Question

When planning meals, should the My Plate guidelines OR the Dietary Reference Intake chart be used for menu planning and why? It may be helpful to first explain the purpose of each.

Answer 1

MY PLATE GUIDELINES:

MyPlate is a reminder to find your healthy eating style and build it throughout your lifetime. Everything you eat and drink matters. The right mix can help you be healthier now and in the future. This means:

• Focus on variety, amount, and nutrition.
• Choose foods and beverages with less saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars.
• Start with small changes to build healthier eating styles.
• Support healthy eating for everyone.

My plate focusses on :

• Find your healthy eating style and maintain it for a lifetime
• Make half your plate fruits and vegetables: vary your veggies
• Make half your plate fruits and vegetables: focus on whole fruits
• Move to low-fat or fat-free milk or yogurt
• Vary your protein routine
• Make small changes

THE Dietary REFERENCE INTAKES (DRIs) :

The Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) are used to establish goals in planning diets for individuals. This may include:

(1) providing guidance to healthy individuals who are concerned about meeting their nutrient needs,

(2) counseling those with special lifestyle considerations (e.g., athletes and vegetarians) or those requiring therapeutic diets,

(3) formulating diets for research purposes, and

(4) developing food-based dietary guidance for individuals.

Schematic representation for planning diet:

The goal of planning a diet for an individual is to achieve a low probability of inadequacy while not exceeding the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for each nutrient. The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) or Adequate Intake (AI) is used as the target nutrient intake for individuals, and planners should realize that there is no recognized benefit of usual intakes in excess of these levels. Food-based nutrition education tools are regularly used to help an individual plan a healthy diet.

Gaps or excesses identified can then be remedied by planning to alter the type or amount of foods selected from the various food groups, by using fortified foods, or if necessary, by using nutrient supplements.

Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) consist of four types of reference intakes that are used to assess and plan diets of individuals and groups: the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR), the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA), the Adequate Intake (AI), and the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL). The EAR is not used as a goal in planning individual diets.

Recommended Dietary Allowance

A major goal of dietary planning for individuals is to achieve an acceptably low probability of nutrient inadequacy for a given individual. At the same time, the planner must consider whether increasing an individual's intake beyond its customary level will result in any recognizable benefit.

Adequate Intake

An AI is set when scientific evidence is not sufficient to establish an EAR and RDA. Under these circumstances the AI is the target that is used for planning individual diets.

Tolerable Upper Intake Level

A UL also is provided for many nutrients. The UL is the highest level of chronic daily nutrient intake that is likely to pose no risk of adverse health effects to almost all individuals in the specified life stage and gender group. In general, intakes from food, supplements, and other sources (such as water) should be planned so that the UL is not exceeded.