In this blog, I talked about Recommended Dietary Allowances or RDAs and how they were created from data based off of healthy people This is frustrating since many people have health conditions/concerns that they’d like to address using nutrition, but if following the RDAs they may not be able to achieve that goal.
In this blog, I want to highlight a few examples of this for different nutrients.
One great example of how RDAs can fail us is with iodine. The RDA for iodine has been shown to help prevent thyroid disease, but it has not proven to reverse it if it’s already present. Yet, we don’t have a different recommendation for those that are struggling with hypo or hyperthyroidism and also have an iodine deficiency. It’s all the same. Scroll below for more information on iodine recommendations.
Another example is potassium. There actually isn’t an RDA but instead an Adequate Intake. What is an adequate intake you ask? Here’s the definition:
“Intake at this level is assumed to ensure nutritional adequacy; established when evidence is insufficient to develop an RDA.”
The Adequate Intake (AI) is an assumption, which if I’m struggling with my health and more of a nutrient could help me, I don’t love. Especially since again, these numbers are based off the average potassium intake from healthy individuals. The AI for an adult female for potassium is 2600mg and 2900mg for pregnant female. If someone is deficient in potassium, this recommendation is not enough to significantly increase levels. You’d need closer to 4700mg a day in order to do that.
*Edit: excessive levels of potassium are harmful. If you focus on foods and not supplements, you are unlikely to exceed optimal levels. Most people have a hard time getting close to 4-5,000mg. Talk with your doctor if you have concerns about your potassium intake. Not sure how much potassium you are getting? Track your food for a few days and check!
And finally, magnesium. We use magnesium for over 3,000 enzymatic functions in the body. We also live in a fast paced, high stress world that causes us to use up more magnesium than we had previously.
Scroll the images above to see how optimizing these levels can help hormones!
Interested in learning more! Listen to my minerals 101 podcast episode from the are you menstrual? podcast.
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