So I've been doing a bunch of reading on nutrition and cleaning up my diet recently

My understanding of RDA is that 100% basically means "take this much and your body won't be deficient" and it applies to the vast vast majority of humans

However, US recs and Euro recs aren't the same. You will see institutions all say different recs on vitamins for example. Wtf?

So I'm here to start a thread to get some opinions on the matter, maybe for some more perspective. Not just on vitamins, but on every line item on the nutrition label, because I clearly don't fully understand it. Most people I would imagine don't even look at it or care what's on it. I certainly didn't for a while...

So I'm aware that total fats is not particularly important. Trans fat? Never have any. Sat fat? Keep under a certain amount. But zero is not ideal, because sat fat is necessary for brain function. There you absolutely need some, just not too much. The other fats are healthy and are what fish oil industry says you must have zomg. But I digress...

It leads me to a question about the nuance of each different nutrient. Taking lots of vita C or D is apparently considered necessary/beneficial while taking lots of sodium is obviously not. Meaning more than the 100% RDA. But there's an RDA on sodium. We're supposed to make sure we get that much sodium? Is zero sodium not healthy too? I've done a lot of research and I'm tired. Can't find all the answers, hopefully I can get some clarity from here...on everything. Flame away

Sodium 1.5-3 grams/day should be the optimum. Not much, but necessary. Without planning you can easily get say 8 grams. Maybe not a big deal if you don't have a tendency for high blood pressure.

That is how sciencing works. You will find that we have not determined everything quite yet, and that scientists (and following their lead, gov'ts and institutions) are supposed to disagree from time to time and also change their minds when new information presents itself.

It isn't perfect, but it is the best we've got.

The most important thing to keep in mind is what are the motivations of the organization making the recommendations. Where does their funding come from, what do the have to gain or lose if people eat more or less of certain foods.

There was a great Freakonomics podcast episode a while back about how the USDA came up with the original food guide pyramid, which was basically to tell everyone to eat a massive ****ton of grains every day. The reason for that was just because the US agriculture industry had a surplus of grain and they needed to unload it somehow. But I'm oversimplifying it, look up that podcast.

If you consider an untimely death unhealthy, then yes. Your body needs a base level of sodium to function.

The only way to find out what's best for you is trial and error. If you feel and perform well on 1g of sodium per day, then keep doing that. I've heard some people say they feel all kinds of terrible unless they eat at least 5g per day. Usually sodium requirements go up the more active a person is, and the fewer carbs a person eats. If you get muscle cramps or have trouble sleeping, you might want to try more sodium.

It's highly unlikely anyone alive today will ever have all the answers. The only people who think they have all the answers are vegans.