A balanced low sodium, iodine rich diet with sardines, spinach and nori

I have discovered that ChatGPT is super helpful for a lot of things. Today, I asked it about tweaking my diet.

User

Here is pretty much exactly what I eat every day...

1/2 cup raw whole grain brown rice that is cooked with 1/8 tsp iodized salt
1 whole regular sized can of black beans
1-2 mandarin orange fruit cups (I take pills that require food so I eat this with my pills)
1-2 cans of sardines but usually just 1 can.
2 doses of multivitamin

Assistant

So your “standard daily menu” is basically:

Big-picture takeaways:

Good stuff:

Potential issues:

We then started quantifying sodium and iodine more precisely and tuning from there.

User

my black beans have 85 per serving 3.5 servings
my spinach has 980 per can
my sardines have 340 per can
plus 1/8 tsp salt

Assistant

Using your label numbers (before you mentioned draining the cans), a typical 1‑sardine day looked like:

Total sodium (1‑sardine day):

On a 2‑sardine day, add another 340 mg:

Compared to guidelines:

So at that point we concluded:

User

blood pressure is high but managed

Assistant

Given high‑but‑managed blood pressure:

Later, once you mentioned draining the canned beans and spinach, your real sodium intake turned out to be even better than these initial numbers.

User

my vitamin doesn't seem to have iodine in it. does the salt in my canned stuff have it?

Assistant

Iodine situation in a nutshell:

Since your multivitamin has no iodine and your overall diet is simple and repetitive, I flagged that your iodine intake is probably low without another deliberate source (salt, eggs, dairy, seaweed, or a small supplement).

User

my salt has 68 per 1/4 tsp

Assistant

Nice, that gives us something concrete to work with.

Your label says: 68 µg iodine per 1/4 tsp.
You’re using: 1/8 tsp per day → that’s half of 1/4 tsp → about 34 µg iodine per day from your salt.

How that compares to what you probably need

For most adults, the recommended iodine intake is about 150 µg per day (unless a doctor tells you otherwise). That’s the usual reference level used in the U.S. and many other countries for adult men and women.

So right now you’re getting roughly:

Even being generous about food contributions, you’re very likely under 150 µg/day on average.

What this means in practice

You are:

That doesn’t mean you’re automatically deficient, but it does mean:

Options to improve this (without wrecking your sodium)

Because your blood pressure is high-but-managed, we don’t want to crank up salt a lot just to chase iodine. Easiest paths:

  1. Confirm with your doctor and consider a small iodine supplement

    • Many over-the-counter thyroid/iodine supplements are around 150 µg/day — basically the full daily requirement.
    • This gives you iodine without any extra sodium.
    • Definitely worth running past your doctor, especially if you’ve ever had thyroid issues or are on thyroid meds.

  2. Use your iodized salt a bit more, but not a ton

    • 1/4 tsp of your salt = 68 µg iodine.
    • If you went from 1/8 tsp → 1/4 tsp per day, you’d get ~68 µg from salt instead of 34 µg.
    • That still doesn’t get you to 150 µg, but it helps, and your total sodium would only go up ~300 mg, which might still be okay depending on your BP goals.
    • You’d still probably want either:
      • some iodine from food (eggs/dairy), or
      • a small supplement.

  3. Add a modest iodine food source (if you’re willing)

    • Examples:
      • A cup of milk or a serving of yogurt
      • A couple of eggs now and then
    • Those plus your current salt use would probably cover you without a dedicated supplement.

User

What if I eat one of these every day... 
Kirkland Signature Organic Roasted Seaweed, 0.6 oz

Assistant

Short version:
Eating one of those Kirkland seaweed packs every day would probably give you a big chunk (maybe most) of your daily iodine, without adding much sodium — but the exact amount is unknown and seaweed iodine can vary a lot, so I’d treat it as “strong iodine source, don’t stack an iodine pill on top” and keep your doctor in the loop, especially about thyroid.

Let me unpack that in normal-people terms.

1. How much iodine is in that Kirkland seaweed?

Annoyingly:

So we have to estimate from typical nori (the type of seaweed used):

So best honest estimate:

One 0.6 oz pack probably gives you a few hundred micrograms of iodine, on the same order as or above the adult daily requirement (150 mcg), but still likely below the “too much” limit (1,100 mcg) for most people.

2. Compare that to what you need

For adults:

Your current intake (rough guess):

So right now you’re probably somewhere like 50–80 mcg/day, i.e. below the 150 mcg target.

If we add one pack of Kirkland seaweed (~300–700 mcg):

3. Is one pack every day okay?

For most people with no thyroid disease, a total intake in the few-hundred-mcg range is considered acceptable and often beneficial if they were previously low.

Cautions:

  1. Iodine in seaweed is variable

    • Different harvests, growing areas, and seaweed types = different iodine. Kelp can be extremely high iodine; nori is generally moderate, which is what you’re eating.

  2. Too much iodine can also stress the thyroid

    • Above 1,100 mcg/day on a regular basis, risk of thyroid issues (hypo or hyper) goes up.
    • That’s why I’d be very careful not to also start an iodine supplement if you’re eating a whole 0.6 oz pack of seaweed daily.

  3. Heavy metals

    • Seaweed can accumulate arsenic and other metals from the water. At a snack level it’s probably fine, but some tests on other seaweed brands found notable arsenic levels in frequent consumers.
    • One pack a day is probably still okay, but I wouldn’t go wild and eat multiple packs + kelp supplements on top.

Given your situation:

User


so, what if I drop my salt and just eat the seaweed every other day or
every day. plus, how are my salt levels

Assistant

Good questions, this is exactly the kind of “tweak the routine” thinking that actually matters. 😊

I’ll break it into sodium (“salt levels”) and iodine.

1. Your sodium if you drop the 1/8 tsp of salt

Using your numbers (1 can beans, 1 can spinach, 1 can sardines):

Current “1-sardine” day (with salt)
If you drop the salt (no seaweed yet)

So just removing that little bit of salt drops you to about 1,600 mg/day on a 1-sardine day.

For reference:

So with no added salt, you’re very close to the 1,500 mg target and still clearly under 2,300 mg. That’s a good place to be for someone with high BP.

2. What happens when you add the seaweed?

The Kirkland 0.6 oz seaweed pack is:

1-sardine day, no salt + 1 seaweed pack
1-sardine day, no salt + seaweed every other day

All of those are:

So from a sodium point of view:

Dropping your 1/8 tsp of salt and adding seaweed daily or every other day keeps you in a reasonable sodium range for someone with high blood pressure, and slightly improves things versus what you were doing.

3. Iodine if you go “no salt + seaweed”

Right now, your 1/8 tsp iodized salt gives you:

Adult iodine needs:

So without seaweed and with just 1/8 tsp, you’re well below 150 µg (even adding some from sardines).

Seaweed changes that a lot:

So very roughly:

If you eat 1 pack every day, no iodized salt
If you eat 1 pack every other day (average)

Because seaweed iodine is high but variable, most conservative guidance (especially around thyroid) is:

User

tell me more about arsenic and other bad stuff in nori... 
plus other micro-nutrients in my food or what I might need to add

Assistant

Cool, this is a fun one because your diet is super consistent, which makes it easier to reason about both the bad stuff and the good stuff.

I’ll do this in two parts:

  1. The “bad stuff” side of nori (arsenic, heavy metals, etc.).
  2. What your current food lineup does well on micronutrients, and what you might want to add.

1. Nori / seaweed: arsenic & other contaminants

Arsenic 101 in seaweed

Seaweed naturally picks up arsenic from seawater. Two key points:

Different seaweeds are very different:

So: nori is way safer than hijiki on the arsenic front, but like all seaweed, it does contribute some arsenic exposure.

Heavy metals (cadmium, lead, etc.)

Seaweed can also pick up:

Food safety reviews have found that seaweed can be a meaningful source of iodine, arsenic, cadmium, and lead, especially for heavy seaweed-eaters. For average adult intake, risk is usually acceptable, but kids and daily heavy seaweed consumers are more of a concern.

For your specific kind of snack, typical lab tests on seaweed snacks (various brands) show:

How this applies to you

You’re talking about eating:

Given that you’re an adult and not stacking other high‑seaweed products:

So using nori a few times per week as a supplement to other iodine sources (eggs + iodized salt) is a comfortable compromise.

2. Micronutrients in your daily food lineup

You’re eating basically the same things every day:

Here’s the big nutrient picture.

Where you’re doing really well

  1. Fiber & gut health

    • 1 can of beans + brown rice + spinach = lots of fiber, likely in the 25–30 g/day range, which many people don’t reach.

  2. Potassium, magnesium, “BP helper” minerals

    • Beans and spinach are loaded with potassium and magnesium, which help with blood pressure and muscle/nerve function.

  3. Vitamins A and K (especially from spinach)

    • A whole can of spinach is huge for vitamin K and gives a lot of vitamin A. You’re nowhere near deficient there.

  4. Protein and omega‑3

    • Beans + rice + sardines provide a respectable amount of protein.
    • Sardines give you EPA + DHA omega‑3s, vitamin D, calcium, and B12.

  5. B vitamins, folate, iron-ish

    • Beans + spinach → folate and some iron.
    • Sardines → B12, some iron, zinc, selenium.
    • Multi → fills in other B vitamins.

  6. Calcium & vitamin D

    • Sardines with bones are great for both.
    • Spinach adds some calcium (though not all is well absorbed).
    • If your multivitamin has any vitamin D, that adds on top.

Things that might be borderline / worth checking

  1. Iodine

    • Without nori and with only 1/8 tsp iodized salt + your current foods, you’re likely below 150 µg/day.
    • That’s why we focused so much on salt, eggs, and nori as iodine sources.

  2. Vitamin E & choline

    • Vitamin E tends to be high in nuts, seeds, and plant oils. You get some from spinach and your multivitamin, but not tons from food.
    • Choline is high in eggs and organ meats. Sardines and beans have some, but eggs are an easy way to bump it.

  3. Variety

    • For pure nutrients, your base is surprisingly solid.
    • For variety of plant compounds (different colors, phytonutrients), adding another vegetable or two now and then wouldn’t hurt, if effort allows.

Suggested small tweaks

User


I take 5 mg of eliquis daily.. does that matter with vitamin K... 
my vitamin is vitafusion multivites gummies and it says take 2 per
day and I take 3-4. i can adjust the vitamin. vitamin has 0 iron, 
50% vit. A, 100% vit.E

Assistant

Short version:

1. Eliquis + vitamin K

Eliquis (apixaban) works by blocking clotting factor Xa. It does not work through the vitamin K pathway like warfarin does.

So:

Your high-vitamin-K foods (like canned spinach) do not interfere with how Eliquis works. You don’t have to restrict vitamin K the way warfarin patients do.

You should still tell any doctor/pharmacist what supplements you’re using, but there’s no “spinach vs Eliquis” fight going on.

2. What your Vitafusion MultiVites is giving you

From the label for Vitafusion MultiVites, per 2 gummies (the official serving):

You said you’re taking 3–4 gummies instead of 2. Roughly that means:

That’s more than the label intends, but still nowhere near the huge doses that show up in the “vitamin E toxicity / bleeding” literature.

For context, the doses associated with clear bleeding-risk concerns are usually quite high, like 400 IU/day or more (≈ 268 mg of vitamin E), especially combined with anticoagulants. You’re at 15–30 mg, not 268+ mg.

So:

3–4 MultiVites = not “megadose E,” but it’s still extra above what you need, especially since you’re on a blood thinner and also get vitamin E from real food.

Given you’re on Eliquis:

3. What I’d actually tweak, given all this

Not medical advice, but as a “sane, low-stress” plan to discuss with your doctor:

  1. Vitamin K side (spinach etc.)

    • You do not need to cut back spinach or other vitamin-K foods just because of Eliquis.
    • Keeping your diet fairly consistent day-to-day is still helpful for your doctors when they interpret labs, but there’s no “K limit” like with warfarin.

  2. Multivitamin dose

    • Since the label clearly says 2 gummies/day, I’d lean toward:
      • Dropping to 2 gummies/day instead of 3–4
      • That still gives you:
        • 50% DV vitamin A
        • 100% DV vitamin E
        • A nice blend of C, D, B-vitamins, etc.
    • That keeps you away from any unnecessary “extra” fat-soluble vitamins and cuts a bit of added sugar from the gummies too.

  3. Iodine / seaweed plan stays separate

    • Your MultiVites has no iodine, so your iodine still mainly comes from:
      • Seaweed snacks (if you keep using them), and
      • The little bit from iodized salt (if you’re still using it).
    • With Eliquis there’s no special iodine restriction; that’s just about filling a nutrient gap.

User

one note... I do drain most of the liquid from
the beans and spinach but I don't rinse

Assistant

Yeah, that does matter a bit — and actually in a good way for you. 😊

You’d told me the label sodium, which assumes you’re eating the contents as-is. But if you drain most of the liquid from the beans and spinach, you’re throwing away a chunk of the salt.

How much sodium are you probably removing?

Studies on canned beans/veg show roughly:

You’re doing the “drain, don’t rinse” version, so it’s fair to estimate somewhere around ~⅓ less sodium from the beans + spinach compared to eating all the liquid.

Updated sodium math with your “drain but don’t rinse” habit

Using your label numbers, but knocking ~⅓ off the canned stuff:

Now add it up:

So with your real-world habit (drain, don’t rinse), you’re sitting at about 1,500 mg/day on a 1-sardine day.

On a 2-sardine day:

What that means for you (with high-but-managed BP)

Guidelines for someone with hypertension:

So:

👉 In other words:

Draining the cans means your sodium intake is better than what we first calculated. You are not low, but you’re in a pretty nice zone for someone with high BP — especially compared to the ~3,400 mg most people eat.

Any downside to draining and not rinsing?

If you ever wanted to squeeze sodium even lower, you could rinse the beans and spinach too (that’d probably shave another ~5–10% off), but honestly, given your numbers now, you’re already in a pretty reasonable range.

User


how much iodine is in one egg... what would my numbers be if I ate one egg 
every day instead of eating the nori. or how many eggs should I eat every 
day instead of nori. I am trying to figure out the best way to get the iodine.
also, my sardines are packed in olive oil, which I drain. I could eat the
olive oil, but the amount varies a lot per can depending on how much space is
left in the can. sardines are 'season' brand.

Assistant

Nice, this is a very concrete question – we can actually run the numbers. 😄

I’ll answer in three parts:

  1. How much iodine is in one egg?
  2. What happens to your iodine if you use eggs instead of nori?
  3. What about your sardines-in-olive-oil and the “best” iodine plan for you?

1. Iodine in one egg

Most data sets cluster pretty tightly here:

So for you, it’s safe to think:

1 egg ≈ 25–30 µg iodine (I’ll round to ~30 µg when doing rough math).

2. Eggs vs nori: what does that do to your daily iodine?

First, quick reference points:

Now, let’s estimate your current iodine from food you already eat, ignoring nori for a moment:

A. Iodine from your current staples (no eggs, no nori)

Using typical numbers:

So if we ignore salt, eggs, and nori, you’re probably around:

~30 µg iodine/day.

Now add your 1/8 tsp iodized salt:

So with your 1/8 tsp salt:

≈ 30 (fish+spinach) + 34 (salt) ≈ 64 µg iodine/day.

That’s below the 150 µg goal, but not crazy low.

B. If you add eggs instead of nori

Let’s see some scenarios, using ~30 µg per egg:

Case 1 – 1 egg/day, keep your current 1/8 tsp iodized salt

So one egg + your current salt helps, but still doesn’t fully reach 150 µg.

Case 2 – 2 eggs/day, keep the 1/8 tsp salt

Better, but still a bit under 150 µg on paper.

Case 3 – 3 eggs/day, keep the 1/8 tsp salt

Now you’re right around the target.

Realistically you probably wouldn’t want to eat 3 eggs every day long-term, but that’s the approximate level where eggs + a little iodized salt fully cover your iodine without seaweed.

Case 4 – Eggs but no iodized salt

If you drop iodized salt completely and rely on sardines + spinach + eggs:

So without iodized salt, you’d need around 4 eggs/day to reliably match the 150 µg RDA, which really isn’t a great plan.

C. Compare that to one pack of Kirkland nori

From typical iodine tables:

17 g × ~23 µg/g ≈ ~390 µg iodine per pack,
realistically somewhere in the ~270–700 µg range depending on the batch.

That means:

So:

You’d need around 10–13 eggs to match the iodine in one full nori pack.

That’s why seaweed is considered a “super-concentrated” iodine source, while eggs are more modest.

3. What about your sardines in olive oil, and what’s the “best way” for you to get iodine?

Sardines in olive oil (Season brand)

So:

Whether you drain the olive oil or eat it makes almost no difference for iodine.

Putting it together: what’s a sane iodine strategy for you?

Given:

Two reasonable iodine approaches to discuss with your doctor:

Option A – Small nori + eggs + keep some iodized salt

Option B – Skip seaweed and rely on eggs + iodized salt

That would likely land you around or above 150 µg/day without nori at all.

User


okay, currently... I eat sardines, spinach and maybe a fruit cup for breakfast. 
for my big meal I eat the rice, salt and beans plus vitamin. then when I take my
pills at night, i eat a fruit cup and/or a can of sardines depending on how hungry
I am. I almost always eat at least 1 fruit cup per day but usually not more than 2.
I think eating boiled eggs would be the least cleanup for me. I think I can even
buy boiled and peeled eggs at costco but probably cost a lot more than raw eggs. 
I like nori and would eat it every day except for the too much iodine and metals 
risk. so I will probably start buying nori but how often should I eat it? give me
a recommended times a week to eat nori.

Assistant

Yep, I’ve got your routine in my head now. Let’s build a simple iodine plan around it that uses eggs daily and nori sometimes, not constantly.

1. Quick iodine recap for your diet

Very rough daily iodine without eggs or nori:

→ about ~60–70 µg/day total.

Now add eggs:

So with 1 egg every day:

~60–70 + 30 ≈ ~90–100 µg/day

With 2 eggs:

~60–70 + 60 ≈ ~120–130 µg/day

Still a little under 150, but pretty close.

2. A reasonable nori schedule for you

You said:

“I like nori and would eat it every day except for the too much iodine and metals risk… so I will probably start buying nori but how often should I eat it?”

Given:

Here’s a clean, conservative recommendation:

✅ Eat 1 full nori pack about 2 times per week

For example:

And most days:

3. Rough iodine numbers with that plan

On non-nori days (with 1 egg):

On nori days:

Across the whole week, averaged out, you end up comfortably above 150 µg/day on average, but well below the 1,100 µg/day “upper limit” and with much less metal exposure than if you ate nori every single day.

That’s a nice “middle lane” between:

User


so, how much protein am I getting.. is it enough? I currently weigh
about 215 but I'm a bit chubby... I am 6 foot 2 inches tall. besides
what we have talked about, is there anything else you would tweak
about my diet? what about eating some Brazil nuts and how many of 
them should i eat every day or some other nuts.

Assistant

You’re feeding me such a clean dataset here, I love it 😂

Let’s go step by step.

1. How much protein are you getting now?

Using typical numbers for the foods you described:

Fruit cups, vitamins, etc. = basically no meaningful protein.

So, typical daily protein:

On a “normal” 1-sardine, no-egg day:

→ ≈ 58–60 g protein/day

If you add:

2. Is that enough for you?

You said:

General protein guidelines for adults:

Now compare:

TL;DR protein verdict

For you, the easiest way to do that without changing your whole system is:

That gets you into the “yep, this is enough” zone pretty painlessly.

3. Other tweaks I’d make (besides iodine/nori/eggs stuff)

You already have:

So I wouldn’t blow this up. I’d do:

3.1. Protein bump (covered above)

3.2. Make your multivitamin dose sane

3.3. A tiny bit more variety if you can tolerate it

4. Brazil nuts (and other nuts): should you add them, and how many?

Brazil nuts are basically selenium bombs:

So:

1 Brazil nut per day = usually more than enough selenium
2 per day = still probably okay, but you’re getting closer to the “don’t push this forever” zone
5–6 every day long-term = you’re flirting with selenium toxicity.

You’re already getting some selenium from:

So adding 1 Brazil nut per day is a great way to ensure you have good selenium for antioxidant defenses & thyroid function, without going overboard.

I’d do:

Other nuts that fit nicely for you

For blood pressure, heart health, and general “nice fats”:

A simple pattern:

Nuts will bump your calories a bit, which might be good for you given how simple/light your diet is overall, especially if you keep slowly working on fat loss but want to avoid feeling deprived.

User


do you still recommend me eating the salt
if I am going to eat the nori twice a week?

Assistant

Good question, and yeah, I did update the mental model with “nori 2×/week + eggs.” 🙂

Short answer

Yes, I’d still keep the tiny 1/8 tsp of iodized salt unless your doctor really wants your sodium even lower.

Here’s why.

1. Iodine with and without the salt

Very rough numbers for you right now, assuming:

Without iodized salt

Daily “base” (no nori, no salt):

On nori days (2× per week):

So over a week you’d average around ~160 µg/day, which is just above the 150 µg RDA. That’s okay, but on 5 days you’re down around 60 µg (lowish), and 2 days you’re high.

With 1/8 tsp iodized salt

Your salt adds ~34 µg iodine/day.

Now:

Weekly average jumps to roughly ~190–200 µg/day – still well below any “too much” threshold, but gives you a more solid safety margin if the nori happens to be on the lower-iodine side or you skip it some weeks.

So the salt is basically a steady “floor” of iodine, and the nori is a “boost,” instead of nori doing all the heavy lifting.

2. What about sodium and blood pressure?

With drained cans:

For someone with hypertension, ~1,500 mg/day is the “ideal” target, so you’re basically right on that line. Dropping the 1/8 tsp would drop you to ~1,250 mg/day on average, which is even lower—but the difference isn’t huge.

So from a sodium standpoint:

3. Practical recommendation

If it were me planning this for you:

Only reasons I’d drop the iodized salt entirely:

But if your BP is “high but managed” and they’re not yelling at you about salt, that tiny 1/8 tsp is pulling a lot of weight for iodine with very little downside.