Nutrients
The nutrients reviewed
Having considered emerging evidence on the connections between diet and health and the recent recommendations from other countries, the preliminary workshops identified more than 40 nutrients for the working party to consider. The document recommended dietary intakes for use in Australia (NHMRC 1991), which had also been adopted for use in New Zealand, contained recommendations for 19 nutrients and dietary energy. During this review, dietary energy requirements and requirements for the nutrients were considered. Those for which values were set are listed below:
| Macronutrients | Vitamins | Minerals & trace elements |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | Vitamin A | Calcium |
| Protein | Thiamin | Chromium |
| Fat | Riboflavin | Copper |
| Carbohydrate (for infants only) | Niacin | Fluoride (revised 2017) |
| Dietary fibre | Vitamin B6 | Iodine |
| Water | Vitamin B12 | Iron |
| Folate | Magnesium | |
| Pantothenic acid | Manganese | |
| Biotin | Molybdenum | |
| Choline | Phosphorus | |
| Vitamin C | Potassium | |
| Vitamin D | Selenium | |
| Vitamin E | Sodium (revised 2017) | |
| Vitamin K | Zinc |
In addition to the nutrients listed above, we also reviewed the literature on total fat (for ages and life stages other than infancy), carbohydrate (for ages and life stages other than infancy), cholesterol, arsenic, boron, nickel, silicon and vanadium. For these nutrients or age bands and life stages, it was agreed that there was little or no evidence for their essentiality in humans. This was generally in line with the findings of the US:Canadian DRI review recommendations. However, the DRI reviews set upper limits for some of these nutrients (FNB:IOM 1998, 2001) and the reader is referred to these for information.
The reviews were based on assessment of the applicability of the recently developed US:Canadian Dietary Reference Intakes (FNB:IOM 1997, 1998a,b, 2000a,b, 2001, 2002, 2004) to Australia and New Zealand, with reference to recommendations from other countries such as the UK (1991, 2003), Germany:Austria:Switzerland (DACH recommendations 2002) and from key organisations such as the FAO:WHO (2001).