Review of macronutrients and energy
The Joint Canada-U.S. Dietary Reference Intakes Working Group is commissioning a review of all the different types of DRI values for macronutrients and energy. The review began in fall 2021. The aim is to review the DRIs for all macronutrients over a period of several years.
On this page
Overview of macronutrients review
The review of macronutrients will address energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate and fibre.
Macronutrients have been prioritized for review based on:
- relevance to current public health concerns
- significant, new and relevant data since the last DRI review
- feedback from DRI users across Canadian and U.S. federal agencies
The Canadian and U.S. governments are jointly commissioning and funding:
- reviews of the evidence to support DRI development
- independent expert committees, overseen by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), to develop the DRI values for energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate and fibre
Review of DRIs for energy
The DRI working group selected energy as the first topic to be addressed because of the nature of the DRI values for energy. The estimated energy requirement (EER) and the type of data needed to set EER values are very different from those for any of the other macronutrient components. This allowed NASEM to start the review of the DRI values for energy independently of the other macronutrients.
The report was released in 2023.
Review of DRIs for other macronutrients
The DRI working group hasn't yet determined the order in which protein, fat, carbohydrate and fibre will be reviewed. However, evidence scanning has been completed on total protein and amino acids.