A few years ago I attended a seminar on health and one of the topics was Nutritional Deficiencies and how even following the USDA's recommended daily allowance does not prevent nutritional deficiencies.

Consider 1 medium organic carrot contains 270% Vitamin A. This is OVER 2 1/2 TIMES the USDA's recommended daily allowance!

In 1964, Dr. Myron Brin published a groundbreaking finding on The Five Stages of Nutritional Deficiency. At deficiency levels 1, 2 and 3 a person might experience insomnia, nightmares, irritability, fatigue, and loss of appetite - while consuming the USDA's recommended daily allowance. Brin's study also noted the USDA's RDA only helps to avoid the 4th and 5th levels of deficiency where diseases like Beriberi - a nervous system ailment caused by thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency - manifest themselves.

Dr. Brin also noted the RDA of vitamins and minerals provide only the bare minimum level of nutrients our bodies need and does not prevent the first three stages of nutritional deficiencies which is evident in the growing number of learning disabilities, such as ADD, in children.

To understand how much our bodies really need in order to have optimal health a good starting place is the Optimal Recommended Daily Allowances (ORDA).

ORDA was established by Dr. Emanual Cheraskin of the University of Alabama Medical School. Dr. Cheraskin is world renowned as a foremost authority on nutrition and has authored and co-authored over 700 publications in international scientific journals and 22 books including Diet & Disease, Predictive Medicine and The Vitamin C Connection.

Below is a comparison chart of ORDA compared to the USDA's Recommended Daily Allowance as well as the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI), which are the most recent set of dietary recommendations established by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine and replaces the previous Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs).

	DRI	RDA	ORDA
Vitamin A (IU)	5000	1000 RE	12,500 - 25,000
Vitamin D (IU)	600	400	500 - 1000
Vitamin E	15 mg	15 IU	300 - 600 IU
Vitamin C (mg)	90	60	750 - 1500
Bioflavonoid Complex	N/A	N/A	400 - 800 mg
Rutin	N/A	N/A	50 - 100 mg
Hesperidin Complex	N/A	N/A	50 - 100 mg
Vitamin B12 (mg)	2.4 mcg	2 mcg	125 - 250
Folic Acid	400 (mcg) food 200 (mcg) synthetic	200 mcg	.04 - .08 mg
Niacin (mg)	16	20 mg	50 - 100
Pyridoxine (B6) (mg)	1.7	2	12.5 -  25
Thiamin (B1) (mg)	1.2	1.5	12.5 -  25
Riboflavin (B2)(mg)	1.3	1.8	12.5 - 25
Biotin (mcg)	30	30 - 100	75 - 150
Choline (mg)	550	N/A	100 - 200
Inositol (mg)	N/A	N/A	100 - 200
Pantothenic Acid (mg)	5	4 - 7	100 - 200
PABA (mg)	N/A	N/A	50 - 100
Calcium (mg)	1300	1200	350 -  700
Chromium (mcg)	35	50 - 200	50 - 100
Copper (mg)	0.9	1.5 - 3	0.1 - 0.2
Iodine (mcg)	150	150	125 - 250
Iron (mg)	18	15	15 - 30
Magnesium (mg)	420	400	175 - 350
Manganese (mg)	2.3	2 - 5	5 - 10
Molybdenum (mcg)	45	75 - 250	50 - 100
Phosphrous (mg)	1250 (700 adult)	1200	100 - 200
Potassium (mg)	N/A	N/A	90 - 180
Selenium (mcg)	55	70	50 - 100
Zinc (mg)	11	15	25 -  50