Posted by kathryn in Nutrition, Fruit, Vegetables and Fats & oils

We eat food for many reasons: to keep us alive; for energy; for comfort and reassurance; as part of interacting with friends and family; because we enjoy it. However we also eat food because it provides us with nutrients.

The old adage ‘we are what we eat’ is true, food supplies us with the building blocks that make up our bodies, as well as the fuel to run it and the ability to make the enzymes that catalyse the biochemical reactions constantly occurring inside us. It is from food that we get the protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that keep us going and (hopefully) healthy. Moreover the way we eat dramatically affects how well that body of ours runs – from struggling through, over-loaded with excess kilojoules, fat and salt, to running in peak condition, provided with EVERYTHING that it needs.

Even when we want to do the right thing however, it’s still hard to know exactly what is a healthy and balanced diet – how do I eat like that, what does it look like? How do I make sure I’m getting all the nutrients I need in amongst the busyness of my life? It can be a challenge.

New RDIs

In Australia we have dietary guidelines called Recommended Daily Intakes (RDIs), which are meant to answer a lot of these questions. They set specific amounts for each nutrient, showing how much protein, calcium, vitamin C, and so on, people need. The RDIs were first published in the 1950s and since then, with a few tweaks, have been the accepted level of each nutrient required to keep us healthy and prevent deficiency.

It’s really hard to calculate definitive nutrient levels, partly because there’s still a heck of a lot we just don’t know about what these nutrients get up to in our bodies.

However nutritional knowledge has definitely moved on since the 1950s and the past month has seen the release of new nutritional guidelines. They contain a number of differences to the old recommended levels:

• the RDI has changed, in some cases quite considerably, for a number of nutrients, including calcium, iron, folate and many of the Bs;
• for the first time an upper safe level of intake has been set for each nutrient;
• many nutrients now have a Suggested Dietary Target value, as well as an RDI.

Suggested dietary targets

It’s the last change which is the most significant. While the RDI is the amount you need to maintain current health and prevent deficiency, for the first time the guidelines have recognised that good health is more than that. A number of the most common chronic diseases, like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and macular degeneration have a strong link with the diet we eat. The Suggested Dietary Targets encourage us to eat more of those nutrients that help prevent these diseases and keep us healthy long-term.

However numbers and figures are confusing and pretty much meaningless when you’re standing in the supermarket trying to work out what’s for dinner. I’m still wading through the documentation and research and at the moment it’s hard to tell exactly what all these changes mean for you, me and our health. So this is the first in what’s going to be a series of posts about the new nutrient reference values and what they mean in terms of your weekly eating habits. I’ll be trying to come up with some simple, clear and useful suggestions for how to get all the RDIs and Suggested Dietary Targets from your weekly diet. These posts will be tagged under the ‘A Balanced Diet’ category, so you can follow the story.

And of course, I would love to know what you think and would really appreciate feedback. Are the suggestions I’m making useful, or do they fill you with horror? Is the information I’m giving interesting, or have you switched off already? What information do you need and in what format?

In the short-term, there is quite a good outline of the new changes in the Sydney Morning Herald and go here if you want to look at the National Health&Medical Research Council report itself.

17 June, 2006