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Review of the DRIs for selected nutrients: application challenges and implications for food assistance programs
Author(s) -
Crepinsek Mary Kay,
Devaney Barbara,
Quay Lisa
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.5.a122-c
Subject(s) - dietary reference intake , nutrient , population , agriculture , environmental health , medicine , microbiology and biotechnology , gerontology , biology , ecology
Over the last decade, increased knowledge about nutrient requirements and advances in dietary assessment methods have resulted in updated estimates of the nutrient adequacy of population subgroups. Some surprising findings have emerged from this “first‐generation” set of results that have followed the development of both the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) and methods for their use. The findings are surprising in that they suggest dramatic dietary deficiencies as well as excesses among some population subgroups, seemingly unaccompanied by adverse health conditions. Given the integral role of nutrient reference standards to food assistance programs and policy, it is critical to examine carefully these recent findings to determine the extent to which they may result from shortcomings in the dietary reference standards and dietary assessment methods, or may be indicative of true dietary problems. This paper reviews the methods used to set the DRIs for six selected nutrients – zinc, vitamin A, magnesium, vitamin E, fiber, and potassium – in an effort to add to our understanding of these recent findings from dietary assessment studies. Research funded by US Dept of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.