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The End of a Series

First Published: 18 January 2025

Draft 2

After writing yesterday’s musing, a friend asked what the daily needs of each phytonutrient are. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem like an easy to answer question, since the textbook I’ve been relying on lists vitamins, not phytonutrients. It has, however, been updated in part, though tragically only for total energy expenditure. Time to see what Big Food1 thinks that I need.

I do also have a new favorite quote from the day: “data were insufficient to set a UL42 for arsenic. Although a UL was not determined for arsenic, there is no justification fro adding it to food or supplements” Interestingly: organic arsenic is usually fine. Inorganic arsenic (arsenite III or arsenate V), by contrast, “is an established human poison”.

So, what have we learned?

Dietary science is a lot of “people who eat like this tend to do better”, and I remember seeing a thing about how the way food is presented affects absorption of nutrients. It makes me feel better that I cannot fall into the trap of living my life by evidence based practice to the detriment of my day to day living, because there truly is not a lot of evidence.43 Well, this has been a fun journey. Tune in next time to see my recipe for bread44

Draft 1

A friend, upon reading yesterday’s musing, asked a very poignant question: how much of each phytonutrient do I actually need? Using our favorite textbook, we find that the actual chemicals are not listed, instead the vitamins are.

Instead of trusting the website that told me I need pretty colors, I’m actually just going to take this time and see what nutrients the government thinks that I need daily.48

Welp, time to go back and see what the USDA cares enough about to write a chapter on.


  1. one of the rare times I use this phrase where it’s accurate

  2. about 340 cals

  3. and women require 7 fewer

  4. I’ll look at all four values, knowing that the very active will likely never be relevant again, even if the top three might be

  5. which feels weird to put in dietary reference but

  6. which does explain why they updated it

  7. so curious what sub 1 is

  8. what about above that!

  9. I think that’s the assume you don’t move at all

  10. which I love as a concept, thinking about the fact that your basal needs are the entire basis for the increased costs

  11. this is a dangerous concept for me to be aware of, if only because I can start actually counting my movement in a variety of ways

  12. which makes sense, because I don’t tend to think of milk as fibrous

  13. which I assume is good

  14. wow that’s a range

  15. I have absolutely taken more than that

  16. originally had an s (a s?) instead of z

  17. tragically, mostly brassicas

  18. the latter half of the sentence is commentary

  19. so many b vitamins

  20. as is becoming a trend,

  21. commentary

  22. 1000 to 2500 mg

  23. 35 ug, estimated bc IR

  24. 900 to 10000 ug

  25. IR, 4-10 mg

  26. 150 to 1100 ug

  27. I knew this one! Comes from the soil which is why the Great Lakes are not healthy

  28. 410 mg, UL of 350, which is apparently only from pharmacological agents. Kind of funny still

  29. 8 to 45 mg, one of the rare cases where women have a higher one, and a significant one at that (18 mg)

  30. I will always be mad that this and Magnesium are both elements

  31. IR 2.3 to 11 mg

  32. 45 to 2000 ug

  33. upper limits cause reproductive issues in mice, not people, it comes from the soil

  34. mmmm matches

  35. 700 to 4000 mg

  36. IR, 4.7 g

  37. I never would have thought that I needed this, 55 to 400 ug

  38. IR, 1.5 to 2.3 g Na, 2.3 to 3.6 g Cl

  39. I do have to wonder why Phosphate wasn’t listed but

  40. 11 to 40 mg

  41. all UL and mg/day, B: 20, Ni: 1, V: 1.8

  42. upper limit

  43. in the sense that like if I do the generally normally accepted advice of “eat less processed food, lots of plant, and move around more”, I’ll probably be fine

  44. and a review!

  45. since I say mig I type mig, instead of mg

  46. read: Vitamin A

  47. assuming a seven to eight inch carrot

  48. these numbers are for males aged 19-30, but don’t really change a lot if you change that

  49. no weight

  50. the first one I’ve noticed increases as I grow older after 30. I wonder why

  51. typing insufficient research is hard, so I’m just abbreviating here on out

  52. how that differs from a gram, unsure

  53. Wild, I had no idea I was actually supposed to have any

  54. I hate typing microgram, and mu is not a latin letter, so I use its closest analog

  55. wow such a big number

  56. I wonder if there’s really any dietary source for chlorine outside of salt

  57. OH NO! I’ve learned that this is just normal data. I’ll have to look at each chapter for the weight based things