When it comes to your nutritional needs, have you ever wondered who makes up the nutritional guidelines and how they can decide what a person should and should not consume? Who are these people and are their recommendations right for you?

Essentially, there are two major players that set the standards for nutritional guidelines. They are the FDA and the Institute of Medicine. These two organizations work together to bring us the best possible advice when it comes to vitamin and mineral consumption. Below are some abbreviations, and what they mean, that may help you better understand who we are dealing with:

1. The RDA: This abbreviation stands for the Recommended Dietary Allowances. RDAs are set as the nutritional guidelines for the minimum amounts that a person will need to consume in any given day. RDAs are set by the food and nutrition Board of the Institute Of Medicine.

2. The USRDA: The food and drug administration has other "RDAs", one of them being the USRDA, which is the recommended daily allowance for the US.

3. The RDI: Eventually, the RDI will totally replace the USRDA on every food and supplement label sold in stores. This abbreviation stands for Reference Daily Intake and the amounts are very close if not the same as the older USRDAs.

4. The DRV: The DRV stands for Daily Recommended Values which the FDA created as a new standard intended to cover energy producing nutrients. DRV's cover the following: fats, proteins, carbohydrates, fiber, sodium, potassium, and cholesterol.


5. The DV: The DV is the combination of the RDI's in DRV's into one more easily understood chart called the "Daily Value". This has presented us with the current label nutritional information charts as you see them on today's food products. These labels include the DRV's and RDIs for a few vitamins and minerals, which is typically vitamin A, C, iron, and calcium.

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