In order to attain an optimal health status, it is very important to have a healthy diet plan. In the diet that you need to follow, you need to incorporate various nutritious and healthy foods, which need to possess various essential vitamins, nutrients, and minerals. These will be beneficial for you in achieving a great optimum health status. One of the most essential nutrients that the diet must possess is the iodine. Iodine is an important trace element that is important from the normal growth and development of the body. About 60 percent of this nutrient is actually stored in the thyroid gland. There are also some health benefits of iodine, just like being beneficial in the normal functioning of the thyroid gland. Well, in this article, we are going to discuss more these benefits, so if you’re interested, feel free to give this article a read.
Iodine: What is this?
Iodine is actually a trace mineral, which is necessary for the body. However, the body itself cannot produce it, that’s why it should be consumed in food sources. As an instruction, there are a few amounts of iodine in foods, except that it’s added during the processing. Well, this is actually the case now with salt. Well, most iodine in the world actually is in the ocean. This is where it’s concentrated by the seaweed and other sea creatures.
Moreover, the body’s thyroid gland needs iodine in making hormones. In case the thyroid does not have a sufficient amount of iodine to ensure its own job, response systems of the body may cause the thyroid gland to work much harder. This may cause goiter or bloated thyroid gland. This particular condition may become more obvious as an enlarged neck.
Some other concerns of the iodine deficiency are somewhat serious as well. As a matter of fact, iodine deficiency, as well as the low amounts of thyroid hormones, may cause a woman to stop ovulating, which may eventually cause infertility. Moreover, iodine deficiency may also cause autoimmune diseases and may upsurge the possibility of some cancer types, like breast cancer, ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, and prostate cancer.
Iodine is essential in the prevention of iodine deficiency and all of its consequences. Furthermore, it is also beneficial in treating skin disease due to fungus. It is also beneficial in preventing stroke, heart disease, eye conditions, diabetes, as well as breast cancer. Not just that, it is also capable of acting as one of a kind of expectorant. Moreover, iodine is essential for various radiation emergencies as well, which help in protecting the thyroid gland in contrast to radioactive iodides. It is also valuable for the purification of water.
Important Sources of Iodine
Iodine is present in large quantities in both marine animals and plants. The marine animals that contain this trace mineral include brown seaweed kelp, deep-water whitefish, and shellfish. All of which has the capacity to absorb iodine from the seawater. Furthermore, make sure that you also include sufficient amount of shrimp, sea bass, salmon, herring perch, halibut, haddock, cod, clams, oyster, lobster, canned tuna and sardines in your diet. Spinach, soybeans, turnip greens, sesame seeds, seaweed, Swiss chard, summer squash, lima beans, garlic, dulse, and kelp are also some of the other sources of iodine. The iodized salt is yet another significant source and bakers often add iodine to bread dough as one of the stabilizing agents.
Health Benefits of Iodine
Here are some of the most amazing health benefits of iodine:
- Helps in treating goitre. Iodine is important to avoiding iodine deficiency, which may eventually lead to goiter. You must add salt, eggs, dairy products, and seafood to the diet, in order to avoid having an iodine
- Helps in removing toxic chemicals. Iodine has the capacity to flush out various harmful chemicals like mercury, lead, biological toxins, and fluoride. Furthermore, the role of this extra iodine, which does some other work all over the body is very essential.
- Helps in inducing apoptosis. The trace mineral is essential in forming new organs and remove any malignant cells in the body. This particular function is mostly coming from the effects of the subsequent hormonal regulation and secretion, as well as the effects of the thyroid glands.
- Helps in preventing cancer. This is one of the best health benefits of iodine. Aside from its amazing effects in the thyroid health, it is also anti-carcinogenic. Studies actually show that the cancer cells shrink after injecting iodine. When it comes to the thyroid cancer, it is actually beneficial in the prevention of extremely dangerous cancer form.
- Helps in boosting the immunity. Most people tend to focus on the implication of iodine on the thyroid gland. Nevertheless, it also possesses some other benefits, just like boosting the immunity. As a matter of fact, it is essential in averting various conditions.
- Helps in regulating the metabolic rate. Actually, iodine influences the thyroid functioning, by way of assisting in the hormone production. These are directly accountable for the control of the base metabolic level of the body.