Lack of this Mineral Could Lower Your Child’s IQ

It’s usually true that pregnant women are usually up-to-date on what they should and shouldn’t eat. They keep a tab on their daily intake and are sure to include foods that’ll benefit their kids. But there’s an important mineral they may have missed out on: Iodine. According to Web MD, many pregnant and breast-feeding women are deficient in iodine. What causes this deficiency? Researchers at the American Academy of Pediatrics believe that frequent consumption of processed foods may have a role to play here since the salt in processed food is not iodized.

Published in the British Journal of Nutrition, the study surveyed 1,026 women across the UK who were pregnant or mothers of children aged up to 36 months. Results showed that pregnant women are not eating enough iodine-rich foods such as milk and cheese, hampering adequate brain development of their babies. Iodine is required for the production of thyroid hormones, which are crucial for foetal development, with links between