In Pakistan, adding Iodine can get you killed though as there has been common stories about how the west is trying to sterilise them to stop future generations...
When you go Pakisan, you will see a lot of people with inflamed necks/throats. This is also due to iodine defficiency and it can be cured for around 5 years from first inflammation. After that it can become permanent.
To be fair to Pakistanis, the CIA did use the polio vaccine program as a major front in their hunt for Bin Laden. When people lise trust with medical programs, this causes problems, like the recent rise in Measles in the UK following the MMR vaccination scare a decade or so ago.
You is this a joke?
Nope
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
So article is saying Americans are smarter because of iodine, but they're not smarter. In any case I looked up iodine on google (at first I thought it was iodex the dark stuff) anyway it seems iodine is naturally existing in foods such as fish, kelp, meat etc. it seems too much can be very harmful and too little can cause retardation in babies and thyroid related illnesses.
it seems many parts of the world have good levels of iodine in these foods but other parts of the world do not have good enough levels in the same foods, something to do with the environment.
so should people be checking the iodine levels in their foods and if they don't have enough should they be taking supplements? I think in Britain milk is fortified with iodine.
now Pakistanis might be thinking why should America want to make them smarter when it's clear dumber populations are easier to control. Mind you with the recent political events in pakistan perhaps iodine should be force fed to the general public to bring them up to half way smart as anywhere else.
The soil in the Pakistani region lacks it and attempts to add it artificially to food has been rejected due to fears of infertility.
An iodine deficiency in pregnancy can cause some issues such as increased chance of mental retardation or mental defficiency in children and other illnesses in adults.
In Pakistan you will see a lot of people with goiter which is also due to an iodine defficiency.
It's not a cure all as not all diseases are due to iodine defficiency, but it can probably make some difference.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
The only iodine that I knowingly come into contact with is found in labs. It tends to stain my fingers and lab coat if i'm not careful.
Dr Vanderpump suggests easiest solution would be to add iodine to salt in uk, like America