From Avoiding Deficiency to Optimal Health - RDA Focus 'Must Change'

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From Avoiding Deficiency to Optimal Health - RDA Focus 'Must Change'

_http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2008/08/30/from_avoiding_deficiency_to_o

ptimal_health_rda_focus_must_change.htm_

(http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2008/08/30/from_avoiding_deficiency_to_opt\

imal_health_rda_focus_must_change.h

tm)

 

Nutrition is of course what happens when we eat, but there is a very

scientific side to nutrition that counts infinitesimal quantities of certain

vital

substances. Without these vital 'vitamins' and minerals we just can't survive.

Our bodies fall ill and refuse to function. Those are serious deficiency

diseases like scurvy, a sure killer that comes after weeks and months of little

or no vitamin C.

The quantities of nutrients that allow us to avoid deficiency diseases are

called the RDA - recommended dietary allowances and, more recently, RDI or

reference daily intakes.

Much research however has shown that RDAs cannot protect against the slow

onset of degenerative diseases which have become major killers in our Western

societies. It would seem, therefore, that lawmaking should put less emphasis

on RDAs and more on a measure of optimal health by nutrition.

Two Dutch scientists, Dr Jaap Hanekamp and Prof Aalt Bast have published an

article where they argue for a change in focus of the RDA from avoiding known

and certain deficiencies to actually providing the optimal amounts of

nutrients for good health.

Wish the European Commission and national health authorities would pay

attention.

Here are some excerpts and a _link to the article_

(http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/nRDA-Bast-Hanekamp.pdf) in full.

_http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/nRDA-Bast-Hanekamp.pdf_

(http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/nRDA-Bast-Hanekamp.pdf)

- - -

New recommended daily allowances: benchmarking healthy European

micronutrient regulation

Let governments take care of safety and industry of health

by Dr Jaap C Hanekamp and Professor Dr Aalt Bast

 

It has become increasingly clear that the RDAs that have been used for many

decades are too limited in their approach to micronutrients, partly because

they are reserved only for those vitamins and minerals which cause the

well-defined deficiency diseases. By definition, other (food-endogenous)

substances

that seem to have health-enhancing properties, yet lack a well-defined

deficiency profile, cannot have an RDA set, and will therefore, as far as

regulation is concerned, be primarily approached from a safety (toxicological)

point

of view. This is the result of applying the principle of a 'high level of

consumer protection' expounded in the Food Supplements Directive (FSD) and many

other regulatory documents. If the safety of those other substances cannot be

guaranteed, then these substances cannot be added to the positive lists of

compounds allowed on the European market. Indeed, the FSD in the preamble (3),

states: 'An adequate and varied diet could, under normal circumstances,

provide all necessary nutrients for normal development and maintenance of a

healthy life in quantities which meet those established and recommended by

generally acceptable scientific data ...'.

However, the maximising health attributes, which nowadays are rarely a

matter of preventing acute deficiency diseases, seem to lie in the field of

long-term benefits, such as reduced incidence of cancer, cardiovascular and

inflammatory conditions, and the deceleration of premature aging. RDAs,

however, do

not define an optimal level of any nutrient, as they are focused on

deficiency-disease prevention. They are designed to meet the needs of healthy

people

and do not take into account special needs arising from infections, metabolic

disorders, impaired uptake, or chronic disease. . . .

Scientific discoveries in the field of micronutrients will in the short- and

long-term add considerably to innovation in the fields of food supplements,

food fortification and conventional foods. It is quite likely that in future

the effects of micronutrients on reducing the risk of disease will

increasingly be used to establish novel nutrient requirements.

I recommend you read the _whole paper_

(http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/nRDA-Bast-Hanekamp.pdf) . There are many

pertinent arguments for the change

of focus for RDAs.

 

__

posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Saturday August 30 2008

 

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