Unit 3
Dietary Reference Intakes and Diet-planning Guides

How do you know if your diet is adequate in all the essential nutrients but is not too high in nutrients that cause health problems? What standards do health professionals and scientists use to evaluate a healthy diet? This unit summarizes the nutrition standards created for health professionals and scientists as well as the diet planning guides created for the public.

Nutritional guidance has been provided to Canadians since 1942 with the publication of Canada’s Official Food Rules. The last revision of Canada’s Food Guide, Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide was made in 2007. During this period many revisions of the nutrient requirements, dietary recommendations, and guidelines were made. Revisions are necessary to ensure that the Food Guide reflects advances in the knowledge of dietary requirements, changes in education techniques, and alterations in Canadian food supply and food consumption patterns. The present focus is not just freedom from nutrient deficiency, but also reduction of the risk of chronic, nutrition-related diseases and disorders such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer.

To use or apply diet-planning guides correctly, you must understand their strengths and limitations. After completing this unit, you will begin to gain such an understanding by starting an assignment assessing the nutritional adequacy of your own diet using Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide.

Objectives

After completing this unit, you should be able to

  1. describe the goals of Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI).
  2. describe and explain the basis for the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) and Daily Values (DV), and describe the potential uses for each.
  3. describe the purpose and content of Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide (2007), focusing on adults 19–50 years old.
  4. discuss the reasons for including variety, moderation, calorie control, and balance in eating guidelines.
  5. identify the key nutrients found in each food group.
  6. interpret information included in a standard Nutrition Facts Table.
  7. discuss the difference between what is perceived as a serving size, a Canada’s Food Guide serving size, and the serving size included in a Nutrition Facts Table.
  8. understand what foods provide protein, carbohydrates, and fats in the diet.
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