307: Daily Value on Nutrition Label is WORTHLESS (Here’s Why)

The Healthy Skin Show

Nutrition labels should make your diet + nutrition choices easier, but sometimes they do they exact opposite. And that’s the case when it comes to the Daily Value %.

Over the last few months, I’ve repeatedly seen the Daily Value % used or discussed in ways that just don’t make sense.

As well as people who are afraid to take a particular supplement we might recommend to them because the Daily Value looks like an astronomical number.

And that’s troubling for me as a nutrition professional who firmly believes that the Daily Value % (%DV) is misleading and, frankly, total garbage.

Since these values are so confusing to people in general as well as my community, I figured it was time to set the record straight.

My hope is that you’ll see how pointless this required section is on a US nutrition label + why you should never, ever bother using it as a guide for diet + nutrition choices.

In this episode:

• Why the Daily Value on a US nutrition label should be ignored
• History of the Daily Value + the RDA (important context!)
• Concerns from industry experts about lobbyist influence over nutrition information
• Real life example showing why the Daily Value is worthless
• Huge problems with the Daily Value

Quotes:

What you need to know is that the RDA is supposed to be used as a metric or goal of nutrient intake specifically for healthy individuals – not those who are sick or chronically ill.

The Daily Value is misleading because an amount higher than 100% could scare someone that they were potentially overconsuming that nutrient.