The conceptual framework upon which the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) was derived is being replaced by a new, less population-based and more individualistic view of nutrition that relates to health more broadly than merely the prevention of overt nutrient deficiency disease. As this has occurred, problems have become apparent concerning the RDA, which constitutes the key linkage between nutrition understanding and dietary guidance, calling for its redefinition. Any reconstruction of the RDA must be based on the paradigm for nutrition that has, in fact, been adopted; this will require, where evidence warrants, the incorporation into the new construct of intakes with beneficial actions without regard for whether this may require supplementation in the context of contemporary diets.