Recommended dietary allowances--then and now: a review.

This is the first in a series of articles reviewing the recent revisions of the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) and the resulting Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI). In the United States our nutrient guidelines have had far reaching applications to human health and agricultural practices. The broad use of the previous edition of the Recommended Dietary Allowances has necessitated a complete reevaluation of the criteria, uses and reporting of nutrient guidelines. The resulting documents, a series of reports collectively referred to as the Dietary Reference Intakes, are being released over a number of years, beginning in 1997 and expected to be completed by the year 2003.