Some consequences of the new UK 'recommended daily amounts of food energy and nutrients' for evaluating food consumption surveys.

The amounts of energy and nutrients which have been recommended by the Department of Health and Social Security in 1969 and 1979 are compared. For the nation as a whole, the recommendations for energy and protein have decreased by 6 per cent; thus, the adequacy of an otherwise unchanged diet will appear 6 per cent higher than before. The changes for iron, calcium and the three main B-vitamins are smaller, while vitamin C and vitamin A are virtually unaffected. Nevertheless, as the method of calculating retinol equivalents in the diet should now conform to worldwide practice, the amount of vitamin A in the average diet will appear to be about 6 per cent less than before. It will be no longer practical to evaluate dietary intakes of vitamin D, but there are now official recommendations for folic acid.