What is Total Nutrient Intake - Essay Example

"What is Total Nutrient Intake?" is an engrossing example of a paper on food and nutrition.  Recommended dietary allow refers to the average amount of daily dietary intake that is needed in order to meet nutrients requirements of about 97 to 98 percent of healthy persons at specific life stages and gender groups. The RDA is diverse in the different types of vitamins and elements required in the body. It is therefore important to understand the RDA for a specific age group. This study compares the total nutrient intake for a 19-year-old girl with the DRA recommendations for the same group. The comparison takes advantage of the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference.

            Inherently, the DRI intake values are listed on the first line above the food list. These values are then used to calculate the percentage of the DRI met. The total nutrient amount consumed was divided by the DRI intake value and multiply by 100 to determine the percentage met. Moreover, for the energy-­‐yielding nutrients, the amount (grams) of that nutrient consumed was multiplied by the respective number of calories it provides. Consequently, the value obtained was divided by the value from the total amount of energy consumed and multiply by 100 to determine the percentage of energy contributed by that nutrient.

            The results obtained represent the comparison for a normal weekday, together with one for a weekend. Moreover, the average week's nutrients are also compared with DRI intake values. From the results, it is clear that the average week intake of fiber, calcium, magnesium, sodium, zinc, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Thiamin. Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, and Vitamin C were more than the DRI values for the same. However, Iron, Potassium, Selenium, and Folate were below the recommended intake (USDA 1). The energy-‐yielding nutrients also depicted slight overconsumption of the nutrients with about 6 percent. The saturated fats were okay, since they were below the recommended calorie intake of 10 percent of the total calories, whereas the carbohydrates were also in the recommended range of between 45 and 65 percent of the total calories. In addition, the total fats represented about 51 percent of total calories which indicates a high fat intake. Fat intake should be between 20 percent and 35 percent of the total calories. More importantly, an average woman aged 19 to 30 requires a daily intake of about 46g of proteins, although the results illustrate that the average daily protein intake was significantly high to about 89g (USDA 1).

            Consequently, the comparison indicates that there are some major steps that need to be taken in order to ensure that the recommended daily nutrient intake is achieved. For nutrients such as vitamins, with the exception of folate, there is a need to lower the intake levels to attain the recommended value for the same. Moreover, the fat and protein intake is significantly above the recommended values and therefore there is a need for reduction. Despite this, most of the other nutrients are in the accepted range and therefore, the analysis shows that the intake is good.