Time Frame of Requirement Estimates

Recent reports have been explicit in stating that estimates of nutrient requirements refer to intakes over moderate periods of time rather than to intake on a particular day (Advisory Committee to Revise the Canadian Dietary Standard, 1983 Food and Nutrition Board Committee on Dietary Allowance, 1980 FAO/WHO/UNU, 1984). Typical of this petition is the following extract from the FAO/WHO/UNU report on energy and protein requirements  

All requirement estimates refer to needs persisting over moderate periods of time. 

The corresponding intakes may be referred to as habitual or usual , to distinguish them from intakes on a particular day. As a matter of convention and convenience they are expressed as daily rates (of intake). However, there is no implication that these amounts must be consumed each day. 

It follows that in interpreting observed intake, the intake data must refer to the same time frame as the requirement estimates. Perhaps one of the greatest errors that has been committed by the nutrition community in the assessment of dietary intake is overlooking this dimension and hence overinterpreting one-day dietary data. 

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