Americans have two sets of nutritional guidelines to follow: one that lists average nutrient needs and one that relates to your individual age, gender and health condition. Using the FDA's recommended daily values, or DVs, listed on food labels can help you plan nutritious meals that meet the daily needs of everyone over age four. Pregnant and breastfeeding women should consume proportionally more vitamins and minerals.
To maintain good nutrition, the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest emphasizing a healthy diet over vitamin and mineral supplements. This affords you the extra boost of nutritional content from the healthy foods you eat.
Macronutrients
The FDA considers foods with 20 percent DV or more high in nutritional content, while 5 percent DV or less is an insignificant contribution of that nutrient to a healthy diet. Adjust these figures if you eat more or less than the average 2,000 calories per day.
Good nutrition for adults includes 50g of protein, 65g of total fat, 25g of dietary fiber and 300g of total carbohydrates per day. According to the National Academy of Sciences, men and pregnant women need 56g and 71g of protein respectively. Fiber needs rise to 28g daily for pregnant women and as much as 38g for men.
Vitamins
The FDA measures nutritional content for vitamins in food by International Units, or IU; milligrams, or mg; and micrograms, or mcg. Food labels will list the percent DV of total vitamin A, 5,000 IU; vitamin C, 60mg; vitamin D, 400 IU; and vitamin E, 30 IU. For instance, a cup of milk that contains 10 percent DV of vitamin A would provide 500 IU.
Your body requires eight B vitamins for a healthy diet. Daily values include: thiamine, 1.5 mg; riboflavin, 1.7mg; niacin, 20mg; pantothenic acid, 10mg; vitamin B6, 2mg; biotin, 300mcg; folate, 40 mcg; and vitamin B12, 6mcg. Vitamin K, normally produced by the body, does not need dietary supplementation.
Minerals
You should emphasize the major minerals potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron in a healthy diet, according to the USDA Dietary Guidelines. Choose foods with high nutritional content, aiming for 3,500mg of potassium; 1,000mg of calcium; 400mg of magnesium; and 18mg of iron per day.
Additional good nutrition from minerals includes 15mg of zinc, 70 IU of selenium and 1,000mg of phosphorus. In the case of some health conditions, you may need to pay more attention to keeping DVs within, rather than exceeding, these limits.
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