Worldwide, over 650 million people suffer from goitre due to a lack of iodine, and more than 20 million are affected by some form of mental disability simply because their food and drinking water contain insufficient iodine. In France, cases of cretinism (in the medical sense of the term) associated with this deficiency and confined to certain regions of the country, were still being reported until quite recently. The WHO, which for years has recommended that iodine should be systematically added to table salt, has conducted a study in 7 African countries which shows the definite advantages of adding iodine.

Although a shortage of iodine in the diet does pose a serious health problem in 118 countries, we should remember that sufficient quantities of this substance are found naturally in the foods we eat every day - fish and seafood, dairy products, meat and eggs, not forgetting sea salt, which is an excellent way of extending the beneficial effects of our holidays.

Destination Santé