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Ah, the fun of halogens and you. Let's see, pregnant, wanting to assure that I am getting enough iodine in my diet, and have to make the choice between consuming two servings of possibly mercury loaded seafood a week, or a pinch of iodized salt each day containing 200 mcg of iodine coming primarily from the addition of a tiny amount of potassium iodide? Hmmm...

@ Challah. Why no such thing in Mass? Not exactly difficult to make or requiring exotic ingredients.

To JeremyPB; 100 miles north of SD sounds like you are probably in L.A. I too am from San Diego, North County actually, and am now in L.A as well. You may already know about it, but if you are looking for fish tacos up here, try Tacos Baja Ensenada. IMO, better than anything SD had when I lived there. Might be worth a shot. A bit divey, but many swear by their cuisine.

http://www.tacosbaja.com/home.html

Dmarina, thank you for the information about Expecta. I did not realize it was made by a formula company! I knew there was something about it that did not seem quite right (not straightforward enough, if that makes any sense) but had not bothered to find an alternative, since this is what my doc recommended (I am bad about trusting authority figures w/o question). Now I plan to look for what you are taking.

Sieseye, thank you for all this information. I had read that seaweed was a good source of iodine, of course, but I had not heard of kelp powder, which sounds like a good solution. I have been interested in eating more seaweed for a few years but have never managed to rotate it into my regular cooking habits.

Kelp powder is a natural way to get iodine and in fact is pretty much how fish get it. Powdered kelp can be bought in bulk in most health stores, co-ops and places like Whole Foods then added to foods such as stews or smoothies. It can also be bought as supplements to be taken as a capsule or tablet. I think that's a better and much more natural way to obtain iodine than have it supplemented to the sodium. Kelp also has a lot of other valuable minerals and vitamins.

Sea salt does have some natural iodine and a bunch of other nutrients that table salt doesn't have (or has stripped out in refining).

Sea Salt vs. Table Salt · "Sea salt contains about 80 mineral elements that the body needs. Some of these elements are needed in trace amounts. Unrefined sea salt is a better choice of salt than other types of salt on the market. · Ordinary table salt that is bought in the super markets has been Stripped of its companion elements and Contains additive elements [sometimes] such as aluminum silicate to keep it powdery and porous."

However, there is such a thing as too much iodine. But, a lot of the thyroid issues these days are environmental particularly perchlorate which is part of rocket fuel (and used as a fertilizer in Chili which is another reason to buy local) and has contaminated a lot of our drinking water and consequently getting into a lot of veggies working its way up the food chain even getting into cow's milk. PCBs are another tough one for thyroids (thank you Monsanto) and fish and shellfish contamination is really bad in that case.

Environmentalism isn't just for hippies anymore. :]

Ah, the fun of halogens and you. Let's see, pregnant, wanting to assure that I am getting enough iodine in my diet, and have to make the choice between consuming two servings of possibly mercury loaded seafood a week, or a pinch of iodized salt each day containing 200 mcg of iodine coming primarily from the addition of a tiny amount of potassium iodide? Hmmm...

@lexschmidt, I take the Whole Foods brand prenatal multivitamin that only has to be taken once a day (I think there is also a version that you take three times a day). I also take a DHA supplement called Expecta which you can buy over the counter at CVS. The prescription vitamin was also a vitamin plus separate DHA supplement, but my doctor said Expecta was just as good. I still feel quite skeptical about vitamins in general. Would rather get everything from food but am pretty sure I'm not eating enough seafood to get all the good fish oil and iodine I need.

I have not yet encountered anything in my reading that suggests that unrefined sea salt supplies quantities of iodine similar to what is provided by iodized salt. But the web is wide, and as I've said, I'm no expert...so I will definitely look into it further. I would RATHER use sea salt, but for some reason iodized salt doesn't freak me out the way some fortified foods do. Even if I use the Michael Pollan test--would your grandmother have recognized this as food?--the answer is yes.

Thank you for your extremely civil comments about hypothyroidism! I do know that it still exists, of course, and should have said that systematically iodizing salt vastly reduced cases of iodine-deficiency-induced hypothyroidism, which was a widespread problem in USA in the early years of the last century and still is a problem in some developing countries. As you said, iodine deficiency is not the only cause of hypothyroidism, and I'm sorry I wasn't more specific. I was (selfishly) focused on the fact that iodine deficiency can be a problem for pregnant women (or their fetuses) even if iodine deficiency/hypothyroidism has never troubled them before...having been surprised to stumble across this fact so late in my pregnancy.

I had the same reaction, onalark! Hypothyroidism is actually pretty common, especially in women. Everybody should know the symptoms because they can be subtle: unexplained weight gain, depression, feeling cold, weakness or tiredness, constipation, dry skin, etc. When I got diagnosed, I had most of these symptoms, plus the beginning of a goiter (enlarged thyroid gland in the neck).

Okay, between the two of us, that's plenty of pedantry for one thread. ;)

Interesting post, Robin! I think most people have forgotten why salt is iodized.