Abstract
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare published a report of the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) 2015 in March 2014. In this report, the following points were revised: 1) preventing the aggravation of mild non-communicable diseases among those already affected was added as a purpose of the DRIs; 2) the importance of nutritional assessment was emphasized; 3) energy balance was estimated by changes in body weight and recommended body mass index was described; 4) the balance of energy-providing nutrients was established; 5) changes or addition of tentative dietary goals for prevention of lifestyle related diseases; and 6) the relationship of non-communicable disease and energy or nutrient intakes was described in the appendix. The DRIs basically offer information designed to prevent deficient nutritional intake and to prevent and avoid the worsening of non-communicable diseases. A need exists for some application of when to use the DRIs for athletes to improve physical performance. Importantly, the fact that the specific gravity of muscle is heavier than that of body fat must be kept in mind when assessing BMI in athletes. DRIs improved greatly for the purposes of sport nutrition as it relates to non-communicable diseases because the impact of obesity on non-communicable diseases was clarified. However, the relationship between energy expenditure and energy intake is still unclear. We have to refer both to the DRIs and physical activity references for health promotion.
