Question

What are the 4 DRI’s? What is each used for? What are the Daily Values, where do you find them, and what are they used for? Why is there only 1 Daily Value for a nutrient, but different DRI’s for age and gender categories? (p.30-33 & lecture)

How the typical American diet compares to the diet recommended by the USDA Food

. The relationship between nutrition and disease, including which of the leading causes of death in the U.S. are related to nutrition(p. 2-4 & lecture).

· What is a chronic disease? (p. 3 & lecture)

· What is a calorie? (p.7 & lecture)

· What are the 6 classes of nutrients? What are organic, energy-yielding and essential nutrients?

· What is nutrient density?

Answer 1

The Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) is an umbrella term to describe a set of nutrient reference values. These reference values, include the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA), Adequate Intake (AI), Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL), and Estimated Average Requirement (EAR).

RDA deals with the daily nutrient requirement of majority of population. It varies with the age and gender, because the RDA depends on the absorption capacity of individuals, calories intake and lifestyle..etc.

EAR deals with the adequate nutritional requirement of half of the population , the other half will not have satisfactory nutrition intake.

AI may be used to define the nutritional intake when adequate data aid not available to decide the RDA and EAR. The intake values are decided experimentally by studying a group of healthy individuals.

uL indicates the highest nutritional intake that will not pose any health issues in groups of individuals with all age. It is like a highest nutrient a body can handle without developing adverse reactions.

The DRI depend on the age of individuals, sex, work style and individual physiology. It cannot be same for all. These values only define a range or reference point for general populations. The daily values of calories depends on how much nutrition is needed to cover up 2000 kcal of energy. DRIs contain too complex information based on gender and age, the daily values provide a single value for better reference and understanding. DRIs are necessary for malnutrition related issues, but daily values are necessary to give idea on nutrition needed for dialysis living for healthy individuals.

The US FDA has recommended allowances for each type of food depending on nutritional requirement. However the typical American food varies drastically from the recommendations. For example, the intake of sugar recommendation is 128, and typical food intake of sugar is 505. It is also true with respect to intake of oil, which is higher than recommended, intake of meat, again high. The intake of fruits and vegetables are below the recommended values. The ratio of food intake to recommendation is skewed towards high intake of the meat, oil and sugar.

The nutrition and health are always correlated. One of the leading example is obesity, obesity is on the rise especially due to high intake of oil and sugar. The excessive weight gain leads to other chronic problems such as blood pressure, blood glucose rise, weight gain, kidney and heart disorders.

Chronic disease is persistent or long lasting disease, which develops over time. Examples include, cancer, arthritis, diabetes.

Calory is a unit used to describe the nutrition values of a food. It is equal to amount of energy released to increase the temperature of 1kg of water by 1degree Celsius.

Six classes of nutrition include, water, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals.

Organic nutrient is the one with carbon sources, like carbohydrates, proteins..etc. the essential nutrient eats include minerals, vitamins which cannot be synthesised by the body. Energy yielding nutrient include the carbs, fats and proteins which can be metabolised to generate ATP and provide for body functions,

Nutrient density means the concentration of different type of nutrients in a food. It contains all necessary nutrients including energy yielding, organic and essential. Nutrient dense food is usually low on calorie.