What's with the american fetish for kosher salt?

[Peelee]

But isn't iodine also harmful when consumed in greater quantities than "normal"?

Imean, that's kind of true for everything.

[factotum]

Imean, that's kind of true for everything.

Including water and oxygen, which are generally considered vital for life.

[Honest Tiefling]

But isn't iodine also harmful when consumed in greater quantities than "normal"?

Well, technically speaking, yes. But as others have pointed out, anything in overly large quantities is going to kill you pretty good. Iodine however, is a VERY NECESSARY SUPPLEMENT that will prevent goiters which is probably not the worse thing to happen to you, but it's certainly not medically recommended, either.

I greatly suspect that at the point you're chowing down on enough iodized salt to have issues with iodine, your diet probably has waaaaaaay more pressing problems.

[Lord Joeltion]

Imean, that's kind of true for everything.

Including water and oxygen, which are generally considered vital for life.

Well, technically speaking, yes. But as others have pointed out, anything in overly large quantities is going to kill you pretty good. Iodine however, is a VERY NECESSARY SUPPLEMENT that will prevent goiters which is probably not the worse thing to happen to you, but it's certainly not medically recommended, either.

Yes, but once you are speaking of about quantities measured in micrograms it's extremely easy to fall on the other side of the trend.

I mean, there's a reason doctors talk about hypervitaminosis every once in a while and the "real" doctors wouldn't recommend nonchalant use of vitamin supplements. When I was taught in school about those conditions, I remembered Iodine was briefly discussed too; except that IIRC, it's rarer than the cases of having too much vitamins

I greatly suspect that at the point you're chowing down on enough iodized salt to have issues with iodine, your diet probably has waaaaaaay more pressing problems.

I wouldn't be so sure. For all intents and purposes, iodine is equivalent to vitamin/mineral supplements in regular diet; and as it is the case with most vitamins; it all depends on more variables than just the diet (what you eat) alone. Absorption, medication(s) and body retention, are all variables to be considered. But I digress.

My point is that NaCl is one of the safest substances to abuse* (just drink enough water and it will "go off") because of how efficient is the body to dispose of it quickly enough before it causes enough harm. Other substances, not so much. I'm not sure about iodine, but if hyperthyroidism caused by iodine is a condition at all, my guess is the body isn't just as good.

*In a single take. Not in daily doses.

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The link was just for quick reference of recommended doses. I'm assuming "healthy doses" vary wildly for each legislation so it would be pointless to bring accurate doses for iodine anyway.