Vegans in the UK: are you getting enough iodine?

By Stan Pinsent @ 2023-09-25T15:01 (+32)

This post was written very quickly by a non-expert. Do your own reading before changing your diet!

You should make sure you get iodine:

Unlike most countries, table salt in the UK is not iodised
Most Brits get plenty of iodine from dairy
Deficiency risk factors include being vegan, being female
Iodine deficiency while (pre) pregnant or breastfeeding can cause IQ drop and even cretinism in the child
For everyone else, symptoms are usually mild
Buy iodised salt or even supplements. Careful, you can get too much.

Will Aldred @ 2023-09-25T16:41 (+5)

On the last point: I take this potassium iodide supplement, which I recommend. (I take one capsule every two days.)

I looked into iodine supplements a while ago—the two main forms are potassium iodide and seaweed/kelp. Two or three legit-looking articles I found said that seaweed/kelp-based iodine supplements can contain very different amounts of iodine to what they say on their labels, which seems like a good reason to be wary. (Additionally, a couple other articles claimed that seaweed/kelp supplements contain high levels of toxic heavy metals, but the veracity of this claim wasn't clear to me.)

JWS @ 2023-09-25T17:35 (+4)

The Vegan Society in the UK produce the VEG-1 supplement, which contains 100% NRV of Iodine for an adult (150µg) along with other vitamins and nutrients that might be lacking on a vegan/vegetarian diet

Amber Dawn @ 2023-09-25T17:15 (+2)

Thanks, I didn't have this on my radar! I'll try to get some iodised salt.

Yellow (Daryl) @ 2023-09-26T14:16 (+1)

Thanks, I have iodine supplements but wasn't sure if I should take them because of confusion around how much is too much,

But not being a table salt person looks like I should take at least a little!