An Evaluation of the FAO Amino Acid Reference Pattern in Human Nutrition

Abstract

Ten young women were subjects for a study comparing the Food and Agriculture Organization amino acid reference pattern and the amino acid pattern of egg as to their effects on nitrogen equilibrium at a constant total nitrogen intake of 10 gm/day. In diet periods wherein the chief source of amino acids was the intact proteins of egg, for both FAO and egg patterns, nitrogen balance was better for some subjects than when the chief source of amino acids was a purified mixture. For other subjects, there was no difference in nitrogen balance values. When the diets contained FAO or egg pattern mixtures with the amino acids proportioned to an equal amount of tryptophan for both patterns, better nitrogen balance was obtained with egg pattern. When the diets contained isonitrogenous amounts of the amino acids as FAO or egg pattern, similar nitrogen balance values were found for all subjects. With either FAO or egg pattern, the total amount of essential nitrogen required in the diet to maintain nitrogen equilibrium in young women under the conditions of this study ranged from 0.65 to 0.85 gm/day.