Recommended Dietary Allowances and Third World Populations

Abstract

The U.S. has just published the new Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA), which are obviously related to population in Western countries. Most of the world population has dietary intakes which are much lower than those recommended by the RDA. For example, RDA for pregnancy and lactation include daily intakes of 96 and 86 g of protein, and of 1200 and 1200 mg of calcium. Among populations in developing countries such levels are certainly not attained, yet almost all Third World mothers lactate successfully and without obvious prejudice to their health. Black mothers in South Africa have about 1/4 of the recommended intake of calcium, yet they have been found to display satisfactory calcium hemostasis and to have, in later years, less severe osteoporosis than white and better nourished mothers. The RDA levels may have little relevance to Third World populations; nutritional research endeavors should be reoriented to study the relatively low levels of nutrient intakes which are compatible with good health and which are consistent with the satisfactory accomplishments of all physiological processes, rather than to seek what more can be added to the already rich diet of most Western populations.