Recommended Nutrient Intakes

The basal diet was a measured, laboratory controlled diet based on ordinary foods fed in sufficient quantities to meet caloric requirements of the 127 subjects for weight maintenance and meeting or exceeding the National Research Council Daily Recommended Nutrient Intakes. 

United States regulations on nutrition labeling of foods require that cholesterol content be given and that it be analyzed by GC measurement as shown in the AOAC method, which uses a packed column (Lewis et al., 1996 AOAC, 1990). The reference value, which is a set of recommended nutrient intake levels of cholesterol, is defined as 300 mg. However, the Codex guideline does not request labeling of cholesterol. Cholesterol contents in some foods and foodstuffs determined by GC measurement are summarized in Table Dl.3.3. 

Vitamins and minerals (micronutrients) help to regulate your metabolism. They are the building blocks of blood and bone, and they maintain muscles and nerves. In Canada, a standard called Recommended Nutrient Intake [RNI] outlines the amounts of micronutrients that people should ingest each day. Eating a balanced diet is the best way to achieve your RNI. Sometimes, however, you may need to take multivitamin supplements when you are unable to attain your RNI through diet alone. 

The RNI (Recommended Nutrient Intake) of iron for women is listed as 14.8 mg per day. Ferrous gluconate, Fe(C6Hii07)2 is often used as an iron supplement for those who do not get enough iron in their diet because it is relatively easy for the body to absorb. Some iron-fortified breakfast cereals contain elemental iron metal as their source of iron. 

Table 1.8 Recommended Nutrient Intakes for Vitamins, FAOAA/HO, 2001 ... 

As shown in Table 1.9, a number of terms are used Recommended Daily (or Dietary) Intake (RDI), Recommended Dietary (or Daily) Amount (RDA), Reference or Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI), and Population Reference Intake (PRI). All have the same statistical basis, and all are defined as an intake of the nutrient that is adequate to ensure that the requirements of essentially all healthy people in the specified population group are met. The 2001FAO/WHO report introduced the term profecfmenwfnenfmtake-an amount greater than the reference intake that may be protective against specified health risks of public health importance. 

RNI. 1983. Recommended Nutrient Intakes for Canadians. Committee for the Revisions of the Dietary Standard for Canada. Bureau of Nutritional Sciences, Food Directorate. Department of National Health and Welfare, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 

Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) are used quite a lot and refer to a set of four nutrient-based reference values that represent the approach to provide quantitative estimates of nutrient intakes. The DRIs replace and expand on the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for the United States and the Recommended Nutrient Intakes (RNIs) for Canada. The DRIs consist of the RDAs, the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL), the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR), and the Adequate Intake (AI). Generally, each of these values represents average daily nutrient intake of individuals in the diet (Goldhaber, 2003 Murphy and Poos, 2002 Parr et ah, 2006 Trumbo et ah, 2001 Yates et ah, 1998). In addition, dietary intake data for minerals could be assessed within the context of the bioavailability and other factors affecting the utilization of elements by the human body, such as age, sex, and health aspects (Dokkum, 1995). 

Table 15.3 Recommended nutrient intakes for patients with UCD. Intakes foreneigy, vitamins, and minerals should meet the DRI [23] and fluid maintenance requirements [24]...

Table I presents a general summary of the nature of the criteria of body state used in the establishment of requirements in Recommended Nutrient Intakes for Canadians, The definitions are imprecise, and in the final analysis, the requirement estimates involved a judgement by committee members based on evidence drawn from a number of studies which...

The Advisory Committee to Revise the Canadian Dietary Standard (1983) offers the following explanation of the recommended nutrient intake (RNI) ... 

A recommended nutrient intake is taken as the level of dietary intake thought to be sufHciently high to meet the requirements of almost all individuals in a group with specificed characteristics. It takes into account individual variability. Of necessity the RNI exceeds the requirements of almost all individuals (in the specified group). It follows that an intake below the RNI does not mean that the individual has failed to meet his or her requirement, but the lower the intake in relation to the RNI, the greater the risk that the individual has not met his or her requirement. 

SD). The assumed distribution is Gaussian. This is a convenient, but not necessary, assumption. Taken from Recommended Nutrient Intakes for Canadians, 1983. 

Consider the application of these curves in assessing the observed protein and iron intakes of a young adult woman. Recommended Nutrient Intakes for Canadians was explicit in accepting the judgement that the distribution of protein requirements approximates normality and has a coefficient of variation (CV) of about 15 percent. The RDNI was estab-... 

Calculated from Recommended Nutrient Intakes for Canadians, 1983. 

Figure 3 The Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI) for iron given different levels of bioavailability of iron in the diet 5%, low 10%, moderate and 15%, high. The RNI is based on the amount of iron necessary to meet requirements of 95% of the population for each age/sex group. Because typical iron intakes range from 10 to 15mg/day, iron requirements are nearly impossible to meet on low-bioavailability diets. (Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2001) Iron. In Human Vitamin and Minerai Requirements Report of a Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation, Bangkok, Thailand, pp. 195-221. Rome FAO.)...

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