Hyderabad: The city-based research institute National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) is working on the recommended nutrient intake for the country.
For the first time, the institute has proposed the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) and Tolerable Upper Limit (TUL) of nutrients which are required for the human body.
The revised recommendations will out by the year end.
Until now, a single value, Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) was used for all nutrients but in time, the nutrition requirements keep changing as the economy and other factors also change.
Scientists from NIN said that it is government practice to revise the recommended dietary guidelines periodically.
These recommendations are a yardstick for not only individuals but also Central and state governments, doctors, dietitian, pharma companies and everyone related to the health industry. RDA is the ideal intake that one has to take to keep oneself healthy.
Dr Hemalatha R., Director, NIN, said, “The present recommendations propose the use of the EAR for evaluating population nutrient intake and the RDA for setting the safe nutrient intake for an individual. We have generated new information as far as calorie and protein requirement is concerned. In the earlier RDAs they did not calculate for EAR. This time we are attempting that. The present RDA is also going to include TUL.”
“The earlier RDAs are under review and now the chapters have been sent for expert reviews and once the recommendations are ready they will be finalised and published,” Dr Hemalatha said.
It also proposes to take into consideration the holidays in the case of individual workers and non-agriculture slack season in case of rural workers. During such periods the energy expenditure would more appropriately correspond to sedentary activity.
The earlier committee had applied a protein digestibility amino acid score (PDCAAS) correction to the safe protein intake for all the age groups.
A new protein quality index, digestible indispensable amino acid score (DIAAS), has been introduced in the current document which is based on true ileal digestibility of individual amino acids.
