A new study indicates that Americans gained up to 15 IQ points after the addition of iodine to salt became mandatory. In an effort to prevent goiter related to iodine deficiency, authorities ruled that iodine be added to U.S. salt products in 1924. The iodine, in addition to eliminating goiter, appears to have had an unexpected result: smarter Americans.
At peak lactation a black bear cub consumes about 30 ounces of milk a day, and a brown bear cub takes about 45 ounces. Thatâs per cub, so a mom with a litter of two or three cubs could be producing three or four quarts per day â a difficult metabolic feat to sustain.
At birth a black bear cub is about three-quarters of a pound, and when they emerge from the den black bear cubs average about six pounds. Brown bear cubs are about twice that weight at each stage. From birth to den emergence about 150 days later, cubs consume only about nine percent of their total yearly milk intake. Milk production and intake increases four-fold after they emerge from the den.