Review of Dietary Reference Intakes for Selected Nutrients Application Challenges and Implications for Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs

Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) are the most recent set of nutrient-based reference standards, which, together with recommended dietary assessment methods, are used to update estimates of nutrient adequacy for population subgroups. Recent estimates suggest both dietary deficiencies and excesses for selected nutrients among some subgroups. This report takes a critical look at the methods used to set DRIs for energy and six nutrients—zinc, vitamin A, magnesium, vitamin E, fiber, and potassium. It suggests that errors in dietary recall data may partially explain the deficiencies and excessive intakes. In addition, DRIs for selected nutrients may be based on less than optimal data. Because food and nutrition assistance programs use DRIs to set nutritional objectives, establish benefits, and evaluate outcomes, it is important to understand the issues involved in deriving the DRIs and how to interpret the results of dietary assessments.