Do You Know Your RDI?

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Do You Know Your RDI?

April 16, 2009

Our bodies require certain amounts of vitamins and minerals daily to operate smoothly. If you're confused about how many to get of each and why exactly we need them, you're not alone. Take this quiz to help get all those "recommended daily intake" amounts straight.

Source

18 Comments

hithatsmybike 4 years 2 weeks

AlexandraEva, you are grossly underestimating my education on the topic. I'm not taking classes from dietitians or clinical nutritionists, I take them from scientists. Do you know what a scientist is? They study those little complexities of nutrition & body chemistry you mentioned. They also don't give blank stares, at least not to anything you could probably think of -- but hey, why would they? They're smarter than you. I found your article. It's not even a real article from a scientific journal, it's a post on a fitness website, and the sources it's citing for the points you're making are nearly twenty years old. I don't know how relevant the still are -- and I don't think you do either. Magnesium, or lack thereof, is still not the cause of all heart attacks as you previously stated. Even your article states "sustained cardiac arrest". But I'm doubtful you can even locate the heart in a human body so how can we expect you understand how it works, let alone everything that can go wrong? By the way, I like how you breezed over the "magnesium is required for PTH". I think someone mentioned PTH here.. oh yeah, me. As for the antioxidant topic, I don't want to touch that with you. You don't have any education on this topic and are relying on google to boost your claims. But since you brought it up, if you would ever like to see a real paper on the topic with real, recent relevant sources, let me know. I wrote one.

AllisonBeam 4 years 3 weeks

This quiz was harder than I thought. I guess I am not up on the amounts of the vitamins I should be taking.

AlexandraEva 4 years 3 weeks

Anyhoo, that wasn't even the point. Let's not distract from what I WAS trying to make clear, and that's that these simple nutrition classes you learn this info from or whatever is not enough. It's the difference between what some dietitian or "guide" might tell you vs. a clinical nutritionist (although they're not all good either). Human nutrition/body chemistry gets way more complex. Like why don't you ask YOUR source what antioxidants the human body produces and what purpose do they serve? Which antioxidant is best for preventing disease (oxidative stress) in plasma vs. the cell membrane? I bet they'll look at you with a blank stare.

AlexandraEva 4 years 3 weeks

I never said calcium is controlled by magnesium, I said there is a balance between the two. I am not posting "sources" because that's the excuse that people use online these days to not Google something like "calcium magnesium relationship" in favor of simply assuming they're right. Google... learn... stop posting bs, accusing me of not knowing what I'm talking about. Just so I'm not crazy, I just did it... what's the very 1st article that comes up, why one that talks about calcium/magnesium relationship and how people who sustain cardiac arrest are usually magnesium deficient. I'm soooo shocked.

4 years 3 weeks

That magnesium was given to heart attack patients was true in the 70s and 80s. Research in the 1990s showed that it had no effect on the outcome following the heart attack, so magnesium is no longer routinely given to heart attack patients.

hithatsmybike 4 years 4 weeks

I asked you in my first post where I could find this "research", any time you want to give me some links it would be helpful. I do know what I'm talking about, that's how I know you're wrong. They do NOT give you magnesium to treat a heart attack -- are you just making this up as you go along? Jesus. Ca is absorbed in the GI tract. It's controlled by PTH (parathyroid hormone) and Vitamin D -- not magnesium! I just finished an exam on it this morning.. I don't know where you're getting your information but you might want to pose some questions to your source -- namely why they're giving you incorrect information..

AlexandraEva 4 years 4 weeks

hi, you have no idea what you're talking about. Clearly. The 1st thing that happens in the ER when you come in for a heart attack is that you get magnesium. If you have no idea what happens to calcium when it's absorbed without magnesium, go do some research. Not that food pyramid stuff, PLEASE.

nutrihuney 4 years 4 weeks

epic fail - i do need to drink more milk and get more sun. but does using SPF 15 negate the time i do spend in the sun? how do you balance exposure to the sun for health with the damaging effects of the UV rays?

brownsuga928 4 years 4 weeks

Missed 2! Does anybody actually Follow the RDI? I don't know anyone who actually does.

poptart princess 4 years 4 weeks

yay!

hithatsmybike 4 years 4 weeks

AlexandraEva, it's pretty hard to overdose on calcium. I have NEVER heard of anyone suffering a heart attack from "overdosing" on Ca and then having to visit the ER for magnesium as treatment. I also can't find any evidence of this online (reputable sites or otherwise). Source, please. Your kidneys do a pretty good job maintaining the salt balance in your body, and excess calcium is often just lost in the urine. Achieving a toxic level takes much more than just eating a lot. Don't scare people.

AlexandraEva 4 years 4 weeks

Typical recommendations written up by people who are NOT CCN's. The only person who can tell you your RDI is a Clinical Nutritionist who is educated in not only diet, but body chemistry and lab testing. Like did you know that ingesting huge amounts of calcium without magnesium will deplete your magnesium even further and end up leeching even more calcium from your bones? Then you have a heart attack and end up in the ER and get pumped full of magnesium. Seriously, the FDA really needs to step up and start regulating marketing of supplement info by people who are only familiar with the tip of the iceberg.

bethinabox 4 years 4 weeks

2/5... Oops. :P Flunked that one.

miss malone 4 years 4 weeks

3/5.... now I know.

new 4 years 4 weeks

2/5 i think i need more iron and calcium

Beaner 4 years 4 weeks

Ha ViVic - I was thinking the same thing. I didn't do half bad on this quiz either! I used to have an iron deficiency when I was vegan in college. I was always soooo tired.

VicVicVictooriaa 4 years 4 weeks

I did as well as I thought i would but can I just make a comment about the woman's face in the picture..she looks frightening.

MrsRachel 4 years 4 weeks

I didn't do as well as I thought that I would. :(

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18 Comments

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