Vegetarians May Lack Sufficient Iodine in Their Diet

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"Iodine content in food of plant origin is lower in comparison with that of animal origin due to a low iodine concentration in soil 'the sea has more.]...

The study examined 15 vegetarians and 31 people who abstained from meat and milk products to compare them with 35 adults on a mixed diet.

"The results show that…there is a higher prevalence of iodine deficiency *'among non-meat eaters than among those with a mixed diet] which might be a consequence of 'their eating only foods] of plant origin, no intake of fish and other sea products, as well as reduced iodine intake in the form of sea salt 'which does not contain iodine] instead of iodized salt."

*Iodine deficiency can result in goiter and/or hypothyroidism, a medical condition.

DETAILS: Aside from eating fish, one can take kelp pills. Kelp is a type of seaweed and is rich in iodine. Some folks may be surprised that sea salt is without iodine.

By: Krajcovicova-Kudlackova, Sebokova, et al., Institute of Preventative and Clinical Med, and Inst. of Exp. Endocrin., Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia. From Nutrition & Metabolism, European J. of Nutrition, vol. 47, 2003.