With vegan and vegetarian diets having become more popular, and the recommendations to avoid salt when a lot of people have actually been getting a lot of their iodine from salt it has been added to, there are claims that even in the western countries possibly most people are not getting quite enough of it.
And it is most important for pregnant and lactating women, as well as babies and growing children, especially important for the development of their brains. We may still get enough to prevent actual mental retardation, but even smaller deficiency can cause problems.
Those, but possibly also lack of iodine in food.
With vegan and vegetarian diets having become more popular, and the recommendations to avoid salt when a lot of people have actually been getting a lot of their iodine from salt it has been added to, there are claims that even in the western countries possibly most people are not getting quite enough of it.
And it is most important for pregnant and lactating women, as well as babies and growing children, especially important for the development of their brains. We may still get enough to prevent actual mental retardation, but even smaller deficiency can cause problems.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26854242/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36839362/