Iodine For Learning And Intelligence

If you want your kids to grow up smart and healthy, make sure they are getting a good amount of iodine in their diet.

Iodine deficiency among children is a big problem these days and what’s scarier about it is that we can’t always pick up the signs. So in this video, I’ll help you find some of the best sources of iodine so you can keep your kids and yourself healthy.

Have you ever wondered if your child is getting enough iodine from their diet? You may not have, but that’s something I want you to consider today. Iodine deficiency among children is a serious problem these days, and it’s been linked to impaired brain development and also sub-optimal intelligence in children.

We may not even pick up or recognise as a nutrient deficiency. We may think that our child is struggling at school for some other reason, but it could be down to a dietary factor. So it’s something really important to consider. Iodine deficiency also has a link with ADHD.

Iodine is really important when it comes to our thyroid function. Our thyroid is a little gland that sits in our neck, and it is more something we associate as a women’s health problem. The thyroid is responsible for growth and development and energy levels and metabolism in our bodies, and it’s very common to get imbalances in our thyroid, particularly as women as we get older. But when it comes to our kids, iodine’s really important because the thyroid also has a role to play in cognitive function as well. So brain development, cognitive function, it’s a very important nutrient for our kids.

So where do we get iodine from? Iodine is naturally occurring in the sea and also in some soils. But the soil levels have been depleted over the years because of over-farming and just the modern farming methods that we use these days. So foods from the sea are a much more reliable source of iodine in Australia.

When we’re thinking about getting more iodine into our kids’ diets, into our families’ diets, we need to get in more foods that come from the sea. Of course, fish is one of those foods and any sort of seafood. Oysters are particularly high in iodine. Most kids don’t fancy oysters but there are some kids that like them. So if your kids do like oysters, that’s a really great source of iodine. But any sort of fish or seafood has good levels of iodine in it.

The other fantastic source of iodine is sea vegetables or seaweeds such as nori that sushi’s made out of. Dulse, which you can easily add to your kid’s diet. You can get dulse in flakes, and that can be sprinkled over salads or soups or whatever you’re serving your family for dinner. And kelp is another one. You can buy kelp in various forms. It comes in noodles even these days, so that could be a good addition to try out with your family. So more foods from the sea are needed in your family’s diet to increase the iodine levels.

And there’s also iodized salt. So this is something that I wanted to talk to you about because you may have heard of or used iodized salt and think it’s a good thing because it does have iodine in it. The thing with iodized salt, though, is generally it’s not a naturally occurring salt. So it’s not what I would class as a whole food or a real food. So I don’t use iodized salt, but there is another great salt product, that has the dulse flakes added to it, so it’s got the naturally occurring iodine in it. And it’s a natural salt as well.

Eggs and yoghurt are also decent sources of iodine as well.

I do have a recipe on my blog which is my fish tacos. It’s very popular. So in that recipe, you’ve got fish and you’ve also got a yoghurt sauce that you can put on top. But that’s a really great recipe idea that’s a good source of iodine as well.