By Margaret Jasinska

Did you know that iodine is a vital mineral for a fast and efficient metabolism? People who are deficient in iodine are at greater risk of developing a fatty liver. Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a term that describes fatty liver associated with insulin resistance. People with this condition usually struggle with their weight and metabolism.

A study published in the journal BMC Gastroenterology found that adults with a high urinary iodine concentration are significantly less likely to have metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). The risk decreases sharply when the urinary iodine level exceeds 84.62 μg/L.

A urine test is the best way to determine if your body contains sufficient iodine. An ideal level is between 100 and 300 μg/L. The majority of the patients I see are significantly iodine deficient. This can harm their metabolism by interfering with thyroid hormone production, causing fatigue and raising the risk of fatty liver.

If you are iodine deficient, your healthy diet and exercise strategies will probably not pay off. You’ll have to go to twice the amount of effort to lose only half the weight of people who aren’t iodine deficient. It’s only natural that this would result in low motivation and depression.

Most people aren’t getting enough iodine through food

Good food sources of iodine are iodized salt, some seafood (not farmed seafood) and edible seaweeds. Most people don’t use enough salt for iodized salt to make much of a difference, and seaweed is not commonly eaten. Wild seafood is usually far more expensive than farmed and is simply not available in many parts of the world. Ensuring you’re getting enough iodine is a very safe and inexpensive strategy for improving your metabolic health.

Reference:

https://bmcgastroenterol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12876-025-04310-2#citeas