What is the "RDA" or "Recommended Daily Allowance"?

What is the "RDA" or "Recommended Daily Allowance"?

Susan Silberstein & Marilyn Joyce (Health and Nutrition Educator & Heath Counselor) gives expert video advice on: How was the food pyramid changed in 2005?; What information can be found on a "food label"? and more...

Well, the recommended daily allowance; that's a great question, because the recommended daily allowance is not something that I encourage my clients to really focus on. It's a minimum amount that you need, that a healthy person needs, in order to stay healthy. The challenge is that it's not enough for a person who's on the borderline. So, I always encourage people to aim for more then what they see as the recommended daily allowance as a minimum requirement. It was originally developed because people were not clear on what they required in order to maintain health, so in studying what the baseline was for general health, it was determined (I believe it was through science as well) that it was this particular level of, for example, vitamin c to prevent scurvy, and this level of vitamin b1 to prevent a deficiency that would lead to pellagra. These were things that they looked at and determined it as a base level. That's how this was originally set up; so that there was a level that we would be sure that if you met you would not get those particular deficiency illnesses. However, if you were already sick, you would not then be able to get well from that amount; you needed to have a better foundation in your diet in order to regain your health.