I think maybe this is the link you meant to post.
Halt on Salt Sparks Iodine Deficiency
Doctors say, “Cut back on the Salt…” But How Will We Obtain Our Iodine?
By William Davis, MD

I was wondering if you had commented on AHA: Niacin Bests Ezetimibe as Add-On Therapy"

The link provided is based on the Life Extension search tool and seems broken.  This link works Halt on Salt, Oct 2009.

Readers of your Iodine article may also be interested in this blog post
Iodine Treats Breast Cancer, Overwhelming Evidence by Jeffrey Dach MD

Dr D,

The link does not work for me. Sends me to a www page that appears unrelated to your post and certainly not the the article you recommend.

I don't think that link goes to the magazine article. It seems to go to a product advertisement instead. Did I do something wrong?

LE must have changed the link - it sends me to a page where I can purchase pure IGF, which, by the way, I'm surprised people want to take.

I think you want this link

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2009/oct2009_Halt-on-Salt-Sparks-Iodine-Deficiency_01.htm

The link you posted doesn't go to your article. Might want to update that.

Question: what is the best way to test for Iodine levels? I've been taking 400mg kelp iodine for a while, and want to make sure I'm not overdoing it (I'm 28).

Dr. Davis,

Clicking the link in the article takes me to the page to buy iodine supplements, not the article itself; I had to search to find the actual article. I think it's because you're linking to search results, and when someone else puts in the same URL without having given it the same inputs, it hiccups. This link should be to the actual article: http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2009/oct2009_Halt-on-Salt-Sparks-Iodine-Deficiency_01.htm

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2009/oct2009_Halt-on-Salt-Sparks-Iodine-Deficiency_01.htm

The article appears to be at this link:

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2009/oct2009_Halt-on-Salt-Sparks-Iodine-Deficiency_01.htm

Tom

Dr. Davis,
Great article on Iodine (had to use LEF search to get it--link doesn't work).
I am the perfect example of the healthy-diet person who developed thyroid disease and fibrocystic breasts due to salt and dairy food avoidance.
I also have that abnormal reaction to iodine now. Iodine causes a hashi flare-up, and as you've stated I have become hyper-sensitive to it now.  But you also stated that in your experience it is a "temporary" reaction which makes me want to try it again--maybe more slowly, very low doses at first?
Any tips from your experience with this hyper-sensitivity?
Thanks for addressing this iodine problem with thyroid---many thyroid books and articles say if you have Hashimoto's to just avoid iodine completely so as not to create a flare-up, but that is not healthy for the rest of the body either.
Warm regards,  
Catherine

Hi -

The link to the LEF article pulls up an
ad for one of their Human Growth Factor
pills.

Punching Iodine into their search engine
did'nt find it - Perhaps I missed it...

Here it is...

http://search.lef.org/cgi-src-bin/MsmGo.exe?grab_id=0&page_id=1490&query=iodine%20deficiency%20salt&hiword=DEFICIENCIES%20DEFICIENCYIN%20DEFICIENCYIS%20DEFICIENCYS%20DEFICIENT%20IODINATION%20IODINES%20SALTED%20SALTER%20SALTI%20SALTIN%20SALTING%20SALTMAN%20SALTO%20SALTS%20SALTY%20deficiency%20iodine%20salt%20

It is rather interesting for me to read that post. Thanx for it. I like such themes and anything connected to them. I would like to read a bit more soon.

Good point. I'll make sure to eat spoonfuls of salt But seriously, very important point and people should take their supplements.

Off-topic: Can you share your thoughts on the virtually zero-fat diet described in the book by Dr. Esselstyn. Thanks.

My blood pressure is lower than the average so I ingest a lot of iodized salt.  Also I run a lot of marathons during the summer.  When I need more salt during races I can pour it in my mouth.  If I'm low on sodium it tastes great.  If I'm not in need of salt it just about makes vomit.  

kevin

Thanks, all, for noting the broken link. I'm not sure what happened.

It should be corrected.

I completely agree to the post.Sea salt or rock salt is very good for health but definitely in measures.

I'm trying to understand what an appropriate dose is.  It seems like iodine dosage in relation to TSH follows a "U" shaped response, where too little iodine results in high TSH and too much iodine can likewise result in high TSH.  There's evidently a sweet spot, BUT it also seems to depend very much on whatever the thyroid is adapted to in terms of the ambient, dietary iodine intake prior to the beginning of supplementation.  That is, a mid-Westerner with a chronically low iodine intake is going to respond quite differently to a 1000 mcg iodine dose than, say, a person who grew up on the Northern coast of Japan... On an immediately related topic, I'm curious to know more about the apparent adaptive down-regulation of T3 in response to caloric restriction and likewise (similarly, it would seem), carbohydrate restriction.  Any thoughts?

Dr Davis:

My question is on a bit of a tangent to this topic, but on the related issue of what seems to be a situation where maintaining what was considered a "healthy" level now is possibly dangerous:

"Low triglycerides are risk factor for hemorrhagic stroke"

http://www.lipidsonline.org/news/article.cfm?aid=8578

Do you have any insight into this study ? I have been diligently keeping my lipid levels in check .I lowered my triglycerides from a fairly low level of 75mg/dL down to 50 mg/dL. Now I am concerned. (My LDL is 95 mg/dL and HDL is 64 mg/dL). I don't take any drugs , just lots of exercise and diet (Krill oil, almonds, Beta Glucan fiber)

Thanks

Thanks

Sorry, forgot the link:

http://www.lipidsonline.org/news/article.cfm?aid=8578

Hi, Future--

That is the frustration with iodine: insufficient data on what represents an ideal level of intake. And it may vary from region to region, individual to individual.

The T3 issue is indeed fascinating, a topic that will be explored more fully in the blog and in the Track Your Plaque website.

Hi, Runner--

I'm skeptical that this is an important effect that warrants action.

Primitive cultures typically have triglycerides in very low ranges, since they avoid processed foods. I'd be shocked if achieving physiologic normal levels is the sole explanation behind increased stroke.

mm... good  post

If you're going to base your diet on the bible, then you shouldn't be eating pork (Leviticus 11:7), and you should eat plenty of locusts and crickets (Leviticus 11:22)

Oooh, wait'll the God-deniers get a load of this one.

Actually, I've wondered about the proper interpretation of passages like those mentioned, and this post is helpful for me.

I appreciate this & putting the verses into context - but was human excrement to be used as content in the bread, or the fuel source to bake it?

I'm pretty sure the dung was not to go into the bread, it was to be used as fuel for the fire over which the bread was baked. But your point still holds very well. They also omit the lying on your side for 390 days. If eating Ezekiel bread is so healthy, so must be lying on your side for over a year.

I prefer to "kill the fattened calf."

LOL

Dung was probably not an ingredient, but the fuel used to cook the bread.  (Still pretty unsavory, though.)

1) All religion is poetry...

-- Paul Tillich

2) I have a huntch that, uh, folks from a couple thousand years ago, uh, never heard of macronutrients, glucose, insulin, etc.

3) Peace

For those who are interested in the Bible's statements on food, here's a link to a brief overview of kosher laws:

http://www.kashrut.com/articles/soul_food/

Combining a lesson in both religion and medicine, Love It!!

I agree with you, Dr. Davis, that religious issues are very important to many people concerned about dieting. And it is important to discuss them, even though some people think that religious issues should not be part of any discussion related to diet.

In fact, a lot of people who think  about diet issues from a scientific standpoint tend to think that religiosity is a product of pure stupidity. This post and the comments in response to it illustrate what I am talking about:

http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.com/2010/05/atheism-is-recent-neolithic-invention.html

Waiting for my local library to get a copy of Pandora's Seed by Spencer Wells. In it, he examines the unforeseen costs of farming, which began to transform society 10,000 years ago (using a scientific timescale), such as diabetes and obesity.

Definitely one of man's worst inventions.

Interesting fact:  The Catholic church will not use anything other than wheat to make the wafers for the Eucharist.  If you have wheat intolerance, you can request a low-gluten wafer.  But a non-wheat wafer will never be used as part of that sacrament, no matter how badly one might react to wheat.

I think that stance is a bit much, but I am not a devout Catholic.

Dr. D.
As the Brits say; you are on a losing wicket.

No person of religion will be pursued to move from the crowd. That is why they follow.

Great post! I've never understood how people can take the Bible literally. As someone mentioned in the comments, it's mainly poetry, and it describes a frame of reference and customs of thousands of years ago. Would be very weird to apply all that literally to our high-tech society.

I looked the Bible fragment up in Dutch. It says he has to bake it on human dung (i.e. using the dung as fuel). The fun thing is that a couple of verses later Ezechiel complains and says he has never eaten anything impure in his life and then God gives in and says, 'OK then, you can use cattle dung instead of human dung.'

Sounds to me like the beginning work on "fecal transplant".

But, here's the question: do you think the Ezekiel Bread is worth eating for health reasons?

Other translations have the dung as a source of fuel.  
As much fat as I eat, you'd probably have to put a wick in it.
I don't think that would give it a nice smoke flavor or anything.

I think some of these comments are missing the point. Whether the dung was used as fuel or incorporated into the recipe makes little difference to the interpretive thrust of the passage. According to Mosaic ceremonial law (which was typological, not perpetual), excrement was to be covered with dirt. You don't touch it, and you certainly don't cook with it. The point is that the bread was polluted, and this served as a typological symbol of Israel's pollution and rejection. Israel, the elect and "clean" nation, has become filthy.

God didn't make Ezekiel write this stuff down so we could whip up a great recipe 2400 years later. And by the way, the same goes for the book of Daniel. Just because Daniel and his buddies ate nothing but vegetables and water for ten days doesn't mean that vegetarianism is the best diet. That's not even close to the original intent of the passage. Yet I see these kinds of non-contextual claims all the time. It saddens me when I see fellow Christians using the Bible this way.

FYI: The "Wheat and the Bible" article can be accessed in its entirety on my website here: http://www.reforminghealth.com/Wheat_and_the_Bible.pdf

David

Thanks, David.

For anyone else interested, David's article provides a very nice overview of the broader topic of Wheat and the Bible.

Dr. Davis, I appreciate your courage in tackling this difficult subject. Dr. Kurt Harris has also discussed the fact that even traditional methods of processing wheat do not eliminate all of its negative qualities: http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2009/12/28/avoid-poison-or-neutralize-it.html.

Religious concerns are undoubtedly one of the trickiest issues that biologically appropriate diets raise. Everyone on the planet is not going to abandon what they see as their religion principles for health reasons, so I try to meet people where they're at. For those Christians who tell me that wheat must be healthy because it's in the New Testament and the Levitical diet, I say, sure, the Levitical diet is older and healthier than the SAD of today, but there was an even earlier diet in the Bible that's even healthier. It's composed of God-made foods instead of man-made foods. It usually occurs to them that this is the diet of wild foods available at the time of humanity's creation, which I also refer to as the "Garden of Eden diet", which was free of wheat bread, even unleavened, and certainly wouldn't contain any pizza, pasta or processed breakfast cereal. This doesn't always convince people, but it rarely fails to give them pause.

Plus, in Genesis 3:17-19, bread is part of a curse, not a blessing. So wheat could be regarded as a blessing compared to starvation, but a curse or penance compared to the original Biblical foods of the Creator's making.

Also, at times in the Bible, suffering is treated as an opportunity for penance or purification. It doesn't mean the bad stuff that causes the suffering (ie wheat) is "good" in and of itself. Perhaps this could be a way to explain Jesus' direction to eat bread in remembrance of Him? I generally avoid this subject as potentially too touchy, so I'm curious for input from wheat-avoiding Christians on how they deal with this.

On top of all the above, bread is no longer necessary for survival in wealthy modern cultures, like it may have been in some of the regions and times covered by the Bible. So the contexts are very different.

Hope this helps.

Paleo Phil,

As a wheat-avoiding Christian, I deal with this issue by actually trying to return the focus to the intent of the Biblical text(s). Was it the biblical author's intent to communicate wheat/grain as perpetually appropriate and required foods for all time (unlikely), or was it rather simply that the biblical narrative existed within an agricultural context and was thus accommodated to those times? I think the latter option is the reasonable one.

In the biblical account, all of creation is said to be "good" (as opposed to Gnosticism, which says that matter is intrinsically evil) but I think it is a mistake to take this as synonymous with "harmless," and it is important to remember that despite being "good," elements within creation can be either appropriate or inappropriate depending on the use and context. Plant toxins are "good" in the creational sense in that they make for a balanced and workable ecosystem, but are relatively "bad" for the unwary animal that eats them. The wheat/grain issue is no different. Grains might be creationally good and play an important role somewhere in the broader order of things, but this doesn't mean they're harmless if the circumstances are right (e.g. genetic modification, improper preparation methods, etc., etc.).

Appealing to the "Garden of Eden diet" might work for some Christians, but I think there's a deeper problem going on. Too many modern Christians see the Bible as a sort of "prescription" for what they should or should not eat. For instance, the Levitical diet (clean vs unclean foods) is often pointed to as the ultimate "healthy diet." However, the health aspects had nothing to do with the actual declared purpose of the restrictions. The diet was purely typological and temporary, and any health benefits were merely coincidental side-benefits. These typological requirements have had an antitypical fulfillment, however, so the diet should have no bearing on anyone today.

Likewise, many Christians point to the supposedly vegetarian diet in Genesis as the "original" diet that mankind was created for. But again, this misses the point of the author's literary intent. What was going on in the Genesis creation account? Was Moses telling us how to eat, or was he telling us something completely different? Most Christians are clueless here. As it turns out, the creation story has nothing to do with scientific explanations or dietary prescriptions. It was written in an ancient Near Eastern (ANE) context where creation myths abounded, and Moses was contrasting the Hebrew God with the surrounding deities of the ancient world. The account is not relating scientific facts, but is rather a literary polemic written to combat other ANE pagan religions point for point. The God of Israel is not like Ptah, or Shu, or Marduk, or Baal. The Genesis account powerfully overturns the Enuma Elish and other ANE creation stories. That was its historical intent.

Unless one is familiar with ANE culture, many of the subtleties within the Genesis account will not make sense, and you will end up with an interpretive disaster, like Young-Earth Creationism or Vegetarianism, for instance. The Bible does say that God created, but it does not tell us how He created. This is nowhere near the intent of the original author.

(Continued)

As I read the chapter, it looks more like Ezekiel is instructed to act in a symbolic manner.  He is instructed to symbolically lay seige to a model of Jerusalem that is drawn or built on a tile--even building miniature seige engines. In essence, the call to moral behavior in the book is a "seige" against the transgressions done within the city.  Thus, the "bread" is also to be made and eaten as a symbol.  The context is fairly plain.  Nowhere is there any statement that Israel, or even just Jerusalem, is to make or eat the stuff.  Ezekiel is told to bake and eat the bread "in their sight" or "in the sight of the people" and then tell anyone who sees him that this is the level of wretchedness they will be reduced to, I presume because of their faithlessness and obstinacy after many warnings, given the general context of the Book of Ezekiel.

Thus, "Ezekiel bread" is actually a symbol of the wrath of God against the obstinately faithless and not a "recipe" for what God wants a faithful believer to eat daily.