All you need to know about Iodine - interesting video

[007999]

youtube.com/watch?v=oDRd40V...(Not working as expected?)

[gabkad]

This guy says 'Iodine is my favourite mineral'........... well, isn't that nice. Someone needs to tell him that iodine is a halogen. It is not a mineral.

That's where I stopped the video.

[bobsmydog in reply to gabkad]

I think halides are minerals - naturally occurring inorganic substances

[gabkad in reply to bobsmydog]

bobsmydog, you can think whatever you desire. It doesn't make it true.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine

[bobsmydog in reply to gabkad]

gabkad, I will

ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/I...

[gabkad in reply to bobsmydog]

So based on that chlorine is also a mineral. And fluorine is a mineral too.

[bobsmydog in reply to gabkad]

The halogens are elements which occur in minerals which are the halides aren't they?

I think this is splitting hairs

[gabkad in reply to bobsmydog]

Splitting hairs is okay. They say 'non metallic' minerals. Except they all evaporate. Like the iodine in dried kelp. Same with iodine in salt. Chlorine in swimming pools.....

[helvella Administrator in reply to gabkad]

I am confused, gabkad.

Iodised salt has, typically, sodium or potassium iodide or iodate added to it - not iodine. Whereas swimming pool water has something added that releases free chlorine (I think, am no expert on such things).

And, so far as I am aware, things like sodium chloride are very stable - though there may be a very low rate of release of chlorine/chlorine copounds.

[gabkad in reply to helvella]

The chemical engineers at University of Toronto did a study on this. Depending on the type of container, ambient temperature and humidity, iodine evaporates from iodized salt. The best container to keep salt like this is in plastic.

[bobsmydog in reply to gabkad]

But not chlorine in sodium chloride thank goodness!

Doesn't iodine exist naturally in the oceans as 2 atoms of iodine forming an iodine molecule without the need for a compound?

I'm backing out now - my chemistry is over 40 years old and this is hurting my brain!

[gabkad in reply to bobsmydog]

That's the interesting thing about kelp and some other, but not all seaweeds. The iodine concentration in sea water is extremely low. But these plants actively accumulate it because it works as an antibacterial in the plant. Protection.

If you want to eat something that is high in iodine but not a plant, go for sea urchin gonads. The sea urchin farms feed them kelp.

[bobsmydog in reply to gabkad]

Urchin gonads, lol, I'll stick with my Lugols, thanks!

I don't know how iodine gets into food produced on the land. I've heard arguments that intensive farming has depleted the land of iodine. So how did it get there in the first place - is it present in some rocks? Or does it evaporate from the oceans and fall as rain?

[gabkad in reply to bobsmydog]

Historically, seaweed was added to fertilizer. You can still buy it like this from certain manufacturers.

In Europe, when the French used to burn seaweed on the coasts, the iodine from this would be carried by the wind and deposited further inland. This was not the purpose of burning the seaweed, it's just something that happened.

biomara.org/understanding-s....

Now that the burning has been banned, the iodine in the soil in places like Germany will gradually deplete.

So, when George Bernard Shaw decided to become vegetarian, the vegetables he consumed were probably more nutritious than what we currently eat.

[bobsmydog in reply to gabkad]

Right OK thanks.

I seem to remember reading that Jersey Royals new potatoes don't taste the same anymore because they banned the farmers from putting seaweed on the land as fertilizer.