The RDA vs. Optimum Nutrition…..Is there a Difference? For many years people complained about the complicated and confusing nature of common food labels. Inconsistencies in terminology such as “light”, “reduced” and “less”, combined with contradictory serving sizes was enough to discourage people from even attempting to understand label information. Additionally, recommended vitamin and mineral intakes were based on what was known as the US.R.D.A, or United States Recommended Daily Allowance. What this provided (according to the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council), was the percentage of essential vitamins and minerals (that were present in a specific serving size of food) that an average sized adult male should receive on a daily basis, in order to “maintain” adequate health. Today however, common food labels read quite differently and are believed by many to be even more confusing. For example, the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council now tells us, that based on a 2000 calorie a day diet, we should obtain 60% of our calories from carbohydrates, 30% from fat and a mere 10% from dietary protein. Furthermore, protein is the only macronutrient that does not show % daily values on today’s revised labels. Why? Apparently because 10% protein is seemingly “adequate” to achieve “adequate” health. Unfortunately however, 10% protein does not appear to be adequate to achieve “optimal” health. Optimal you say? That’s right, OPTIMAL!! According to an article published in Health World Online, entitled Nutrient Intake From Typical American Diets “the RDA are the most commonly accepted guidelines for establishing target levels of nutrient intake, however, the RDA are not intended to represent optimal levels of nutrient intake for the individual”. In other words, the RDA is described as the level of nutrient intake that is considered to be “adequate” in order to meet the known nutritional needs of practically all healthy people (RDA 1989). Consequently, even if you receive 100% of the RDA each day, you may still be deficient in certain areas, especially if you are trying to effectively alter your body composition or achieve higher levels of performance, health and/or well being. So how much consideration should we give to the % daily values as they appear on today’s food labels? It all depends on the amount of physical and environmental stress that your body is subjected to on a daily basis combined with your current nutritional status and level of fitness. For example, if you are an average size healthy male or female and live in the United States under the usual environmental stresses and simply want to maintain adequate health, then perhaps the RDA guidelines are sufficient. If however, you are slightly deficient in certain key nutrients and/or are subjected to unusual amounts of daily physical and/or environmental stress you will most certainly need to comply with Optimal Dietary Guidelines in order to initiate favorable physical and emotional changes. You may also want to consider using a good Multi-Vitamin /Mineral Formula each day in order to provide a safeguard against any micronutrient deficiencies that may result from eating refined and processed foods and/or from eating the same combinations of food repetitively throughout the day.