• 0 Posts
  • 4 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 9th, 2023

help-circle
  • There’s a couple things at play here.

    Firstly, the math. Nutrient requirements in a given population tend to be normally distributed (there are a couple that aren’t). RDA is considered enough to meet the requirements of 98% of people. EAR (estimated average requirement) is the middle of the bell curve, so most people’s actual requirement will be closer to that. RDAs are used for diet planning in individuals though, so as to minimise the risk of deficiency. There’s a huge margin of safety between EAR and anything that would cause problems from excess (e.g. Vitamin A toxicity) so using RDA won’t cause issues there. Actually working out an individual person’s requirement for a specific nutrient is a bunch of really complicated biochem, so it’s easier and safer to just aim for the RDA in that context.

    Secondly, RDA is kind of a misnomer. You don’t actually need to eat that every day, because the body stores and uses a lot of nutrients as needed. It’s really supposed to be used as more of an average over time. This is why it’s important to eat a good variety of different foods within the main food groups. Meatless mondays don’t cause you to instantly collapse from iron deficiency.

    Third, there’s a commercial aspect to it. Food manufacturers love using RDA because it lets them imply their product is healthy, and they love it when public health messaging is “eat more X” when X is a major component of whatever they produce, or something that’s cheap to fortify (e.g. iron fortified cereals). This way they can encourage people to freak out over “oh no, I need this product or I won’t hit my RDA!” Really, most people better off eating generally healthy (roughly 50% fruit and vegetables, 25% protein and 25% whole grains) with a good variety of foods than aiming to hit the RDA of everything, every day. There are a few caveats to that for certain nutrients in some circumstances, but on the whole, no. You don’t need to hit your RDA every day, but it probably should average out over a week or so.


  • Depends on the reason and what you find most motivating. Addiction is tricky and it’s rarely just one thing. Caffeine is physically addictive but there’s also psych and lifestyle aspects to it.

    If it’s about the caffeine, try switching to coffee or tea. If you want to go cold turkey, caffeine withdrawal peaks at about three days with symptoms lessening to minimal after about nine.

    If it’s a convenience thing, try keeping a water bottle on you and just drink that. If you find water too boring or your local water tastes bad, try it carbonated and/or with a twist of lemon or other fruit. I’d suggest avoiding places where they serve it, but that’s near impossible. You could take note of what situation you’re in when you tend to do it, and try to rejig your routine around that. You could also not keep it in the house; it’s a lot easier to not put it on the shopping list than resist the temptation when it’s right there. Then there’s health and money. Of course you know they’re not great for you so I’m not going to harp on that, but you could try focusing on it more (but try to frame it in a positive way; not “ugh soda is bad”, but rather “hey drinking water is good!”), or give yourself a goal to save up for purely with what you save on soda.



  • Oh boy, this is my field! Let me go do some math and I’ll get back to you in a couple hours.

    EDIT: This is probably going to take a day or two. There’s a hell of a lot to break down here.

    EDIT 2: This is an absolute fucker of a problem. Normally I’d just throw this into FoodWorks, but my academic access got yoinked (uni didn’t pay the license fees) so I’ve had to math it all out by hand. There may be mistakes. Since people are asking, I’ll put up what I have in this thread, but I’m not finished. Macronutrient balance and amino acids are still to come.

    Disclaimers: I’m not from the States, so the RDIs I have might be slightly different, but probably not by much (except for folate). There are also a -lot- of interactions between nutrients that affect bioavailability, any one of which could be the subject of several research papers. I tend to get obsessive about these things but I refuse to go on that deep a dive because I’ll literally never stop.

    I’m also not a dietician, I’m a nutrition postgrad. Some of this stuff falls more into dietician / biochemist territory which gets outside my expertise a bit.

    Strap in, this is a long one.

    So from the nutrition information panel (NIP) that I found on Amazon, one 40g cup contains:

    140 Calories (586kJ), consisting of:
    33g carbohydrates
    3g protein
    1g fat

    Vitamin and mineral wise:
    190mg sodium (8%AI)
    4ug Vitamin D (20%RDI)
    40mg calcium (2%RDI)
    18mg iron (100%RDI)
    150mg potassium (4%RDI)
    235ug Folate (100%RDI) – Note this is the US RDI.

    These next few don’t list actual amounts, so I’ve had to work backwards from %RDI to find the actual amount. Not to assume anything about OP, but I need to standardise on -something-, so given the 18mg RDI for iron above, I’m going to base the rest of it on women aged 19-50, because they have an 18mg/day RDI for iron. We’ll say our theoretical woman is reasonably active (PAL 1.8), about 5ft 3 ½ (1.61m) and 56.3kg for a daily calorie requirement of 2366, which will come up later.

    10%RDI vitamin A (~70ug based on RDI=700ug)
    100%RDI vitamin C (45mg)
    100%RDI Vitamin E (7mg)
    100%RDI Thiamin/B1 (1.1mg)
    100%RDI Riboflavin/B2 (1.1mg)
    100%RDI Niacin/B3 (14mg)
    100%RDI Pyridoxine / B6 (1.3mg)
    100%RDI Cobalamin / B12 (2.4ug)
    100%RDI Pantothenic acid (4mg)
    8%RDI Phosphorus (80mg based on RDI=1000mg)
    10%RDI Magnesium (31mg based on RDI=310mg)
    100%RDI Zinc (8mg)

    If you follow the instructions on the pack and eat it with 3/4cup (177.4mL) milk (in your case, whole milk), you also get:
    118 Calories (495kJ), consisting of:
    9.8g carbohydrates
    6g protein
    6.2g fat

    Vitamin and mineral wise (some of these sound scary but you do actually need them in small amounts):
    193mg calcium
    1.2ug chromium
    183mg chloride
    0.011mg copper
    41.9ug iodine
    0.04mg iron
    18mg magnesium
    0.005mg manganese
    5.3ug molybdenum
    160mg phosphorus
    259mg potassium
    64ug selenium
    64mg sodium
    51mg sulphur
    0.6mg zinc

    82ug retinol equivalents (Vitamin A)
    0.041mg thiamin / B1
    0.334mg riboflavin / B2
    1.49mg Niacin equivalents / b3
    0.64mg Pantothenic acid (b5)
    0.04mg Pyridoxine (b6)
    6.9ug Biotin (B7)
    0.7ug cobalamin (B12)
    6ug Folate
    0.18ug vitamin D
    0.16mg Vitamin E

    So if we total all that up, per serve (that is, 40g with 3/4cup whole milk):

    Total
    Macros
    Calories 258
    Carbohydrate (g) 42.8
    Protein (g) 9
    Fat (g) 7.2
    Vitamins
    A (ug) 152
    C (mg) 45
    D (ug) 0.18
    E (mg) 7.16
    B1 (mg 1.141
    B2 (mg) 1.434
    B3 (mg) 15.49
    B5 (mg) 0.64
    B6 (mg) 1.34
    B7 (ug) 6.9
    B12 (ug) 3.1
    K (ug) *
    Minerals
    Calcium (mg) 233
    Chromium (ug) 1.2
    Chloride (mg) 183
    Copper (mg) 0.011
    Iodine (mg) 41.9
    Iron (mg) 18.04
    Magnesium (mg) 18
    Manganese (mg) 0.005
    Molybdenum (ug) 5.3
    Phosphorus (mg) 160
    Potassium (mg) 409
    Selenium (ug) 64
    Sodium (mg) 254
    Sulphur (mg) 51
    Zinc (mg) 0.6
    Other
    Folate (ug) 241

    Aside from water, which we’ll assume our subject can get as much of as she needs, humans basically need three things. Energy, material to build our bodies out of, and substances to help with the chemical reactions. Calories, macronutrients and vitamins and minerals.

    Let’s start with calories. Based on an average calorie requirement of 2366, at 258cal per serve, our theoretical woman would need to eat 9.1 serves a day to meet her calorie needs. We’ll base the rest of the math on that. If we multiply the above out by 9.1, and compare to the RDIs, this is what it looks like.

    Macros Total Per calorie needs RDI RDI%
    Calories 258 2366 10.9044801352494
    Carbohydrate (g) 42.8 389.48 *
    Protein (g) 9 81.9 42.225 193.960923623446
    Fat (g) 7.2 65.52 *
    Vitamins
    A (ug) 152 1383.2 700 197.6
    C (mg) 45 409.5 45 910
    D (ug) 0.18 1.638 5 32.76
    E (mg) 7.16 65.156 7 930.8
    B1 (mg 1.141 10.3831 1.1 943.918181818182
    B2 (mg) 1.434 13.0494 1.1 1186.30909090909
    B3 (mg) 15.49 140.959 14 1006.85
    B5 (mg) 0.64 5.824 4 145.6
    B6 (mg) 1.34 12.194 1.3 938
    B7 (ug) 6.9 62.79 25 251.16
    B12 (ug) 3.1 28.21 2.4 1175.41666666667
    Minerals
    Calcium (mg) 233 2120.3 1000 212.03
    Chromium (ug) 1.2 10.92 25 43.68
    Chloride (mg) 183 1665.3 *
    Copper (mg) 0.011 0.1001 1.2 8.34166666666667
    Iodine (mg) 41.9 381.29 150 254.193333333333
    Iron (mg) 18.04 164.164 18 912.022222222222
    Magnesium (mg) 18 163.8 310 52.8387096774193
    Manganese (mg) 0.005 0.0455 5 0.91
    Molybdenum (ug) 5.3 48.23 45 107.177777777778
    Phosphorus (mg) 160 1456 1000 145.6
    Potassium (mg) 409 3721.9 2800**
    Selenium (ug) 64 582.4 60 970.666666666667
    Sodium (mg) 254 2311.4 460-920**
    Sulphur (mg) 51 464.1 *
    Zinc (mg) 0.6 5.46 8 68.25
    Other
    Folate (ug) 241 2193.1

    *: no data **: Adequate Intake (no RDI)