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Nutritional requirements
People require a variety ofnutrients to stay healthy andreduce the risk of diet-relateddiseases.
The amount of each nutrientneeded is called the nutritionalrequirement.
These are different for eachnutrient and also vary betweenindividuals and life stages, e.g.women of childbearing ageneed more iron than men.
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Nutrient requirements
DRVs are estimates of therequirements for groups ofpeople and are notrecommendations or goals forindividual people.
There are three types ofestimates:
•Estimated AverageRequirements (EARs);
•Reference Nutrient Intakes(RNIs);
•Lower Reference NutrientIntakes (LRNIs).
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Estimated AverageRequirement (EAR)
This is an estimate of theaverage requirement forenergy or a nutrient.
Approximately 50% of a groupof people will require lessenergy or nutrient, and 50% willrequire more.
No. of
people
Requirements
EAR
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Reference Nutrient Intake(RNI):
The RNI is the amount of anutrient that is enough toensure that the needs of nearlyall the group (97.5%) are beingmet. The RNI is used forrecommendations on protein,vitamins and minerals.
RNI
No. of
people
Requirements
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Lower Reference NutrientIntake (LRNI)
The amount of a nutrient that isenough for only the smallnumber of people who havelow requirements (2.5%). Themajority of people need more.
No. of
people
Requirements
LRNI
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Vitamin & mineral intakes: % below LRNI
Male
Female
Age, years
4-10
11-18
19-64
65+
4-10
11-18
19-64
65+
Vitamin A
5
12
8
3
4
14
5
1
Riboflavin
1
8
4
5
1
20
11
2
Folate
0
2
2
0
0
6
3
3
Iron
1
6
1
2
1
45
21
0
Calcium
0
7
4
2
2
18
8
2
Magnesium
0
27
16
18
3
50
11
9
Potassium
0
17
11
14
0
31
23
18
Zinc
5
11
9
9
8
19
3
0
Selenium
0
22
25
31
1
44
50
52
Iodine
2
8
5
0
3
20
9
1
This table shows the proportion of the UK populationwho have intakes below the LRNI as highlighted below.
Source: National Diet and Nutrition Survey, Rolling Programme Years 1, 2 and 3, 2008-2011
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Dietary reference values
In summary:
EAR is used for energy. The EARs for energy arebased on the present lifestyles and activity levelsof the UK population.
RNI is often used as a reference amount forpopulation groups.
LRNI is a useful measure of nutritional inadequacy.
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British Nutrition Foundation
Imperial House
15-19 Kingsway
London WC2B 6UN
Telephone: 020 7557 7930
Email: postbox@nutrition.org.uk
Web: www.nutrition.org.uk www.foodafactoflife.org.uk