iodine is critical for so many functions within the body but unfortunately a lot
of us are not getting enough of it in the Western world governments have
made an effort to supplement it in food most commonly salt and bread but is that
enough and what if you don't consume these foods symptoms of an iodine
deficiency can be unexpected weight gain hair loss fatigue dry skin feeling cold
all the time and for women specifically heavy or irregular periods do any of
these sound like you in this video I'm going to talk about what iodine is why
it's important how you can increase your intake and my personal experience with
adding more iodine into my diet so if you want to know more about iodine keep
watching hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is
Kait I'm a health coach and I post videos on a high fat nutrient-dense way
of eating if you like this video please give it a thumbs up feel free to share
and make sure subscribe and make sure to follow me on instagram twitter and
facebook where i share new posts every single day this is the second episode in
my series called nutrients we are not getting enough of last episode we talked
about salt and how reducing your intake and eating a low salt diet can actually
be very harmful I heard a lot of feedback after that video of people who
had increased their salt intake and experienced numerous health benefits so
if you want to know more about salt make sure to check that video out after this
one but anyway onto today's video today we are talking about iodine what is
iodine iodine is an essential mineral that is found in soil and ocean waters
this really is one nutrient that has not talked about nearly enough in the 1920s
iodine started being added to salt this was in an attempt to prevent Gorder
which is an a large mint of the thyroid gland and caused by iodine
efficiency Witter was becoming more and more common so they were trying to get
iodine into everyone's diets and iodine still is added to some salts today but
we will get to why this isn't a sufficient source a little bit later in
the video today it is estimated that one third of the world's population is not
getting enough iodine in their diet iodine researchers dr. Abraham dr.
Brownstein and dr. flechas tested 35,000 people and of that 96% were deficient
now there are two parts to why this is first off yes we are not consuming
enough iodine but second off there are modern environmental toxins that block
iodine absorption the biggest one being toxic flame retardants these flame
retardants are a mixture of manmade chemicals used to make products less
flammable they are used commonly in plastics textiles and electrical
equipment it is estimated that 97% of Americans have toxic flame retardants in
their blood so it's no wonder that we are all low in iodine and fluoride is
another thing that actually blocks iodine absorption the role of iodine in
the body iodine is absolutely key for proper thyroid function there is a myth
that too much iodine will impair thyroid function but this is simply not true
iodine levels have fallen over 50 percent in the last 40 years and thyroid
diseases such as hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's disease have only become
more common your thyroid gland helps regulate the production of hormones and
to create these hormones you need iodine not enough iodine and your hormone
production decreases this causes your thyroid glands to become under active
which is also known as hypothyroidism the hormones being produced control your
metabolism so one side effect of not getting an F iodine is unexpected
weight gain but it's not just our thyroid that needs iodine other organs
and tissues in the body need it as well low iodine levels are associated with
breast cancer fibromyalgia impaired cognitive function as well as cysts in
the breast and ovaries why iodized salt isn't enough research shows that just
10% of the iodine added to salt is bioavailable and when you combine that
with the fact that we have been told to reduce our salt intake most people are
only getting between 30 and 77 micrograms per day which is less than
half of the RDA which is 150 micrograms and we have to remember that the RDA was
set at the lowest level to prevent goiter and might not actually be the
proper amount to optimize health dr. David Brownstein is a thyroid expert and
he says that iodine in doses ranging from 6 to 50 milligrams a day is
adequate to provide iodine for the vast majority of the population how do you
get more iodine in your diet some of the best food sources of iodine include kelp
fish and dairy kelp and seaweed is the most potent source of iodine we can get
from food you can get up to 7,000 micrograms per 100 grams serve now I
know some of you have heard me talk about grassland nutrition beef liver
capsules on my channel before I absolutely swear by them and these
capsules actually there's two ingredients and then there's the beef
liver that's the majority and then there's a little bit of kelp as well and
the purpose of this kelp is actually for iodine one serve is equal to 300
micrograms of iodine so it's a good way to get a jump start on your iodine for
the day and if you're on a carnivore diet and our avoiding plant I will have
you know that help is not a plant it's an algae whether that's technically
carnivore or not I've talked about this before on my channel is the point of
carnivore to only eat animal foods or is the point
to not eat plants helpful somewhere in the middle I think there is more to gain
from including kelp and seaweed in your diet then there is to lose beyond that
oily fish so salmon mackerel and sardines contain about 500 micrograms
per 100 grams surf melt contains between 25 and 50 micrograms and cheese's just
under 40 micrograms there isn't really an adequate plant source of iodine some
nuts will have about 20 micrograms per 100 gram serve but nuts are just so
calorically dense that you have to consume a lot of calories in order to
get a decent serving of iodine now the fact that iodine is so hard to get from
modern foods combined with the fact that we are exposed to all these toxins that
prevent absorption means that some people do have to supplement especially
if you're someone who has a thyroid disease or experiences any of the
symptoms I mentioned at the start of this video so hair loss fatigue dry skin
if you're always cold it may be worth looking into an iodine
supplement protocol I will link the one I've looked at before in the description
box down below my experience with iodine now I did a
video a couple of months ago about my experience with a materia I talked a
little bit about how I thought increasing my iodine helped me get my
cycle back after 2 years without it now during this time I did a lot of testing
with doctors and one of them actually did an iodine test on me and found out
that I was deficient at this time I did start to supplement and after that I
added the beef and kelp liver capsules into my daily routine looking back on it
now and what I ate before my whole health journey I guess you can call it I
was probably getting next to no iodine I did not eat fish growing up I only
really started eating it May two years ago now I didn't like sushi so
I wasn't even getting iodine from the nori wraps I wasn't even a big milk
drinker since I had a bad experience in grade six the traumatizing experience
that I won't talk about now I was pretty big on cheese though so
that might have been what was keeping me alive but still I probably was not
getting anywhere near enough now I don't think that upping my iodine intake was
the complete solution to me getting my cycle back but I do think it played a
big part as well as that for my entire life
oh sorry of TMI but my periods were always absolutely miserable so painful
so heavy so long oh my god I'm I'm in pain just thinking about it for one or
two days of my period every month I would actually feel completely nauseous
I would get sweaty and feel just really really sick like I couldn't go to school
I would have to call him sick I couldn't go to work I would have to call him sick
it was really really bad and since I regained it which was during my time on
a carnivore or animal based diet by the way I have not had a single cramp it has
been regular I get it at the same time every month like clockwork it is so much
lighter than it used to be and it is so much shorter I honestly cannot believe
that I suffered for so many years thinking that uh that's what my life had
to be for one week out of every month and as I said at the start of this video
one of the symptoms of iodine deficiency is heavy or irregular periods so what I
really I really think that adding more iodine into my diet made a difference
there is research that women with low thyroid hormone levels experience more
for quit menstrual cycles with heavy
bleeding this is because low thyroid hormone levels disrupt the signals of
hormones that are involved in the menstrual cycle anyways guys that is all
I have for you today I hope you enjoyed this video make sure to check out my
video on salt after this one and let me know in the comments down below have you
increased your iodine intake maybe you tried an iodine supplement protocol did
you notice a difference let me know down below give this video a
thumbs up and I will see you next time bye guys