Nutrition Science and Everyday Application - beta v 0.1

DEFINING NUTRIENT REQUIREMENTS: DIETARY REFERENCE INTAKES 47
time; that is, you don’t need to meet these recommendations every single day—meeting
them over several days is sufficient.
The DRIs are also used by professionals, government agencies, and the food industry.
Here are some examples of their applications 2 :
• Health professionals. Registered dietitians and other nutrition professionals use
the DRIs to provide dietary counseling and education and to plan menus for
institutions, such as hospitals, long-term care, prisons.
• Development of dietary guidelines. These include the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for
Americans, MyPlate, and Canada’s Food Guide. In each case, developers ensure
that their advice will help people meet the DRI standards.
• Nutrition labeling. The DRIs help to inform Nutrition Facts labels on foods and
Supplement Facts on supplement labels.
• Assistance programs. School meals, WIC, SNAP, Child and Adult Care, and
Administration on Aging programs must ensure that their programs align with the
DRI.
• Nutrition monitoring research. Data from surveys of what people in the U.S. and
Canada eat are compared with the DRIs to monitor national nutritional health.
• Military. The military uses the DRIs as a reference to ensure nutrient needs are
met for the armed forces, to plan meals, and to procure military rations.
• Food and supplement industries. In the development of healthy food and safe
supplement products, these industries should refer to the DRI.
Self-Check
An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/nutritionscience/?p=758#h5p-28
Attributions:
• University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Food Science and Human Nutrition Program,
“Understand Daily Reference Intakes,” CC BY-NC 4.0.