Nutrient reference values for Australia and New Zealand.

Research has shown that a healthy diet containing adequate amounts of the various nutrients need not be a costly diet. This is discussed in more detail in the NHMRC’s Dietary Guidelines for Australian Adults which, together with the Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents in Australia, the Dietary Guidelines for Older Australians and the New Zealand Food and Nutrition Guidelines for the ages and stages of the lifecycle, are companion documents to this publication on NRVs. Together with VIII Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand the Australian Guides to Healthy Eating, the Dietary Guidelines translate the nutrient recommendations addressed in the current document into food and lifestyle patterns for the community. Revision of all of these documents is an ongoing process as the various sets of recommendations are closely interrelated. These recommendations are for healthy people and may not meet the specific nutritional requirements of individuals with various diseases or conditions, pre-term infants, or people with specific genetic profiles. They are designed to assist nutrition and health professionals assess the dietary requirements of individuals and groups. They may also be used by public health nutritionists, food legislators and the food industry for dietary modelling and/or food labelling and food formulation. This document is one of a series of three which also includes the evidence base for the NRVs and a summary or reference document containing the tabulated and annotated NRVs for everyday use by practitioners developed as a result of submissions and comments received at the workshops. The NRVs will also be available in electronic format on the NHMRC website.