Determining Nutritional Requirements and Needs

Every few years, these Government Agencies get together to evaluate how the Dietary Guidelines are safeguarding the health of Americans, and if any changes are necessary. These provide excellent information and recommendations. This information is put together and published by the ODPHP, the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Check out this chart for how Americans are consuming food groups. chart

All of this research is then evaluated and used far to infrequently to establish the Dietary Reference Intake for vitamins and minerals by the National Academy of Medicine. The RDI for potassium* was recently decreased from 4700 mg (established in 2005) to 3400 mg in 2019, since only 5% of USA population consumed 4700 mg. ref Really the only major change in quite some time.

FYI: Don't waste too much time attempting to find new vitamin and mineral deficiency data because the last one was conducted over ten years ago. The only nutrients the health agencies like to talk about now include a few B vitamins, vitamin D, iodine, plus occasionally iron. And these deficiencies are quite low, 10% or less. Funny thing about these nutrients, they are the ones that are part of the food fortification program.

Copied next are the Disease statistics from the Dietary Guidelines of 2010. Note that all these diseases are also related to a magnesium deficiency present in over 50% of population.

Cardiovascular Disease Diabetes

• 81.1 million Americans—37 percent of the population—have cardiovascular disease.13Major risk factors include high levels of blood cholesterol and other lipids, type 2 diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), metabolic syndrome, overweight and obesity, physical inactivity, and tobacco use.

• 16 percent of the U.S. adult population has high total blood cholesterol.

  Hypertension

• 74.5 million Americans—34 percent of U.S. adults—have hypertension.

• Hypertension is a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, and kidney disease.

• Dietary factors that increase blood pressure include excessive sodium and insufficient potassium intake, overweight and obesity, and excess alcohol consumption.

• 36 percent of American adults have prehypertension—blood pressure numbers that are higher than normal, but not yet in the hypertension range.

  Diabetes

      • Nearly 24 million people—almost 11 percent of the population—ages 20 years and older have diabetes. The vast majority of cases are type 2 diabetes, which is heavily influenced by diet and physical activity.

      • About 78 million Americans—35 percent of the U.S. adult population ages 20 years or older—have pre-diabetes. Pre-diabetes (also called impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose) means that blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be called diabetes.

          Cancer

• Almost one in two men and women—approximately 41 percent of the population—will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime.

• Dietary factors are associated with risk of some types of cancer, including breast (post- menopausal), endometrial, colon, kidney, mouth, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus.

  Osteoporosis

• One out of every two women and one in four men ages 50 years and older will have an osteoporosis-related fracture in their lifetime.

• About 85 to 90 percent of adult bone mass is acquired by the age of 18 in girls and the age of 20 in boys. Adequate nutrition and regular participation in physical activity are important factors in achieving and maintaining optimal bone mass.

Check out the Office of Dietary Supplements informational website. Plus here are the fact sheets for vitamin supplement guidelines. Lots of good info but what is missing is a method to analyze and utilize this info into a practical way for consumers to pick proper vitamin supplements. This rather new strategic report looks to be attempting to provide some of this type of information, but all of this is rather complex to understand. That is why the vitamin fact sheets include a simpler consumer sheet save the technical sheet for professionals.

Even with all this great information, there are still major gaps in vitamin forms, dosages, and synergistic combinations to make multi-vitamins more effective and safer. Such as you will be hard pressed to find a definitive answer to the natural versus synthetic vitamin question and why it matters for fat soluble vitamins. Or that the family of related nutrients found together in natural foods play synergistic roles that are missed by the current vitamin fact sheets.

*FYI: Here is the rationale for the potassium downward change: For potassium, fewer than 5% of Americans met their daily recommendation in the past. The decrease in potassium recommendation combined with the mandated labeling of potassium on products will hopefully help Americans get closer to achieving their recommended daily potassium intakes.

This potassium change is really a very big deal. The functions potassium serves in the body are quite significant. ref  Potassium is one of three major minerals to allow nerve impulses to flow. Potassium is also the preferred acid alkaline balance mineral. This protects against having to pull minerals out of bones for this vital function, such as calcium qnd magnesium. There are pumps on cell walls that move minerals into and out of cells so they can work. Some of these pumps move potassium into cells and then, at the same time, move sodium out of cells.

The other cellular wall pumps move calcium into cells and magnesium out of cells. Calcium is needed inside cells for muscles to contract and magnesium is then needed for that muscle to relax.

While potassium doesn't have as many functions to perform as magensium at 300, they both play significant roles in maintaining health. And both are severely deficient in the American diet. Potassium at over 90% and magnesium at over 50%.