Symptoms of iodine deficiency in humans
Signs of a lack of iodine in the human body include:
- Lethargy, general weakness, fatigue;
- Drowsiness, apathy;
- Weight gain;
- Slow mental processes;
- Loss of memory;
- Irritability;
- Impaired hearing and vision;
- Conjunctivitis;
- Decrease in blood pressure;
- Decrease in heart rate;
- Headaches;
- Dry skin and mucous membranes;
- Constipation;
- Disruption of the menstrual cycle in women;
- Decreased sex drive in men.
Eating foods with sufficient iodine can save health and increase longevity.
Iodine deficiency in the body can lead to such diseases as endemic goiter in which the thyroid gland increases in size. In children, the lack of this chemical element causes stunted physical and mental development, they have poorly developed nervous system and brain. That is why it is so important to take in food iodine-containing foods.
The daily human need for iodine
Before you select products that contain iodine, you need to figure out how much of this element must be a person a day. Thus, infants (children under 1 year) is required to obtain 50 mg of iodine per day. Children 2-6 years should the element 90 micrograms per day. Children 7-12 years - 120 mg. Adults need 150 micrograms of iodine.
The greatest number of its need for pregnant women and nursing mothers - 200 micrograms per day. The need of the human body for iodine also increases with increased physical activity (200-300 g) and working with substances that depress thyroid function. In the latter case, to 200-300 mg of iodine per day.
Iodine-containing foods
Speaking of products containing iodine, in the first place should be mentioned water. In 1 liter of drinking can be a conventional 15 g of this element. For the prevention of iodine deficiency is useful to drink and mineral water.
Europeans and Americans are drinking mineral water in large quantities, it is for them - an indispensable component of a healthy lifestyle, which they are very proud. However, in order to iodine well absorbed by the body, it is better to choose mineral water, not artificially enriched with iodine, and contains natural chemical element ("Arkhyz", "Mountain Meadow", "SARMANOVSKY").
Partially solve the problem of iodine deficiency can be using iodized salt, but it's still not a panacea. An adult should eat in a day about 6 grams of this product. It should be borne in mind: if the package is opened with salt more than 2 months, it loses a significant amount of iodine.
Counting the daily rate of a chemical element in the diet, it is necessary to take into account the fact that today many manufacturers of iodized salt is added to a variety of products - milk, bread, sunflower oil. In Norway, Switzerland and Austria iodine added even meats and cheeses In Japan, this is not necessary, as the residents get enough of it, eating a variety of seafood.
Iodine-containing foods should be eaten daily. First of all, these include seafood - such as seaweed (kelp, seaweed). In kelp is 50-70 micrograms of iodine. In addition, kelp is rich in bioactive protein substances, which contain 23 amino acids. To get the daily requirement of iodine can every day to eat about 100-200 grams of algae.
The organic iodine from seaweed is much better absorbed by the body and the longer it is delayed than the iodine-containing iodine.
Rich in this important chemical element and fish: halibut, tuna, cod, herring, plaice, salmon, sea bass. 100 g of crude marine fish is about 70 micrograms of iodine. In cod liver it is much more - up to 800 mcg.
Also a large amount of iodine found in fish oil - about 770 micrograms. Specialties such as scallops, oysters, mussels, squid, crab, shrimp contain about 100 micrograms of iodine.
Freshwater fish also contains iodine. However, its content therein is much less than that of sea. 100 g of such fish contains only 5.8 mg of the element.
In addition to seafood, there are other products that have iodine. This cereal, milk, butter, eggs, and vegetables - garlic, eggplant, spinach, sorrel, tomatoes, beets, lettuce, asparagus, onions and green onions, potatoes, radishes.
This chemical element found in some berries and fruits - bananas, oranges, strawberries, grapes, lemons, persimmons, pineapple, melon. If every day to eat 1, 5 kg of mushrooms, this would be sufficient to saturate your body with the necessary amount of iodine.
Factors influencing the iodine content in foods
It is necessary to bear in mind that the long-term storage of products, and their culinary processing iodine content is greatly reduced. Thus, when cooking meat and fish lost its amount to about 50%, when cooked whole potato tubers - up to 32% crushed - up to 48% and at the boiling milk - 25%.
When baking bread loss of iodine is 80% cooked vegetables - 30-60%, cooked legumes and cereals - from 45 to 65%.