Recommended daily amounts of food energy and nutrients for groups of people in the United Kingdom : report / by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy.
Date:
1979
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Recommended daily amounts of food energy and nutrients for groups of people in the United Kingdom : report / by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Preface The question ““How much food or how much of a particular nutrient should one eat in order to be healthy?” is continually asked of the experts. Unfortunately the extent of present knowledge is such that no accurate quantitative answer can be given. The needs of individuals, that is to say, their requirements either for foods or for the nutrients contained in foods are different for different individuals. For most nutrients relatively little is known about the variations in individual requirements. Nonetheless, nutrition research has produced a body of factual knowledge from which can be deduced the average amounts of food energy and of certain nutrients necessary to ensure health for a group of people. These amounts have, in the past, been called recommended allowances or recommended intakes. In this report the term recommended amounts of food energy and nutrients is used. The report attempts to make clearer that the amounts refer to averages for a group of people and not to amounts which each individual! must eat. In the ten years since the publication of the 1969 Report on recommendations for energy and nutrients there has been some new research work in this field. The Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy has re-assessed the evidence and this report summarizes the results of their deliberations in the Table of recommended amounts. The introductory part of the report explains the meaning of the recommendations and the legitimate ways in which the figures can be used. The second part gives a brief explanation of the reasons for any change in the recommendations and an indication of the research work upon which the figures are based. A full bibliography should help the reader to find the source information if he so desires. As Chairman of the Committee, | record my thanks for the time and effort which members have given unstintingly in producing the report. A complex subject has been expressed in simple language and we are grateful for this further contribution to a difficult aspect of nutrition. H. YELLOWLEES Chief Medical Officer il