These iodine deficiency claims are entirely pseudoscience and alt-med bullshit. Here's where they come from: <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/008902_hypothyroidism_thyroid_gland.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.naturalnews.com/008902_hypothyroidism_thyroid_gla...</a><p>The whole pH thing is a lot of nonsense too, as many of the commenters on this article pointed out. Here's a thorough debunking: <a href="http://sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/your-urine-is-not-a-window-to-your-body-ph-balancing-a-failed-hypothesis/" rel="nofollow">http://sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/your-ur...</a><p>For the more real point about BMI increase being associated with artificial sweeteners:<p>- The bloggers link to this 2005 WebMD article, which doesn't cite the reference for the study: <a href="http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20050613/drink-more-diet-soda-gain-more-weight" rel="nofollow">http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20050613/drink-more-diet-soda...</a><p>- The real literature appears to be from 2008, so I don't know if the authors just spoke to WebMD ahead of their publication or what happened. I believe this is the study: <a href="http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v16/n8/full/oby2008284a.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v16/n8/full/oby2008284a.ht...</a><p>There's also a critical response: <a href="http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v17/n4/full/oby2008623a.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v17/n4/full/oby2008623a.ht...</a><p>And a response to the response:
<a href="http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v17/n4/full/oby2008624a.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v17/n4/full/oby2008624a.ht...</a>