Iodine is very controversial. Some alternative practitioners believe fluorine has replaced it in our body composition as well as other toxins. Some even feel the lack points towards the amount of breast cancer in the US. Lynne Farrow really gets the medical community aroused, but some mavericks think she may be on to something...
It could have been a matter of diet, perhaps back then - pre-iodized salt. There is such a thing though as enough, and too much.
I do agree our food is not so healthy now.