When my wife's doctor recommended more iodine in her diet, I was surprised how hard it was to find iodized flaky salt. I only found one brand I could order, and it was extremely expensive and didn't have a great texture for cooking with. I keep iodized table salt around and sometimes use it for salting soup, stock, or pasta water, but 99% of the time I reach for plain old Morton kosher salt.
It might just be easier and cheaper to take iodine supplements. Humans need about 150mcg/day, just make sure not to overdose on it. Vitamin companies love selling you huge doses you don't need, but if you know what dosage you're looking for you can usually find appropriate ones.
> Vitamin companies love selling you huge doses you don't need, but if you know what dosage you're looking for you can usually find appropriate ones.
One approach that can work is to use multivitamins. They usually have a lower dosage of everything than do single thing supplements. For example the iodine supplements I've seen are in the 225 mcg to 325 mcg range.
Most adult multivitamins seem to have 150 mcg.
If you want lower than that children's multivitamins can do the trick. Flintstone's have 90 mcg. House brands meant to directly compete with Flintstone's do not always copy the Flintstone's dosages, so be sure to check the label. Walmart's Equate brand for example is 150 mcg, same as most adult multivitamins.
I like to take children's vitamins as insurance. They have enough of many things that if I have a minor deficiency in my diet they should cover it, but not so much as to cause problems if my diet is sufficient or even a little high. Plus they taste good, which helps if you have other supplements you are taking that do not taste good.
> They usually have a lower dosage of everything than do single thing supplements. For example the iodine supplements I've seen are in the 225 mcg to 325 mcg range.
The RDA for iodine is 150 mcg, so 325 should normally draw concern. However, the average iodine intake in Japan is well over 1000 mcg, to no ill effect. Too much iodine is definitely bad, but the dosage that is firmly established as causing problems (oddly, a similar effect as too little iodine) is at least another order of magnitude beyond the Japanese intake. (There may be weird interactions between iodine and fluoride, but that recent data is still very tentative and suspect, and even at 325 mcg/day isn't concerning.)
Supplements are made from kelp, so there's potential issues with heavy metals. But, again, the average Japanese intake of the types of heavy metals kelp accumulates is multiples of the US RDA limit, to no known ill effect. However, there are no USP or similar reputably certified iodine supplements, only certified multivitamins with iodine. That's more concerning to me than anything else.
Nonetheless, FWIW I give my kids an iodine supplement once or twice a week. I also cook with iodized salt, but we eat out or consume prepared food enough times in a week that I figured a supplement was worthwhile, all things considered. RDAs are typically computed by measuring urine excretion, so it's possible "topping up" iodine that way might not be very effective--just quickly excreted. I dunno.
Cows milk can be a good source of iodine, but my kids don't consume milk regularly, and only one drinks cows milk. Fortunately, they do like anchovies, so I try to add those into the mix.
My SO bought a bag of "natural sea salt" once. It smelled like rotten ocean which should have been enough of a warning but I used it in a dish anyway and that food went to waste. Tasted horrible.
I wouldn't buy from there again! I'm not sure what they did wrong (maybe they cheated by adding something to normal salt that later rotted?), but that's definitely not how it turns out at home. In most dishes you can't tell the difference between sea salt and table salt (assuming you've formed the same texture in both), and I use the ocean just because it's convenient.
I try to use iodized salt when it’s convenient: when salting pasta water, in baking, etc… but I wonder if my family is getting enough.