Nutritional Needs

Nutrient recommendations: Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI)
These recommendations are issued by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences. The Food and Nutrition Board addresses issues of safety, quality, and adequacy of the food supply; establishes principles and guidelines of adequate dietary intake; and renders authoritative judgments on the relationships among food intake, nutrition, and health. DRI is the general term for a set of reference values used to plan and assess nutrient requirements of healthy people. These values vary by age and gender.

USDA National Agricultural Library dietary guidance
Information from United States Department of Agriculture on DRI (dietary reference intakes), interactive calculator, resource on individual nutrients.

DRI recommendations summary
Detailed summary of the most important DRI recommendations for vitamins and minerals broken by age group.

DV vs DRI comparison table
Comparison between DV (Daily Values) which were established for nutrition labeling back in 1968 and current DRI (Dietary Reference Intakes) established by Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine at National Academy of Sciences.

Research shows that food alone is not sufficient to prevent micronutrient deficiencies in most people:

Food Alone May Not Provide Sufficient Micronutrients for Preventing Deficiency.
Author: Bill Misner. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2006; 3(1): 51–55.
“Of the 340 micronutrient entries generated from 17 micronutrients analyzed, all 20 subjects presented between 3 and 15 deficiencies each based on the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA) value from food intake alone. Males averaged deficiencies in 40% of the vitamins and 54.2% of the minerals required. Females averaged deficiencies in 29% of the vitamins and 44.2% of the minerals Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA) required.”
“Laboratory tests prove that the fruits, the vegetables, the grains, the eggs and even the milk and the meats of today are not what they were a few generations ago.”
“It may be that chronic micronutrient insufficiency from food alone is more fact than fantasy.”

Prevalence of micronutrient deficiency in popular diet plans.
Author: Jayson B Calton. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2010; 7: 24.
“Analysis determined that each of the four popular diet plans failed to provide minimum RDI sufficiency for all 27 micronutrients analyzed. The four diet plans, on average, were found to be RDI sufficient in (11.75 ± 2.02; mean ± SEM) of the analyzed 27 micronutrients.”
“Six micronutrients (vitamin B7, vitamin D, vitamin E, chromium, iodine and molybdenum) were identified as consistently low or nonexistent in all four diet plans.”
“These findings are significant and indicate that an individual following a popular diet plan as suggested, with food alone, has a high likelihood of becoming micronutrient deficient; a state shown to be scientifically linked to an increased risk for many dangerous and debilitating health conditions and diseases.”