Yes, Sugar Is Hiding In Your Table Salt: Here's Why

From canned soups to salad dressings to protein bars, sugar is hidden in tons of products at the grocery store. One place you might not expect to find it lurking, however: iodized table salt. Dextrose, a type of sugar, can be found in the ingredient list of many brands of iodized table salt, including Morton's, Good & Gather, and Great Value. It turns out, dextrose isn't added to table salt for taste. A tiny amount is added in order to keep the iodine in the salt from evaporating.

Without a bit of sugar, the iodine that's added to your table salt would be lost. Sugar — specifically, dextrose — helps to stabilize the iodine and make sure it stays put in your salt, rather than being lost to the air in your pantry. High humidity levels cause iodine to evaporate from salt faster, so adding dextrose or another stabilizing agent is especially important in humid climates. If you're concerned about your sugar intake, you don't have to worry about a dramatic increase from table salt. The amount of dextrose needed to stabilize iodine is super-tiny — you'd need to eat an impossible amount of salt to get even a pinch of sugar.

It's pretty likely that you have iodized salt in your kitchen cupboard, but have you ever stopped to wonder why iodine is included in many varieties of table salt? Iodine is vital for your health, and supports the thyroid function. Most adults need about 150 micrograms of iodine per day. In the early 1900s, physicians noticed that people who did not ingest enough iodine were more likely to be afflicted with goiter — the clinical term for an abnormally enlarged thyroid. 

The element was added to salt as a public health measure, and today, more than 90% of households in the U.S. consume iodized salt. You likely get plenty of iodine from salt, so if you'd prefer to use non-iodized salt for cooking, that's totally fine (Wolfgang Puck notoriously refuses to cook with table salt). In fact, it's a good idea to stock your pantry with several different types of salt to make your food taste amazing.

Next time you notice dextrose in the ingredient list of your go-to table salt, remember, it's there for a solid reason. It's not a ploy from big sugar to keep you hooked on the sweet stuff. Rather, it's an important stabilizer that helps protect your health by ensuring you — and not the air in your pantry — are getting your daily dose of iodine.