The US, EU and World Health Organisation have created a list of Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA’s) for individual vitamins and minerals.  Most people are aware of the RDA’s from reading the side of cereal boxes during their breakfast! Perhaps we should be eating much more than what governments recommend to promote optimum health?

The RDA of each nutrient is a level considered to be sufficient to protect the body against deficiency diseases such as scurvy (from a deficiency of Vitamin C), pellagra (deficiency of vitamin B3), rickets (deficiency of vitamin D)…etc.  They were set by a panel of scientists in different countries.  But there are great limitations to the RDA’s

-    The scientists couldn’t agree with the amounts, therefore there is often a tenfold variation in recommended levels of nutrients in different countries.
-    They don’t exist for a number of less known but equally important nutrients, e.g. chromium which is extremely important for blood sugar control, therefore for preventing diabetes.
-    They don’t take into account individual variations e.g. if you are pregnant or what you need to support genetically inherited strengths and weaknesses.
-    They don’t take into account lifestyle factors that alter your need e.g. high exposure to pollution, doing a lot of exercise, high stress.
-    But possibly the most important factor is that they are designed to prevent deficiency disease and have little relevance to what is needed for optimal health.

This last point begs the question, what function of a nutrient does one consider when deciding recommendation levels?  For example a severe deficiency in vitamin C results in scurvy with teeth dropping out, bleeding gums and wounds failing to heal.  It’s not very hard to find the amount of vitamin C that will prevent those deficiency symptoms, but would larger amounts bring on any other benefits beyond the anti-scurvy function of vitamin C?  Perhaps prevention of colds, headaches, mouth ulcers, low energy, PMS or even mood fluctuations are a benefit of vitamins and minerals when taken at a quantity much higher than the RDA.  Nutrient intake associated with optimal health is often 10 or more times higher than RDA levels.

Therefore, even though you may be informed by your breakfast cereal that you have had 50% of you B vitamins recommended for one day, in just one meal, make sure you continue to eat really nutritious foods for the remainder of the day!