With the ever increasing levels of radiation in the world, from accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernoble and now Fukushima, there is increasing need for iodine in our daily nutrition. Unfortunately, the levels of iodine that were determined to be needed back some 100 years ago fell sorely deficient to what we now know that we need. Only the needs of the thyroid were considered then, however, with new research we now find that only a small percentage of our daily needs are delegated to thyroid, with the bulk of the iodine going to skin, breast, brain etc.
In addition, toxic bloat from mucopolysaccharides increasing obesity as a false fat is the most rapidly growing epidemic on the planet today. Interferences in thyroid metabolism from a variety of environmental chemicals cause this. Iodine has been known for more than a hundred years to cause destruction of starches by expansion of the molecules to breaking of their chemical bonding. Toxic bloat is a form of starchy compound and so people who begin iodine supplementation sometimes complain of weight gain initially. Continued supplementation, however, will eventually cause weight loss as the toxic bloat is destroyed.
You cannot get enough of this most important mineral from eating food alone, not even good organic food. There are too many factors working against that, even if the correct levels were actually in the foods, which they are not. Increasing toxins and hormone compromises involving estrogens and xenoestrogens make the need today for iodine to be many many times what we were able to survive on long ago.