DANBURY, Conn. (January 16, 2001)—DietPower, Inc., today released a version of its personal nutrition and weight-management software incorporating the new recommended allowances for vitamin A, copper, iron, magnesium, and zinc. The release came one week after a government panel announced the changes.
"Once again, we worked nearly round the clock to make this happen," said DietPower founder and president Terry Dunkle. "We believe we're the first consumer software to reflect the changes." Dunkle's company won a similar race last April when the same panel revised the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for three other nutrients. In both cases, the changes climaxed more than a decade of new research.
DietPower's Version 2.4 upgrade is the company's fourth release since January 1998, when Dunkle unveiled the first Windows program that can guarantee reaching a goal weight on a target date. The program achieves this feat by monitoring the user's metabolic rate and showing the user how to adjust meals and activities accordingly. Besides calories eaten and burned in exercise, DietPower keeps users aware of their intake of 33 major and minor nutrients. [Click here to learn more about DietPower.]
The new nutrient allowances were announced last Monday [January 9, 2001] by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academies, which Congress chartered in 1863 to provide scientific information to the U.S. government.
Of the five nutrients, the most newsworthy is vitamin A. Abundant in organ meats and certain vegetables, the vitamin prevents night blindness, preserves the health of skin and mucous membranes, plays an important role in reproductive and immune functions, and is thought to protect against cancer—especially of the lung.
The news is that one of the principal sources of vitamin A—dark green or orange fruits and vegetables—provides only half as much vitamin A as previously supposed. This means that people who rely on vegetables for vitamin A must take extra pains to make sure they get enough. It also makes animal sources of the vitamin more important.
The Board's new report also revised allowances for four minerals. For most adults, the Board now recommends:
In addition, the report set these Tolerable Upper Intake Levels:
(Requirements for teenagers and pregnant or nursing women differ from those cited above.)
DietPower has won positive reviews (see www.dietpower.com/reviews/) in leading health and fitness magazines and journals. On the Internet, it won a 5 Star rating from the popular news service ZDNet. Reviewers praise the program for its combination of scientific rigor and user friendliness.
DietPower comes in three forms: 1) a personal edition that can handle up to nine users within a household, 2) a large-group edition for health clubs, corporate wellness programs and the like, and 3) a consultant's edition for doctors, nutritionists, sports trainers and other personal advisers. Although designed for Windows, DietPower will also run on a Mac equipped with PC-emulator software such as Virtual PC.
A free 15-day trial of the the latest version of DietPower is available on a CD-ROM or by downloading from www.dietpower.com, where users can also order a $49.99* "unlock code" that makes the program work permanently. For further information, company contacts are at www.dietpower.com/contact_us.php.
DietPower is not sold in stores.