Planning Nutritionally Adequate Diets for Groups: Methods Used to Develop Recommendations for a Child and Adult Care Food Program.

Planning nutritionally adequate intakes for large groups of people presents many challenges. Because of between-person variations in both food choices and nutrient requirements, it is necessary to examine nutrient intake distributions and select a Target Median Intake (TMI) that will lead to a low prevalence of inadequate nutrient intakes. The TMI may then be used to guide a feeding or education program.

Why the Derivation of Nutrient Reference Values Should be Harmonized and How It Can be Accomplished.

The adoption of a panel of Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs) in place of a single recommended intake allowed for assessment of nutritional adequacy and safe upper intake levels for nutrients on a population level and for individuals. The Average Requirement (AR) and Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) comprise 2 core NRVs needed to obtain accurate, comparable estimates of population-level nutrient intakes, which are necessary to plan and evaluate nutrition support programs globally. Harmonizing the derivation of NRVs, particularly the AR and UL, is essential to ensure inclusion of all countries, whether high-, middle-, or low-income, in the process and to improve access for all users to the tools and data needed to carry it out.

Milestones in DRI Development: What Does the Future Hold?

The state of nutritional health in the United States in the early part of the twentieth century was very different from today. Nutrient deficiencies and dental caries were prevalent health concerns for many Americans. In 1940, the US National Defense Advisory Commission asked the National Academy of Sciences for help in studying problems of nutrition in the United States.

Scanning for new evidence to prioritize updates to the Dietary Reference Intakes: case studies for thiamin and phosphorus.

Background: Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) are fundamental to inform national nutrition policy. However, a regular systematic review of the 51 nutrients that have DRIs has limited feasibility, and many DRIs have not been reviewed in >15 y.

Objective: To address this issue, individuals (nutrient review group) who were members of the Food and Nutrition Board developed a streamlined, evidence-based methodology that could be used to identify nutrients potentially in need of a systematic review.