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RECOMMENDED DIETARY INTAKE (RDI)
For a healthy body there is no substitute for a well-balanced diet and we all should be looking closely at the food we eat. Most of us today, because of our rushed lifestyle, unfortunately don’t eat as well as we would like. Even if we did, the quality of the food may well be lacking in the essential minerals and vitamins required for healthy life.
In 11 mid-western states in the USA a 1000 crop samples were taken, and a decline in mineral levels of up to 68 per cent were noted over a four-year period. The question must be asked, ‘How good is the quality of our food in comparison with that of our forebears?’
Indeed we are not getting enough from our average diet to meet the RDA levels in some nutrients. Further examples of this can be shown by investigations reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 37, 1983, showing the dietary patterns of healthy pregnant women, even on a balanced diet, didn’t have adequate amounts of some essential nutrients. For example, the healthy middle class North American women surveyed in the study were found to have lower levels of zinc intake, with the average only receiving 56 per cent of the RDA figure.
Worldwide studies involving people in all age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds, have shown nutritional deficiencies are common and the need for vitamin and/or mineral supplements is growing just so the RDA recommended dietary allowance can be maintained.
The RDA gives a figure below which known and tested deficiency symptoms would show up. If our diet was to contain less than 30mg of vitamin C, then in a short time the disease scurvy would become evident. No allowance was made in the RDA for high stress or other illnesses when working out the dietary allowance. The RDA really is a minimum allowance for persons in good health under ideal conditions.
If we look at the Australian Health Survey 1977-78, conducted by the Australian Commonwealth Government Department of Statistics, we would see that approximately 45 per cent of the Australian population suffers one or more chronic conditions. This means that nearly 50 per cent of the Australian population, at any given time, does not fit into the criteria for measuring the Recommended Dietary Allowance.
We should not be looking at the minimum levels of vitamins and minerals but the optimum daily intake needed to compensate for our lifestyle and environmental pollution.
Dr Linus C. Pauling, Nobel Laureate, Professor of Chemistry, states that the optimum daily intake of vitamin C for most human adults is between 2300 to 9000 mg and not that of 45 mg per day as stated in the RDA.
If we live a stress-free life without illness, have plenty of exercise and sleep, together with well-balanced diet without medication, and our environment is free from pollution, smog, cigarette smoke and car exhaust fumes, then we do not need supplements.
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