Opening the door to our children’s potential

Iodine is a micronutrient required for healthy thyroid function, and is also important in pregnant women and school children for healthy brain development.

In Australia and New Zealand, natural iodine levels are low in soils, and this affects the levels of iodine in foods such as vegetables, grains and livestock i.e. cattle and sheep.

Recent trends in lifestyle factors, for example using sea salt rather than iodised salt in cooking, have also decreased the amount of iodine in our diets.

We also used to get iodine from milk. Over the last 40 years dairy farmers used iodine based solutions to sterilise milk containers, but during the last five years they changed to chlorine-containing sterilisers.

According to Pam Stone, Blackmores’ Director of Education, good sources of iodine-rich food include seafood, dairy products and iodised salt, but trying to obtain the recommended levels from food can be difficult. “Supplementation is a positive means of ensuring you are consuming adequate levels,” she said.

A landmark study showed that iodine supplementation of mildly deficient children improved cognition and suggests that inadequate iodine intakes could prevent children from attaining their full intellectual potential.

References available upon request