The label on my yogurt says that one cup supplies 40 percent of the Daily Value for calcium. What does Daily Value mean?
The nutrition label indicates that one cup of yogurt has 400 milligrams of calcium, or 40 percent of the Daily Value for calcium, which is 1,000 milligrams. Nutrition information, including product labels, can be confusing! There are RDAs, Daily Values and DRIs. All three are part of a system of nutrition recommendations from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS). NAS established the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) during World War II to investigate issues of nutrition that might “affect national defense.” NAS formed a committee to set recommendations for a standard daily allowance for each essential nutrient. This set of 1941 guidelines, called Recommended Dietary Allowances, was meant to provide superior nutrition for civilians and military personnel. The Food and Nutrition Board revises the RDAs every five years. Then in the early 1950s, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) added a new set of guidelines that also included the
