Pass The Salt

Nick Kristof pleads for iodized salt as a chance to add a billion IQ points to the inhabitants of Planet Earth (not that IQ means anything...):

Travelers to Africa and Asia all have their favorite forms of foreign aid to “make a difference.” One of mine is a miracle substance that is cheap and actually makes people smarter.

Unfortunately, it has one appalling side effect. No, it doesn’t make you sterile, but it is just about the least sexy substance in the world. Indeed, because it’s so numbingly boring, few people pay attention to it or invest in it. (Or dare write about it!)

It’s iodized salt.

Almost one-third of the world’s people don’t get enough iodine from food and water. The result in extreme cases is large goiters that swell their necks, or other obvious impairments such as dwarfism or cretinism. But far more common is mental slowness.

Bjorn Lomborg, the Skeptical Environmentalist, had improved nutrition at Number Two on a list of priorities, behind only HIV/AIDs efforts back in 2006.  His point was that, if people are actually making choices, money spent on global warming would be better spent elsewhere.  Mr. Kristof does not similarly vex his readers.

Comments

[Dick C.]

I've long thought most commenters here were iodine deficient.

[clarice]

Why should he vex his readers? Who needs trade offs? The till is always overflowing.

Potable water.
Iodized salt.
Use of DDT in malarial areas.

Just.Not.Sexy.Or.Expensive.Enough. For . The International. Set.

[matt]

Could a lack of iodized salt be the cause for so many new democratic party members?

[Davod]

I wonder if the natural salt craze is creating a pool of iodine deficient first worlders?

[Ralph L]

If they get smarter, they'll develop their economies and increase global warming. Oh no!

[Strawman Cometh]

Did anyone else click over looking for the "side effect"?
Dear Nick Wordsmith, You keep using that word phrase. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[kim]

Anybody note that the Volokh Conspiracy hat-tipped Tom for this?
======================================

[Kirsten]

This is a topic that is near & dear to my heart. Just posted a comment on Volokh. Have also have blogged it here.

http://kirstenmortensen.com/adventures-in-iodine.htm

In my not so humble opinion, the jokes about iodine deficiency are closer to the truth than people may realize. We stopped adding iodine to bread in the early 1980s -- exactly when obesity took off & SAT scores started trending down.
I believe that w/in the next few years, alarm about iodine deficiency will eclipse concerns about Vitamin D levels and emerge as one of the primary public health issues in the US.

New Zealand has already started taking steps to address it.

http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/nutrition-iodine#increase

Lets hope we get with the program and do the same.

[Kirsten]

This is a topic that is near & dear to my heart. Just posted a comment on Volokh. Have also have blogged it here.

http://kirstenmortensen.com/adventures-in-iodine.htm

In my not so humble opinion, the jokes about iodine deficiency are closer to the truth than people may realize. We stopped adding iodine to bread in the early 1980s -- exactly when obesity took off & SAT scores started trending down.
I believe that w/in the next few years, alarm about iodine deficiency will eclipse concerns about Vitamin D levels and emerge as one of the primary public health issues in the US.

New Zealand has already started taking steps to address it.

http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/nutrition-iodine#increase

Lets hope we get with the program and do the same.

[kim]

Is there any data about the relative viability of societies from Iodine sufficient soil compared with areas that are deficient?
=================================