Don't take this advice with a grain of salt

By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter

Forget Maldon sea salt. Hold the rock salt and go back to old-fashioned iodised salt for the health of the country, say two health experts.

Health authorities are worried about the return of problems with deficiency of iodine caused by people eating less salt, or specialty salts which contain little or no iodine.

Now health experts are appealing to chefs to rewrite recipes and drop specialty salts.

Professor Jim Mann, of Otago University's human nutrition department, and Health Ministry adviser Elizabeth Aitken say in the latest New Zealand Medical Journal: "Where salt is used in food preparation or added to food it should always be iodised salt.

"Of no help to the public health of New Zealanders is the widespread promotion of non-iodised forms of salt by key people such as chefs, in particular those presenting cooking programmes to the nation on television."

Professor Mann said possible reasons for falling iodine intakes included health advice to reduce salt intake - advice which should stand - plus eating out more and consuming more manufactured meals at home.

Public health experts have become alarmed when studies in the 1990s indicated a return of iodine deficiency, which had been wiped out after iodine was added to salt in sufficient quantities in 1938. It was introduced in 1924, but at too low a level.

New Zealand soil and food grown here is low in iodine, a chemical necessary for good health.

The ideal intake is 80 to 150 micro-grams a day, but a 1990s study found that the intake of 80 per cent of New Zealand children was mildly deficient or worse.

More than 3 per cent had a severe deficiency, which can cause goitre, a swelling of the thyroid gland in the neck. It can also cause mental deficiencies and other problems, especially in children.

Professor Mann said that if the Health Ministry's child nutrition survey confirmed the iodine decline, the Government would have to consider making iodising of staple foods mandatory.

Leading chefs and food writers told the Weekend Herald they had no intention of giving up specialty salts.

"Maldon sea salt is a lot sweeter," said Michael Meredith, head chef of Vinnies Restaurant in Herne Bay. "It hasn't got the bitter after-taste [of standard table salt], and it's natural. It's a lot healthier."

Major food manufacturers are also using more non-iodised salt.

Dominion Salt's North Island sales manager, Robin Piggott, said all the salt he sold to food manufacturers was non-iodised.

He also believed retail sales were swinging against the iodised version.

Bakers Delight New Zealand regional manager Clifford Banks said the chain's bread recipes all used non-iodised salt.