Fond of vegan fish substitutes with seaweed? Beware of excess iodine

Berlin (dpa) – If you're into vegan fish alternatives with seaweed, you may well think you're getting a healthy amount of iodine, as you normally would by eating fish. After all, seaweed is one of the best food sources of the trace element, an essential component of your thyroid gland hormones. Excess iodine can cause thyroid dysfunction, however, with a host of harmful symptoms, such as a rapid heart rate, increased blood pressure, shakiness, diarrhoea and insomnia. With this in mind, German consumer protection advisors wanted to know the iodine content in vegan alternatives to fish/seafood with seaweed. They selected six products on the market – including substitutes for tuna, smoked salmon and caviar – and sent them to a laboratory for testing. This is what they found: One product contained no appreciable amount of iodine, as it was under the detection minimum of 10 micrograms per 100 grams. All of the others had appreciable amounts ranging from 29 to 226 micrograms per 100 grams, three of which could be termed "iodine-rich" (more than 45 micrograms per 100 grams) and therefore serve as a dietary source of the micronutrient. The product with the highest iodine content, a 140-gram tin of a vegan tuna alternative, contained 316 micrograms of iodine, the consumer protection advisors report, noting that the amount exceeds the recommended daily intake. By comparison, 140 grams of tinned tuna contains between 21 and 28 micrograms. Undoubtedly not all consumers are aware that certain vegan substitutes have large amounts of iodine, they say, warning that ingesting high concentrations on a regular basis – for example by eating the aforementioned vegan tuna alternative daily – can disrupt normal thyroid function. The recommended maximum daily intake of iodine is about 600 micrograms – from all sources together, such as iodized salt, fish, dietary supplements and, yes, seaweed products. Although a product's list of ingredients shows whether it contains seaweed, this says nothing about the iodine content, the consumer advisors point out. This depends on the type of seaweed (such as kelp, nori, kombu or wakame), the amount used and natural fluctuations. They add that specifying iodine content is required only when manufacturers label products as "rich in iodine" or an "iodine source," or the content exceeds 2,000 micrograms per 100 grams dry weight. Neither was true of any of the products tested. Nevertheless, consuming normal servings of vegan fish alternatives with seaweed – as in the case of the tuna substitute – can lead to unwitting ingestion of large amounts of iodine, the advisors warn. To be on the safe side, they recommend that people with a thyroid condition query the manufacturer about such products' iodine content before consumption. As for everyone else, the best way to ensure a healthy iodine intake is to eat a balanced diet, in which vegan fish alternatives with seaweed can definitely play a role. The following information is not intended for publication dpa/tmn cwg neb xxde ob arw

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