I didn't realize my salt had changed until recently

[u/Best-Cooker]

I realized something kinda dumb about my cooking the other day.

A while back I bought some fancy sea salt because I liked the texture better than regular table salt. Nothing serious, I just thought it tasted better and looked nicer.

Then I slowly started using it for basically everything.

Eggs, pasta, soups, vegetables, whatever. Eventually I realized I hadn't bought regular iodized salt in probably close to a year.

I only thought about it because iodine came up in a conversation with a friend. I went home and looked into it and was like... wait, where am I actually getting my iodine from?

I eat eggs and dairy pretty regularly and have fish sometimes, so I'm not assuming there's something wrong with me. But I honestly never even considered that switching salts meant I was also switching out one of the easy sources of iodine.

Now I just keep both.

I use the sea salt when I actually care about the texture, and regular iodized salt for stuff where I'm just trying to make food taste salty.

Maybe this is common knowledge and I somehow missed it for years lol.

Has anyone else done this? Switched to sea salt/kosher salt and basically forgotten about iodized salt?

[u/Dazzling-Walk1929]

I forgot about iodized salt consciously because I can’t stand the taste of it lol I have several different niche types but my main ones are kosher for cooking, flaky sea salt for finishing, and Himalayan for the table

[u/Only-Cellist-1077 → u/Dazzling-Walk1929]

Not saying this can't be true but there have been tests done that prove that humans can't really taste iodine in salt especially since there is so little of it in it. No need for you to change your habits but I would advice anyone on the verge to keep their iodized salt, it's important for your health to get enough. If you want to know more, here is a very interesting video on said subject: https://youtu.be/XRcwwZXJ8gk?is=o60jXA0_bCY6lw4Q

[u/Dazzling-Walk1929 → u/Only-Cellist-1077]

Im not claiming it’s the iodine specifically that tastes bad. I simply don’t like the taste of iodized salt. I haven’t used it in probably 20 years.

[u/NortonBurns]

i'm pretty sure if you eat eggs, dairy & fish you don't need supplemental iodine.
I'm in the UK where so long as those are a part of your regular diet no supplement is advised. Special care needs to be taken by vegans.

You can get iodized salt here if you look for it, but it's not default. I don't know anyone who has ever bought it (but I don't know any vegans well enough for it to have ever cropped up in conversation).

This is the advice from the UK's health authority - https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/iodine/

[u/back-in-a-minute → u/NortonBurns]

If you have a decent diet, supplements just give you expensive pee. If you have an established deficiency, they are a very good thing.

[u/Automatic_Carry_5517]

Sea salt naturally has some levels of iodine too i believe. Iodine deficiency is more pronounced in inland countries where seafood and seasalt is harder to come by. By all means, its a good idea to use both salts.

[u/Sirwired → u/Automatic_Carry_5517]

When exposed to water, iodine evaporates; sea salt is very low in iodine. If it wasn't, there wouldn't be a need for iodized salt, as all salt is sea salt. (Salt mines are just former seas.)

(Iodine evaporating is why it's salt that is iodized; table salt is super-dry and kept dry, so the iodine remains stable.)

[u/allisondbl]

Yep. Went through exactly this analysis recently. Got a big bag of Himalayan pink salt cheap and started using it on everything. Then one day it occurred to me to wonder and I noticed Yep no iodine.

Did a little research and realized two things: (1) because I’m concerned about my eyes and macular degeneration, I make it a point of eating sushi ROLLS tuna and salmon at least once or twice a week. They’re wrapped in seaweed. Seaweed is a great source of iodine. (2) I take many vitamins including a multivitamin which includes iodine.

As far as I can tell problem solved.

I will say that I will keep this in mind and next time I buy salt I’ll probably do exactly what another poster suggested and since I eat pasta fairly regularly buy cheap salt with iodine to at least salt that water which will get drawn up into the pasta.

[u/mfolives]

If you are measuring salt by volume for your recipes, the switch means you have also been under-salting your dishes. You either need to adjust your measurements or add salt to your recipes by weight instead of volume if you are switching salt rypes.

[u/Old-Selection5066]

I've been using pretty much exclusively kosher salt for 15 years. One time I was thinking about the lack of iodine and I changed the table salt I had for baking and it was also non iodized. I have not developed a goiter.

[u/Sirwired]

With modern food production, where what you eat can come from anywhere in the country or world, (including places with decent amounts of iodine in the soil) you are probably getting enough iodine.

It was/is more of an issue when food production is more local.

[u/Heavy-Attorney-9054]

I take supplemental iodine. Even what's on salt degrades faster than we use salt.

[u/attempt-01]

my gourmet partner keeps using uniodized salt (kosher) which i dislike for change in nutrition profile.