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Dietary Reference Intakes in the United States
T. C. WALLACE (1). (1) George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, U.S.A.

In the United States, dietary reference intakes (DRIs) describe the relations between nutrient intakes and indicators of adequacy, prevention of disease, and avoidance of excessive intakes among healthy populations for essential nutrients but not dietary bioactive compounds, whose absence from the diet is presumably not deleterious to health (i.e. does not result in a deficiency syndrome).   The framework for developing DRIs is recognized as akin to a risk analysis, which analyzes and controls the “risks” that may be experienced by a population of interest.  In DRI development the risk is that nutrient intakes are too low or high. The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies has set nutrient standards for the United States since 1943 DRIs support many program, policy, and regulatory initiatives.  For example, federal guidance based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans available to consumers through the 12 energy patterns accessed through www.choosemyplate.gov are based on food modeling to achieve intakes of essential nutrient values of the DRIs.  Government programs that support food assistance such as school lunch and breakfast and nutrition for the elderly require that the daily portion for that assistance meets the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and therefore, the DRIs.  The food label reports amounts of essential nutrients provided by a serving of that food relative to nutrient recommendations from the IOM.
This presentation will give a general overview of the current framework for establishing DRIs for essential nutrients and use/explore the current DRIs for dietary fiber (a non-essential nutrient) as a case study for potential expansion of these reference values for dietary bioactive components.  

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