Bifalgorithm post · Human Nutrition · Understanding Daily Reference Intakes
AI UL
AI UL (Human Nutrition · Understanding Daily Reference Intakes) — "Adequate Intakes (AIs) are created for nutrients when there is insufficient consistent scien…
Ideas in this flowchart
- Nutrient intake reference values guide adequacy and safety
- An Adequate Intake (AI) is used when evidence is insufficient to establish an EAR for the whole population
- AIs can serve as nutrient-intake goals, like RDAs
- Insufficient research exists on the specific nutritional needs of infants
- Infant DRI values are AIs derived from nutrient values in human breast milk
- For older babies and children, AIs combine human-milk data with adult data
- An AI targets a healthy group and may not be sufficient for at-risk groups such as premature infants
- The Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) distinguishes healthful from harmful nutrient intakes
- The UL is the highest continuous intake unlikely to cause health problems
- A nutrient is not assigned a UL when excessive doses have no known harmful effects
- The absence of a UL does not necessarily mean that consuming large amounts is safe
- As intake rises from a very low level, the risk of deficiency decreases
- The EAR meets the needs of 50 percent of the population, whereas the RDA meets the needs of 97 to 98 percent
- When intake exceeds the UL, the risk of nutrient-related health problems increases