Customizing Your Nutrition Goals: Vitamins and Minerals

cjlarsen77

I just spent several hours researching recommended nutrition, based on my age, and sex and figuring out how to use the MFP Custom Goals to input the correct information. I thought someone might benefit by my research, so here it is. The bottom line is that, the MFP goals are not right for everybody. For example, the Daily Value for Iron is 18mg. But if you look it up, the Recommended Daily Intake for Iron varies depending on your age and sex.
Examples: Teenagers need more in Iron the years 14-18 (Males 11 mg/day, females 15 mg/day).
Adult women need 18 mg/day , but beware: once you hit age 50 you suddenly need only 8 mg/day.
I've learned some stuff about how to determine what the recommended goals are, and how to put that information into MFP.
If you are interested, keep reading.

Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for any use you make of this information. You can't sue me. You are responsible for independently verifying the information. I am just providing the information and sources I have used to set my own custom goals, as a starting place for your own customization of your goals. Your own health issues may indicate values different for you than those recommended by the National Institute of Medicine values that I reference below. If in doubt, consult your doctor.

To see the MFP Custom Goals page (you can do this in another tab) Click MY HOME, click Goals, Click the green Change Goals button at the bottom of the page, select the Custom radio button, and Click Continue. Don't worry: as long as you don't click the Save Goals button on the MFP Custom Goals page you won't actually change anything.

First, the MFP goals are based on the Daily Value calculation that is used on Nutrition Labels. Those values are a sort of generic amount, based on a 2000 calorie diet, and some kind of mythical average person over the age of 4, but mostly based on adult requirements. So the first question is, what ARE those Daily Values. You can find them at the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) :
http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm064928.htm

So, how much of each vitamin and mineral should YOU be getting, based on your age and sex?

The minimums are here:
http://www.iom.edu/Activities/Nutrition/SummaryDRIs/~/media/Files/Activity Files/Nutrition/DRIs/5_Summary Table Tables 1-4.pdf

Notice that there are several tables in this document. In my opinion, we can ignore the first table:
Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs): Estimated Average Requirements because it is the estimated requirements of HALF of the healthy individuals in each group of people. I take this to mean that, for example, half of the people who have a Vitamin C intake of 60 mg/day are NOT healthy (they probably have scurvy).

The next table: Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs): Recommended Dietary Allowances and Adequate Intakes, Vitamins
is the one I chose to look at for Vitamins. This is the latest up to date information based on recent studies, and some of the amounts are different than the Daily Values. Near the end of the DRI document is another table:
Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs): Tolerable Upper Intake Levels, Vitamins
"A Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) is the highest level of daily nutrient intake that is likely to pose no risk of adverse health effects to almost all individuals in the general population." For sure, I'm not going to exceed the UL! Exceeding the UL probably give you bad health effects.

The next table: Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs): Recommended Dietary Allowances and Adequate Intakes, Elements
is the one I chose to look at for Minerals such as Calcium and Iron. This is the latest up to date information based on recent studies, and, again, some of the amounts are different than the Daily Values. Near the end of the DRI document is another table:
Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs): Tolerable Upper Intake Levels, Elements
"A Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) is the highest level of daily nutrient intake that is likely to pose no risk of adverse health effects to almost all individuals in the general population." Again, I'm not going to exceed the UL!

Determining and setting the appropriate levels of most of the vitamins and minerals in the MFP Custom Goals page,
based on the DRI tables, is fairly easy to figure out. Vitamin A is the only tricky one: see Example 3 below.

Example 1: If the vitamin or mineral is listed on MFP Custom Goals page in mg (micrograms: thousandths of a gram) or µg (milligrams: millionths of a gram), you can just look up the value for your age and sex in the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) table that contains the vitamin or mineral, and then input the value you have chosen into the field on the MFP Custom Goals page, instead of the Daily Value that is there.
For example, as a woman over 50, my Sodium should be between the DRI of 1.3g/day = 1,300 mg/day and the UL of 2.3g/day = 2,300 mg/day. The Daily Value is 2,400 mg/day. So, after deciding that I can live with 2,000 mg/day (to start weaning myself off of salt) I just input 2000 into the Sodium field on the MFP Custom Goals page. Similarly, since I have gallstone disease, my research indicates that it would be a good idea not to exceed 200 mg/day of Choleterol. Again, I just type 200 into the Cholesterol field.

Example 2: If the vitamin or mineral is listed as %DV on the MFP Custom Goals page (and is not Vitamin A) you basically follow the same process of looking up the value in the DRI tables, but then you have to calculate what percentage of the Daily Value, your DRI value is.
For example, as a woman over 50, my Calcium should be between the DRI of 1,200 mg/day and the UL of 2,000 mg/day.
The MFP Custom Goals page lists calcium as 100% DV. How do I set it to 1,200 mg/day? It's actually fairly simple.
Look up the Daily Value for calcium = 1000 mg/day. Divide my value of 1,200 by 1000 to get the % Daily Value = 120%, and thyme that into the calcium field on the 1,200 mg/day.
For Vitamin C, as a woman over 50, my value should be between should be between the DRI for women over 50 of
75 mg/day and the UL of 2,000 mg/day. The Daily Value for Vitamin C is 60 mg/day.
So, if I want to set my goal at 100 mg/day for example, the % Daily value would be 100/60 = 1.67 or 167%.
Or if I picked 120 mg/day, my %Daily Value would be 120/60 = 200%
So, I'd type either 167 or 200 into the Vitamin C Daily Value field.
For Iron, as a woman over 50, my value should be between should be between the DRI of 8 mg/day and the UL of
45 mg/day. The Daily Value for Iron is 18 mg/day.
So, if I want to set my goal at 8mg/day for example, the % Daily Value would be 8/18 = 0.444 or about 45%. So I'd put 45 into the % Daily Value for Iron.
Or if I picked 9 mg/day, my %Daily Value would be 9/18 = 50%
Of course, your value may depend on other factors than just your age and sex. If you are anemic you may need more. For all I know there are health conditions associated with too much iron in the diet. When in doubt consult your doctor.

Example 3, Vitamin A is tricky for several reasons. First, the Daily Value is in International Units (IU/day), and the DRI is in mg/day. Second , as far a I can tell there is no standard way to convert between mg and IU - it varies depending on the vitamin. Also, Vitamin A consists of a bunch of different compounds, and is derived from both plant and animal sources. Evidently, the conversion factor depends on where you get your Vitamin A from. One source I found http://www.dietpower.com/help/diet/vitamin_a.htm
said:
"If you're a vegetarian and get virtually all of your vitamin A from such vegetables, then double the allowance. Or if you get half from your vitamin A from these and half from other foods such as meat and milk, increase the allowance by 50 percent."

So the first thing to do is figure out how much of your Vitamin A is coming from plant vs animal sources. Then, you can convert
using the information at http://www.dietpower.com/help/diet/vitamin_a.htm.

I'll use myself as an example. Let's assume that I get 70% of my Vitamin A from veggies and 30% from meat&dairy. As a woman over 50, my DRI should be 700 μg/day but 100% of the Daily Value for Vitamin A is 5,000 International Units (IU).

So how many IU/day is 700 μg/day? According to http://www.dietpower.com/help/diet/vitamin_a.htm
"To convert micrograms RE to IUs: multiply the micrograms RE by ten for a food of plant origin, by five for a food of animal origin. The result is the approximate number of IUs in the food."

The veggie portion of my 700μg/day of Vitamin A is (70% of 700 μg/day) = 490μg/day, so the IU is, (490 μg/day x 10) = 4,900 IU
The meat&dairy portion of my Vitamin A is (30% of 700 μg/day) = 210 μg/day, so the IU is (210 μg/day x 5) = 1050 IU
Adding them together, my 700μg/d RDI converts to 5,950 IU.

Doing the same kind of calculation as in Example 2: 5,950/5000 = 1.19 = 119%, so that's the number I'll enter into the
Vitamin A field of the MFP Custom Goals page.

How much Vitamin A is too much? Again, it depends on the sources of the Vitamin A. As a woman over 50 my UL for Vitamin A is 3000μg/d. Again, lets assume that I get 70% of my Vitamin A from veggies and 30% from meat&dairy.

The veggie portion of my 3000μg/day of Vitamin A is (70% of 3000 μg/day) = 21000 μg/day,
so the IU is, (21000 μg/day x 10) = 210,000 IU
The meat&dairy portion of my Vitamin A is (30% of 3000 μg/day) = 9000 μg/day, so the IU is (9000 μg/day x 5) = 45,000 IU
Adding them together, my 3000μg/d RDI converts to an Upper Limit (UL) of 255,000 IU.

What percent if the Daily Value is that? 255,000/5000 = 51 = 5,100%. So, I'd have to take in moron that 50 times my RDI before I got too much Vitamin A. I don't think I gonna worry about going over on my Vitamin A.

I hope that helps. If i've gotten anything wrong, let me know.
CJ

lindidit

great thread. Thanks for posting. I have been wondering for some time how the vitamin levels were determined in MFP and how I could change them-- especially since I always am deficient in iron--yet when I take a supplement, I go WAY over the limit in MFP. Now I can modify my settings!

pdxevergreen

Thank you for such a complete article. Age, sex lifestyle, etc are vital components to nutrition needs. We need to remember that we are individuals and what works for someone else may not be what we need to maintain optimum health.

Donna L
Dallas Tx
Website Owner
http://premiumhealthsupplements.net/

ChrisK2533

I'm so glad that I found your posting. Thank you so much for taking the time to do the research and post for the benefit of others! - Your post is just what I was looking for, I'm also lucky that I'm in the over 50 age group so I can use the same numbers as you.
Thank you again
Chris K

iMeduZa

Thank you soooooooooooo much! I've been googling for days with no lucks, but thank God I've found your post! this is what I've been looking for. thanks again.

Sandy0523

Thank you! Although, many MD's do NOT have any dietary training, so they may not be helpful if you ask them! I'd suggest working with your primary and a registered dietitian.

amandaeve

I'd like to point out that while research has established minimums to prevent nutritional-deficiency diseases, scant research has actually been conducted on what individuals need beyond disease prevention. It's also important to note that for fat-soluble nutrients, "daily" intake is not so important as maintaining a healthy level in your bloodstream. Getting a week's worth in one day once a week might be just fine. The FDA has detailed recommendations, but once you dig into how those recommendations came to be, you end up feeling like you are falling down a rabbit hole (or at least I do).