Recommended Dietary Allowances’ and ‘Nutrient Requirements’ report

Subject: Report

Context:

A special report ‘Nutrient Requirements for Indians’ and ‘What India Eats’, prepared by Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) was launched

Concept:

• This is for the first time that the NIN report on nutrient requirements for Indians includes the Estimated Average Requirements (EAR) and also the Tolerable Upper Limits (TUL) of nutrients alongside the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for individuals in the Country.
• The ideal weight of an Indian man is now 65 kg and for a woman it is 55 kg, according to a report released by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN).
• It forms the basis for defining the nutrient levels in policies and programmes of the Centre.
• The report gives details of ‘Regional Dietary Pattern of Indian Population’ and energy and protein sources from different food groups in graphical form.
• The RDAs are very important for many national level health and welfare programmes. With the new additions like EARs and Tolerable Upper Limits, these are not only useful in evaluating the nutritional status of populations or groups but also in defining the regulation on food fortification and supplementation of nutrients
• The NIN has been the nodal agency for recommending the dietary allowances and nutrient requirements for Indians.
• The RDAs are revisited and revised from time to time in view of the changing food habits, physical activity patterns, nutrition transition and health status of various groups.
• Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) are the levels of intake of essential nutrients that, on the basis of scientific knowledge, are judged by the Food and Nutrition Board to be adequate to meet the known nutrient needs of practically all healthy persons.