Take it with a grain of iodised salt

A study conducted by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) shows that if you choose to add salt to your food, it pays to make it the iodised variety.

The study, which evaluated the level of iodine in 20 salt products available for retail sale – six iodised salt products and 14 non-iodised sea, rock, and low-sodium salt products – showed that iodised products contained about 30 times more iodine than non-iodised products.

While iodine content in the iodised products on average ranged from 32-64 milligrams per kilogram of salt, in the non-iodised products it ranged from 1-5 milligrams per kilogram of salt.

NZFSA senior nutrition manager, David Roberts says there are obvious risks from a diet high in salt, as eating too much puts your blood pressure in danger of going up, which can lift your risk of heart disease and stroke.
“However, this study shows that if you like to add a little salt to your food during cooking, you might as well get some nutritional benefit by choosing an iodised salt and increasing the iodine in your diet.”

Iodine is an essential nutrient for growth and development, but research from the 1990s has identified mild-to-moderate iodine deficiency in adults, pregnant women, and children in New Zealand.

“Iodine can’t be made in the body so we need to get it from the food we eat,” David says. “It supports normal growth and development in children and helps to maintain the body’s metabolic rate.”

Iodine deficiency in New Zealand is being addressed through a variety of measures, including requiring bakers to use iodised salt in most bread since September last year.

Other sources of iodine include reduced or low-fat milk and milk products, eggs, and seafood. Foods that contain seaweed, such as sushi and seameal custard, are also sources.

In the area of salt reduction, NZFSA is working with the Ministry of Health (MoH) and other stakeholders to minimise New Zealanders exposure to total sodium in the food supply as there is strong evidence that the general population would benefit from reducing sodium consumption. Salt is thought to be the principal source of sodium in the food supply.

A daily upper level of intake for sodium is about two grams per day (or 2300 milligrams per day) from all sources, and less if you already have high blood pressure. The New Zealand Total Diet Study, which NZFSA conducted in 2003/04, estimated that most people had much greater intakes than the daily upper level of intake. Sodium is being measured again in the 2009 New Zealand Total Diet Study to see if levels in foods have changed.

Processed foods generally have much higher concentrations of sodium than unprocessed foods. Key processed food sources of sodium in the New Zealand diet include breads, takeaways, dairy products, cereals and pasta, biscuits, cake, and meat products.

Source : http://www.foodtechnology.co.nz