We notice that almost all supplements, vitamins, food that has anything to do with health effects take the measurement of RDA. So do you know what RDA is?
RDA stands for Recommended Daily Allowance used for each nutrient. You wonder how the numbers for the RDA are derived from.
You see, the discovery of nutrition is less than 100 years. Before that time, our ancestors were hunters or farmers. Only until the 20th century, we have propelled to building cities and townships during industrial revolution to create new jobs. At that time, many jobs were created for industrial workers. They ate bread and biscuits which were cheap energy foods. Bread and biscuits are made of refine flour and sugar and also saturated fat. The nutrition value is almost nil!
Workers became sick due to mulnutrition, you can also call it nutrition disorders. They started to have scurvy, rickets, pellagra, beriberi, tetany, osteoporosis, kwashiorkor, mental retardation and marasmus. Now, here is where the RDA comes in. If you supply your body with the vital nutrients listed in the RDA then you can avoid all the above nutrition disorder diseases.
Is that it? Not yet. I am certain you will agree with me that every one of us is different, physically. Our genes are different and our lifestyle too (I will in a later post discuss with you about how our gene, environment and lifestyle affects our health). Therefore, RDA is only the standard minimum requirement of nutrition to avoid the disorder but it has nothing to do with individual nutrition assessment. Hence, we need supplements / vitamins to help us achieve the health we desire so that we feel good about ourselves physically and mentally. Of course, the most important one is to prolong our lifespan in a healthy state.
We still have bread and biscuits for tea time or part of a meal, but for those who 'live on' them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you seriously have to adjust your diet before it is too late.
| Shortfalls between RDA and ODA | |||
| Nutrients | RDA | ODA | Shortfall |
| Vitamin A (mcg) | 800 | 2500 | 1000 |
| Vitamin B1(mg) | 1.4 | 35 | 30 |
| Vitamin B2 (mg) | 1.6 | 35 | 30 |
| Vitamin B3 (mg) | 18 | 85 | 35 |
| Vitamin B5 (mg) | 6 | 100 | 80 |
| Vitamin B6 (mg) | 2 | 75 | 70 |
| Vitamin B12 (mcg) | 1 | 25 | 15 |
| Vitamin C (mg) | 60 | 2000 | 1800 |
| Vitamin D (mcg) | 5 | 11 | 4 |
| Vitamin E (mcg) | 10 | 300 | 250 |
| Folic Acid (mcg) | 200 | 800 | 400 |
| Biotin (mcg) | 150 | 225 | 105 |
| Calcium (mg) | 800 | 1000 | 200 |
| Magnesium (mcg) | 300 | 500 | 150 |
| Iron (mg) | 14 | 20 | 20 |
| Zinc (mg) | 15 | 20 | 10 |
| Iodine (mcg) | 150 | 300 | 60 |
| GLA (Omega 6) (mg) | - | 150 | 110 |
| EPA/DHA (Omega-3) (mg) | - | 700 | 600 |
| Selenium (mcg) | - | 100 | 50 |
| Chromium (mcg) | - | 125 | 50 |
| Manganese (mcg) | - | 10 | 4 |
*The chart is taken from Patrick Holdford's New Optimum Nutrition Bible
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