IQ only gets in the way.

    2. Re:Hey, an iodized salt thread by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 1

      Makes sense.

    3. Re:Hey, an iodized salt thread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Work here where we make it, the way we add iodine, it is a sticky liquid. Popcorn and flour salt cannot have it added this way since they would clump. In theory dry iodine could be added, but it would not stick to the small surface area of these salts and could sift and gather at the bottom of the can. We have seen a long slow increase in demand for more non-iodized salt, probably due to people thinking it is more natural or more pure. And as a side note, sea salt is not more pure, our table salt is re-processed to really high purity by bringing, taking out impurities then re-crystallizing. Sea salt we just wash the algae and brine shrimp off it and bottle it :) Both start as sea salt, our just comes from a really old sea bed buried in the ground.

  37. Increased IQ or protection of IQ? by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 1

    Technically lack of iodine cause mental retardation, or a lowering of IQ, so using iodized salt in a population wouldn't actually increase IQ the IQ of the population, it would simply protect against the degredation caused by iodine insufficiency.

    1. Re:Increased IQ or protection of IQ? by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

      If a pregnant woman doesn't get sufficient iodine the baby's development is impaired and never recovers, thus impairing IQ potential. There are effects that can occur in children and adults as well.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    2. Re:Increased IQ or protection of IQ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Technically lack of iodine cause mental retardation, or a lowering of IQ, so using iodized salt in a population wouldn't actually increase IQ the IQ of the population, it would simply protect against the degredation caused by iodine insufficiency.

      That's a distinction without a difference. For any beneficial substance X, you can say that X is beneficial, or you can say that X protects against insufficiency of X. There is no difference between the two statements. For example, I currently suffer from insufficiency of unobtainium-5, which is defined as whatever substance will increase my IQ to 300.

    3. Re:Increased IQ or protection of IQ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are making a false equivalency.

      You cannot say that iodine raises IQ when all that is known is that a deficiency of it lowers IQ. The only valid statement is "having sufficient iodine doesn't lower IQ."

      The reason for this is that having excess iodine does not increase IQ further. More iodine is not always beneficial, so your two statements are not equivalent.

      Iodine is beneficial only when a deficiency of it exists.

    4. Re:Increased IQ or protection of IQ? by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 1

      If a pregnant woman doesn't get sufficient iodine the baby's development is impaired and never recovers, thus impairing IQ potential. There are effects that can occur in children and adults as well.

      That's my point. The iodine is not increasing IQ, it is preventing the decline that occurs from the lack of having the iodine in the first place. Similar to how Vitamin C doesn't increase muscle strength, but it prevents the muscle weakness caused by scurvy.

  38. Re:Good idea by budgenator · · Score: 1

    Feed them crabby-patties, they're topped in iodine rich kelp.

    --
    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  39. Re:You cant raise a population's IQ! by hey! · · Score: 1

    Err... by your argument adding stupid members to a group or deleting smart ones would shift the IQ scale so that the 50th percentile (IQ=100) would move to a new, lower test score.

    In any case, everyone understands what the summary actually means. Any given version of test is calibrated with a certain sample at a certain point in time. Over time, if the underlying population's score on the test changes, their IQ *score* as reported by tests calibrated by old sample populations changes as well.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  40. Are you kidding me? by cold+fjord · · Score: 2

    Are you kidding me? That first letter is dealing with the toxicity of uranium hexafluoride, not fluoridated drinking water or salt!

    The concern there is almost certainly due to industrial exposure of workers trying to purify uranium on the Manhattan Project.

    I think that is as far as I need to look. You're following a quack, and in danger of becoming a crank. "Wakey Wakey"

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    1. Re:Are you kidding me? by flyingfsck · · Score: 1

      Well, if he really has uranium haxafluoride in his drinking water, then that alone will explain it all really...

      --
      Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    2. Re:Are you kidding me? by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

      Yes, that would explain a lot of things. ;D

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  41. Interesting timing by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    I think it is interesting that the generation affected by the iodized salt brain boost would have just been coming of age when WW2 struck. The US would have entered the war with quite a few soldiers that would have been noticeably more intelligent than their fathers in WW1. I expect it must have helped given the increasing technical sophistication of warfare at the time. Smarter soldiers also tend to do better on the battlefield in general.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  42. Tron joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Could someone come out with a Tron-related joke please ?

    1. Re:Tron joke by Culture20 · · Score: 1

      "Could someone come out with a Tron-related joke please ?"

      . /\ ,
      <    >
      ' \/ `
      No

    2. Re:Tron joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pure gold!

  43. Re:Geographic cure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Go ahead and try it...

  44. We put the iodine in by russotto · · Score: 1

    and we took the lead out, and yet it seems in the US, people on the whole are stupider then ever. There must be some sort of reverse Flynn effect compensating for all this. I'd like to blame reality TV, but that's likely just a system.

    1. Re:We put the iodine in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and we took the lead out, and yet it seems in the US, people on the whole are stupider then ever. There must be some sort of reverse Flynn effect compensating for all this. I'd like to blame reality TV, but that's likely just a system.

      It's called "nostalgia".

      People aren't any stupider than they've ever been you just forgot how stupid people used to be because you didn't want to remember.

  45. obviously by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    Did you see what they were wearing back then? I'm not surprised we're superior to those knuckle draggers, lol. Plus, they practically ate lead paint chips and drank water from lead pipes.

  46. Krypton = Fluoride by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can overcome your programming. Wake up from the matrix.

    Superman is an allegory. Krypton = Fluorine

    Both are halogens but at opposite ends of their column (after all he is from an alien planet)

    Fluorine antagonises Iodine. It is the most electronegative element and forms bonds with carbon that are particularly persistent and disrupt enzymes expecting a hydrogen. The truth is simple. It is poison. There is no biological role, in human beings. The only known biological role in any organism is in plants that have developed the ability to produce Fluroacetate as an exceptionally effective defense against herbivores. There is no known ability for an organism to have developed a complete resistance or even a significant tolerance. It is also a remarkably good rat poison, as is NaF for which no tolerance has even been demonstrated to develop.

    F is an accumulative element. We only excrete around half of what we intake every day of our lives. It builds throughout life and eventually the accumulated dose is equal to the clearly toxic acute dose. Tell me, how can you explain a justification for the amounts forced against consent on the most vulnerable. Lets say only 1mg accumulates each day (a gross underestimate in todays america), ~3.6 grams a decade, after a couple of decades the levels neatly coincide with those that demonstrably cause muscular skeletal diseases, curiously similar to arthritis. Yes there is degeneration with aging that is unavoidable but F at any level clearly accelerates damage to collagen and skeletal joints.

    Convince yourself, think that say the 50yr accumulative dose = 18grams F at only 1mg a day accumulating which is very conservative, tell me you believe it could not possibly have any connection to arthritis! you cannot! first you would need to be informed to even have a valid basis for any opinion. Most of the authority figures you have relied upon for 'education' are entirely captured by industry.

    The most trivial mathematical consideration suggests that we should have a very large concern and should exercise caution. A fraction of one tooth surface amongst the over a hundred surfaces in a childs mouth is supposed to outway accelerated aging and debilitation! You do the math 1mg x 365 x 50 = 18grams conservative est of bioaccumulation.

    Do a thought experiment, speed up the administration, at some sped up rate the same amount will cause noticable then severe accute effects, finally sudden death of a heart attack due to mitochondrial damage.

    what are the separate effects that occur which distinguish the rapid administration from the prolonged, there are none, the body just has more time to repair the damage. This errosion is most harmful to the malnourished this is why severe fluorosis is so much more apparent with well water drinking chinese, indians, and africans. But even with a good diet, inducing damage and consequent (continually impaired) repair is never as healthful as simply avoiding this unnecessary burden.

    Kidneys! Dialysis patients must have virtually fluoride free water because if you put 1ppm into the blood it KILLS YOU. If you are not in end stage kidney disease Fluoride impaires the ability of the kidney to concentrate urine, you actually piss on average twice as much (F group has twice the mean renal clearance at 1ppm vs ~0.2 ppm), this is from very significant studies. If i find it conveniently i will include it later. What is the economic value of having to wake up twice as often in the night, 4 times instead of 2, twice instead of once. No matter how health your kidneys the effect on your quality of like, and direct economic cost is MASSIVE.

    Go to a nursing home, then look in the mirror, think!

    Yes we have many layers of defenses and feedback mechanisms to compensate for exposure to this universal element. It is very prevalent in the earths crust, after all. More prevalent than many elements essential for life, so life has always had pressure to evolve increasingly sophisticated defenses.

    To go from this to immediately claiming we should provoke these defenses, without peoples consent, in a manner that the most poor and vulnerable cannt afford to avoid is perverse.

  47. Re:Gained I.Q. with Iodized salt - by elbonia · · Score: 1
    EXACTLY From the study itself:

    "The estimated decrease in average IQ associated with fluoride exposure based on our analysis may seem small and may be within the measurement error of IQ testing." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3491930/

  48. Re:Good idea by flyingfsck · · Score: 1

    You can try salting their passwords.

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
  49. Digging through the soil? by reiisi · · Score: 2

    The way I heard it was that it was the use of untreated fertilizer in the fields and gardens that was the primary cause of the infections.

    I suppose, sitting barefoot in an outhouse with no floor, that the hookworms working their way up from the pit could be a contributive factor.

    But, shoes, yes. One of the reasons for the tradition of wooden geta in Japan was the general use of untreated (human) fertilizer in the rice paddies. The tradition of taking the shoes off on entering the house was also in no small part derived from the problems with the dirt.

    And most parasites have a debilitating effect on the host, which is going to effect IQ and behavior in general.

    --
    Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
  50. Re:Gained I.Q. with Iodized salt - by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's obviously off topic, clearly you didn't read the study. The control group was the US and it was assumed in the study that US levels would NOT have an effect. They used 25 studies from China and 2 in Iran and found that at exceptionally high doses there may be a cause in which fluorine lowers IQ. These doses far exceed the max found anywhere in the US, 10-80X. So yes your statement is off topic since there's no way this study shows any gains were lost for the US.

  51. Re:Gained I.Q. with Iodized salt - by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Get the fuck out of your basement and stop caring about your faggoty little nerd score on this shit site.

  52. Re:Good idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Geez, dude. You're clearly in need of a salty snack.

  53. Re:WAKE UP SHEEPLE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That is discussing uranium hexafluoride from the Manhattan project program to get enough enriched uranium to build a bomb. Who would imagine that would be bad for you?

    You don't really know what you are talking about.

  54. Re:Gained I.Q. with Iodized salt - by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The chinese studies, the most statistically significant studies on fluoride and IQ, found an asymmetric affect on the distribution which is _not_ Normal to begin with.

    1/3 the number of children were classified as "advanced" meaning they would be taught (at least partially) separately. this is very significant.

  55. Re:Geographic cure by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    Now now....

    If you look at the chart in the article the worst of the goiter zone was running from Michigan to Alaska, along the Canadian border. The Southern states were relatively little effected. The North West (Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho) were badly affected. I'm sure you wouldn't want to do without the progressives from that region.

    There must be some parts of the South that are agreeable to you. After all, they did send James Eons Clyburn, John Lewis, Cynthia McKinney and Alan Grayson to Congress.

    And for pure political entertainment it is hard to beat this: Alvin Greene Wins South Carolina Primary

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  56. That explains bosses... by kimgkimg · · Score: 1

    Apparently my boss has had an iodine deficiency for some time...

    1. Re:That explains bosses... by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      Second time today. I see something that needs to be modded up but I've already posted.

  57. Re:You cant raise a population's IQ! by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    Spock: He's intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking.

    Add the time dimension.

    Spock: Perhaps his childhood lacked iodized salt.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  58. But after that ... by Ihlosi · · Score: 1

    ... the consumption of leaded gasoline skyrocketed, dropping the average IQ by another 20 points and causing more people to become violent criminals.

  59. Re:IQ intellectuals by Joining+Yet+Again · · Score: 1

    Modern employers all give people something like an IQ test, so it stands to reason that people who score highly on those types of tests will be more "successfully" employed.

  60. Curious by Voice+of+satan · · Score: 1

    I always thought the first cause of mental retardation was religion.

    1. Re:Curious by EmagGeek · · Score: 1

      Don't confuse cause and effect.

      Religion is simply a symptom of being mentally retarded - or "developmentally delayed" as the new hopeful-sounding buzzword that psychologists use today to give false hope that retardation is simply a "delay" in becoming the smartest person in the world.

      Maybe being a psychologist is also a symptom of being retarded.

  61. Re:Gained I.Q. with Iodized salt - by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's more IQ itself is a narrow measure of aptitude primarily focused upon success rates at school.

    You don't know how IQ is defined, do you? I'd encourage you to find out. IQ is by mathematical definition the broadest possible single measure of mental capacity possible. If you knew how it was defined, you'd know that that statement is true. Though if you find a definition having to do with quotients of intellectual school ages, then you're looking at information that was outdated 100+ years ago. Go find the real definition based on factor analysis.

  62. I call BS! by mark_reh · · Score: 0

    Iodine in salt, like fluoride in water, is simply a convenient, low cost method of disposing of an industrial waste product! We are being deliberately poisoned!

    1. Re:I call BS! by 1s44c · · Score: 2

      Iodine in salt, like fluoride in water, is simply a convenient, low cost method of disposing of an industrial waste product! We are being deliberately poisoned!

      Maybe you should try lithium in your food instead.

    2. Re:I call BS! by minstrelmike · · Score: 1

      Iodine in salt, like fluoride in water, is simply a convenient, low cost method of disposing of an industrial waste product! We are being deliberately poisoned!

      And if you weren't being deliberately poisoned with stuff that makes you smarter, you'd be too stupid to catch on to the massive interstellar conspiracy that is _really_ controlling Elvis. Thank God for aliens.

  63. Re:Gained I.Q. with Iodized salt - by pecosdave · · Score: 1

    Hey - I own my comments coward.

    --
    The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
  64. Dopamine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Dopamine receptor, at least the Ionophoric ones, conduct Na+ ions into the cell, they may either be balanced with a
    Cl- or run in a mode where two Na+ ions are transported into the cell. In this mode a net accumulation of charge builds in the cell and this may contribute to a depolarisation wave. Interestingly NMDA glutamate receptors conduct Ca+, and because of the potential difference between a standard cell of Na/K being 0.7 vs Na/Ca being 0.5 so Ca added decreases the depolarisation threshold for the neuron making it more likely to fire. Interestingly Mg brings it up to 0.8 and so decreases the likelyhood for a neuron to fire.

    What does this have to do with salt? well Na is transported by Dopamine transporters. So salt tolerance, requirement, and desire are all be directly connected with the concentration and distribution of DA transporters, after all this is exactly how behaviour is reinforeced, and Da release becomes identifying an idea related to an object and so intimately involved with the associated behaviour of seeking salt, and salty foods.

    Enjoy your popcorn.

  65. Re:Good idea by asylumx · · Score: 1

    Wake up, sheeple!!! http://xkcd.com/1013/

  66. Re:Good idea by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    I notice that A LOT of people in IT are heavily into conspiracy theories, even outside of the US, where there's no culture of pathological distrust of government adding fuel to the fire. I think it's what happens when a person's skepticism and reasoning ability are decently good, but much better than their knowledge of history and science.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  67. Re:Good idea by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    I don't think it'll help. For a long time my office had a water cooler that fed from bottles and the water had a heavy taste of iodine.

    Didn't gain superpowers :-(

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  68. Re:You cant raise a population's IQ! by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

    And for those who don't get the joke.

    --
    Time to offend someone
  69. And people say.. by 1s44c · · Score: 1

    ..that too much salt is bad for you.

  70. Re:Good idea by minstrelmike · · Score: 1

    The trolls actually _are_ the smart ones. Y'all just can't figure it out being in your uniodinized state ;-)

  71. Re:Good idea by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

    'Informative'.

    Right.

    Maybe we should dispense a couple of iodine tablets with each set of mod points. Then, the mods will be smarter and protected against the effects of runaway nuclear reactors.

    Bwahahaha! Moderators Rule the World!!!!!

    (oops. Lithium deficiency again. This salt thing is really complicated.)

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  72. Re:Good idea by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

    Perchance were you working in or near a nuclear power generating facility?

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  73. Re:Good idea by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    Nowhere near any. I think the iodine was in the water bottles for the same reason it's used in camping.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  74. So, we should all be fired? by dnwheeler · · Score: 1

    For taking performance enhancing drugs?

  75. They antagonise each other by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Halogens all have an affinity for the symporter in the thyroid. They do have an order of affinity though, and so the levels can compete. Because each of the two tyrosine groups (tyrosyl) conjugated to form thyroid hormone attract halogens, which are made thermally dynamically favoured at the meta positions on both rings, in this way a different balance of everything from T3 to T4 and reverse T3 etc, are produced when Thyroglobulin is iodinated, of course there is some competitive tendency for other halogens to locate at these thermodynamically favoured meta positions.

    Because the thyroid is a reservoir of halogens, so store iodine when we cant eat it, so we can have sporadic intake, it also accumulates Fluorine. 3-Fluorotyrosine is a potent inhibitor of thyroid function, although it is not reliable and inhibits action in the target tissue and even poisons the TypeII deiodinase that is required for selective T4-T3, unlike the TypeI and III which can produce reverseT3. So typeII is particularly important in high energy demand tissues such as the brain and the diaphram and heart. These all need to function virtually without rest and are strongly and continually active.

    Its fascinating that our understanding of just thyroid hormone is still rapidly expanding. It turns out there are TAAM1 thyroamines that may be involved in hibernation, causing a large drop in body temperature and vascular change associated with hibernation which may have therapeutic effects but appear to trigger these changes in eg. siberian hamsters. TAAM1 has only been measured reliably in the last 5years, post 2005. It may also be involved in dopamine regulation.

    "Fluoride's suppressive effect on the thyroid is more severe when iodine is deficient, and fluoride is associated with lower levels of iodine.[22] Thyroid effects in humans were associated with fluoride levels 0.05–0.13 mg/kg/day when iodine intake was adequate and 0.01–0.03 mg/kg/day when iodine intake was inadequate.[17]:263 Its mechanisms and effects on the endocrine system remain unclear"

    straight from wikipedia. i'll let you google the references.

    Clearly if you can interpret this, Iodine and Fluorine antagonise each other, at least in their effects on the thyroid and so really on the endocrine system at the very least via thyroid feedback/interaction.

    Also these studies show sensitivity to fluoride can vary by as much as 13 times depending on Iodine status. This is clearly too large a range for precise dosing, considering individual sensitivity, variation of dose with amount drunk which can vary by at least twice its amount, and clearance which if impaired as with kidney patients can result in increase in the bioaccumulation and serum levels. So as far as the passive ability of water to carry fluoride outwith it, simply due to the high affinity F- has for H+OH, H+, OH- species, being H+F,H+,F-, where masses and radii are similar as are some chemical properties the efficiency of this process is inversely proportional to the difference between the concentrations of solute F-, in the solvent H2O. If the intake concentration is above the serum level it will be deposited directly in our skeleton which is our largest reservoir for storing fluorine throughout our life. If the amount leaving the system is higher than the amount entering, we will be in negative balance and the basal level of erosion to collagen and enzymes by F- will reduce rather than grow with age as the capacity for the reservoir to hold and buffer input F- is reduced and subsequent levels of erosion increase. Yes there _are_ many regulatory systems to repair and rebuild the systems eroded but, the erosion occurs constantly, even during production, the repaired collagen will not be even as good as an originally undamaged form of collagen resulting from lower quantities of F- ion. In otherwords increased growth and breakdown has to more than offset the amount damage stimulating metabolism.

    Lets run some simple numbers as an exploration of the boundary of our system.
    Lets

  76. Newbies by Dareth · · Score: 1

    Yeah, some of us lost our first accounts you know.

    --

    I only look human.
    My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
    1. Re:Newbies by jittles · · Score: 1

      Eh I just never bothered to create an account until I read a comment that bothered me so much I just had to reply...

    2. Re:Newbies by MiG82au · · Score: 1

      Ha, that's what I did. I had been lurking on and off for about 13 years.

  77. Put out salt blocks.... by Dareth · · Score: 1

    Put out salt blocks....at the next "Occupy" protest. They are cattle, they will probably like it.

    --

    I only look human.
    My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
  78. Americans are smartest-er! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Salt makes you smart? Why, that should mean we Americans are the smartest-er than everybody else!

  79. What if it had gone the other way? by DutchUncle · · Score: 1

    What if adding iodine to salt to cure one problem had *lowered* the average IQ? How would we know? Was anyone keeping track of *anything*?

    What if some other "generally recognized as safe" food/packaging/thing has been lowering the average IQ? Or raising the rates of autism? Or doing some other harm? In the name of making a food package a fraction of a penny cheaper, have we been poisoning ourselves and our children? Again, how would we know?

    We regularly perform random experiments on major segments of our own population with NO tracking, NO experimental protocols, and NO analysis. If someone were doing this to animals, there would be an uproar; if aliens were doing it to us, we'd attempt to revolt; but we allow the "invisible hand of the market" to do it to OURSELVES without a thought.

  80. Re:Geographic cure by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    Go ahead and try it...

    Oh, it was already tried back in the 1860s, and y'all got your hats handed to you and Atlanta burned down to boot.

    I think we've learned our lesson though. If the South tried to secede now, I'm not sure you'd hear much argument from us, though we might helpfully suggest you mind the door on the way out.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  81. Re:Gained I.Q. with Iodized salt - by hedwards · · Score: 1

    I know what IQ is, I take it you don't. The definition of IQ hasn't changed, it's just that it gets misapplied greatly in the modern era. It's every bit as goofy as the French's obsession with graphology.