Thursday, February 28, 2008

AIs: The Nutritional Numbers Formerly Known as ESADDIs

In addition to the RDAs, the Food and Nutrition Board created Estimated Safe and Adequate Daily Dietary Intakes (ESADDI), now renamed Adequate Intake (AI), for eight nutrients considered necessary for good health, even though nobody really knows exactly how much your body needs. Not to worry:

Sooner or later some smart nutrition researcher will come up with a hard number and move the nutrient to the RDA list. Or not. In the meantime, new reports have established AIs for various age groups for the following nutrients:
  • Pantothenic acid
  • Molybdenum
  • Biotin
  • Manganese
  • Choline
  • Fluoride
  • Calcium
  • Chromium

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