Reply #3: Possibly...You might also look at the soy content in the chow

[Iceburg]

I am currently reviewing a signficant body of literature on the dark side to soybean of which many byproducts are used in pet foods. Soy has been purported to have a role in thyroid-related problems.

This past week a poster (who suffers from hypothyroidism) alerted me to its potential cause/effect relationship. So I did a bit of poking around in the medical journals and sure enough there was some compelling evidence that soy may be implicated in thyroid disfunction and immune disorders.

This general/layperson's article in Mother Jones (2004) encapsulates many of the more recent findings. It is also accompanied by a full set of references.

Wrt to iodine,(and other additives) the biggest problem is that the pet food companies do not disclose how much is alleged to be in the formulas, and even if they did they have an astoundingly bad track record for getting the quantities of food items wrong. Kelp, a huge source of iodine with great variabilty in iodine content, is routinely added to most dog foods now on top of calcium iodate. Check out these dog food comparisons. Most contain both kelp & calcium iodate!

What the hell is going on?? Who's designing this chow?? How many sources of iodine do we need? And who's measuring it?