Iodine: a scoping review for Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2023

Ingibjörg Gunnarsdóttir; Anne Lise Brantsæter

doi:10.29219/fnr.v67.10369

Iodine: a scoping review for Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2023

Food Nutr Res. 2023 Dec 26:67. doi: 10.29219/fnr.v67.10369. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ingibjörg Gunnarsdóttir^{1

2}, Anne Lise Brantsæter³

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
² Unit for Nutrition Research, Landspitali National University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland.
³ Department of Food Safety, Division of Climate and Environmental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.

Abstract

Iodine is essential for the synthesis of the thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). As in many other parts of the world, insufficient iodine intake and consequently insufficient iodine status is a public health challenge in the Nordic and Baltic countries. The main dietary sources of iodine in the Nordic and Baltic countries include cow's milk, saltwater fish, eggs, products containing iodised salt, and iodised table salt. Only Denmark (DK), Finland (FI) and Sweden (SE) have implemented mandatory (DK) or voluntary (SE, FI) salt iodisation. New data, as well as recent studies from the Nordic and Baltic countries, strengthen the evidence that the main health challenges related to insufficient iodine intake remain thyroid function and thyroid disease, mental development, and cognitive function. Excessive intakes can also cause hyperthyroidism, autoimmune thyroid disease, and thyroid cancer.

Keywords: goitre; iodine; nutrition recommendations; thyroid function.

Publication types

Review