Grocery store shelves are bursting with fancy salts: Himalayan, kosher, sea salt and more. Considering these choices, it can be easy to forget about the public health victory found in basic, iodized table salt.<\/p>\n
The nutrient iodine is a crucial component of thyroid hormones, necessary for fetal and early childhood brain development and health throughout life. At the start of the last century, iodine deficiency was a rampant and visible public health problem in the United States, with the telltale sign of enlarged thyroid glands, called goiters, especially prevalent in much of the north. A series of steps taken by a medical society in Michigan and U.S. salt producers brought iodized salt to tables across the country, and by the 1950s, occurrences of goiters had dropped precipitously.<\/p>\n