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Dietary Reference Intakes for Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate
BOX S-2 Uses of Dietary Reference Intakes for Healthy Individuals and Groups
EAR: use to examine the probability that usual intake is inadequate (if individual’s usual intake is at the EAR, then 50% probability that intake is inadequate).
EAR: use to estimate the prevalence of inadequate intakes within a group (% in a group whose intakes are inadequate = % whose intakes are below the EAR).
RDA: usual intake at or above this level has a low probability of inadequacy.
RDA: do not use to assess intakes of groups.
AIc: usual intake at or above this level has a low probability of inadequacy.
AIc: mean usual intake at or above this level implies a low prevalence of inadequate intakes.
UL: usual intake above this level may place an individual at risk of adverse effects from
UL: use to estimate the percentage of the population at potential risk of adverse effects from excess nutrient intake. excessive nutrient intake.
The vast majority (between 95 and 99 percent) of men and women in the United States consumed dietary sodium at levels greater than the AI, and thus one would assume that intakes were “adequate,” and thus sufficient to cover sodium losses.
More than 95 percent of men and 75 percent of women in the United States had sodium intakes that exceeded the UL, even when the amount of sodium added to foods during meals (table salt) was excluded. In phase I of the same survey (NHANES III), 24.7 percent of men and 24.3 percent of women 18 years and older had
