Iodine Content of Various Meals Currently Consumed by Urban Japanese

Abstract

Various meals being currently consumed by urban Japanese were determined for iodine. The meal samples were collected in 1982 and 1984. The habitual daily home meals of 4 middle-aged Japanese living in urban areas contained 45-1,92μg (mean; 362, 361, 429 and 1,023μg, respectively) of iodine per day. The regular meals served in two university hospitals contained 95-287 μg (mean; 195μg) and 89-4,746μg (mean; 1,290μg) of iodine per day, respectively, and the diets for diabetes mellitus contained 59-144μg (mean; 96μg) of iodine per day. In the daily meals containing iodine exceeding ca. 300μg, some kinds of seaweeds and, in some cases, several foods containing a red food color with low iodine bioavailability, erythrosine, provided a large portion of iodine. The iodine contents of refectory meals in a university were 47-203μg (mean; 113μg) per meal and those of lunches in two elementary schools were 25-31μg (mean; 27μg) and 18-43μg (mean; 36μg) per lunch, respectively. These results suggest that the current daily iodine intake of urban Japanese is not great and that erythrosine elevates the iodine content of meals. © 1986, Center for Academic Publications Japan. All rights reserved.