Abstract
One of the essential parts of fundamental research in Nutrition Science is the determination of the physiological requirements of humans for energy and food substances. Research that has been carried out in this area over the past 90 years, consistently develops and improves the norms of physiological requirements for energy and nutrients for various groups of the population of the Russian Federation. In the 50 years of the last century in this research field, determining the values of daily intake for macronutrients (proteins, lipids and carbohydrates), was in the first place. Then the Era of micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, trace elements) was started, and, finally, now there is the Era of minor food biologically active substances. More and more facts are accumulating about their leading role in regulating metabolism. They can be recognized as endogenous regulators, the primary vital components involved in the formation of human health. In recent years, the new definition of Nutriome is introduced into Nutrition Science. It is considered as a set of essential nutritional factors to maintain a dynamic equilibrium between human being and the environment, aimed to ensure viability, the preservation and reproduction of the species, keeping the adaptive capacity, the system of antioxidant defence, apoptosis, metabolism, and immune system function. The Nutriome is a formula for optimal nutrition, which is continually being improved and supplemented. Knowledge of this formula is the key to forming an optimal diet for a person, and, therefore, to save their health. It is evident that at the population level, the Nutriome has its characteristics, its structure for each age period of human life. The need to develop a formula for optimal nutrition and, consequently, updating nutrient-based dietary guidelines is induced by socio-economic and demographic changes in population, changes in anthropometric characteristics of children and adults, increasing prevalence of socially significant non-communicable diseases, developing studies of the significance of particular food substances and establishing the relationship between nutrition and health.
