Raising the World’s I.Q. by Nicholas Kristof

(I'm hungover and tired as balls today, so I'm not planning to post besides this)

Nicholas Kristof had an interesting column this morning on the benefits of salt for I.Q.:

Almost one-third of the world’s people don’t get enough iodine from food and water. The result in extreme cases is large goiters that swell their necks, or other obvious impairments such as dwarfism or cretinism. But far more common is mental slowness.

When a pregnant woman doesn’t have enough iodine in her body, her child may suffer irreversible brain damage and could have an I.Q. that is 10 to 15 points lower than it would otherwise be. An educated guess is that iodine deficiency results in a needless loss of more than 1 billion I.Q. points around the world.

It's worth reading the rest as well, as Kristof discusses how cheap salt is and how much it can improve people's lives. He also points out that investing in things like education are important, but there is no investment like salt in terms of bang for your buck.