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I asked a question about recommended daily intake and it is on hold for being "too broad", but in many other sites i participate on SE have some questions that cover a whole topic that would be normally too broad, but they are kept to be a source from information for other questions that ask about the same thing.

Like this example on InfoSec.se it could be a a too broad question, but it's kept because prevent the site from being flooded by questions about the same thing.

Do we want to have 100 questions about vitamins C,B,A(for example)....or just one that cover them all?

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I’m open to re-opening it if people disagree. My logic in putting it on hold was that:

  1. Recommendations differ. There isn’t a single authoritative source for this. As such, each nutrient would require examination of the available data to make a well-supported recommendation.

  2. If we limit this to a few established bodies that make such recommendations, it seems like it would just become a long list of nutrients (you included: "vitamins, minerals & amino acids [including oils like Omega-3/6]”), which doesn’t seem like a good format for a SE Q&A because it doesn’t involve any real explanation.

  3. The last part, “And what I can eat without restriction (no toxicity)?” seems to broaden it further.

  4. You started an answer that doesn’t seem to be covered by the question but seems to do a good job answering something that might be a good question here. That might be something like, “How are recommendations for micronutrient intake quantified, and how are the various indices used?” If this question is meant to include that as well as everything that is explicitly contained in the question in the moment, this seems to broaden it yet further.

But as I said, I’m certainly open to hearing other opinions and re-opening it if the community thinks it should stand as is. I appreciate that you’re trying to make this site a good resource and that you’re using Meta appropriately to sort out these issues.

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  • I could remove the part about "no toxicity" but i think this part is covered by the Upper Level of Intake recommendation, so i think it's not really broaden it further.I agree with 1,that's why i was first referencing the source from what i took my recommendations before add it, but since all those serious bodies actually make this recommendations from studies and the medical literature i don't think it would vary much (like American gov recommends 10mg, British 15mg, New Zealand 20mg). I understand 2,maybe if we limit each question for a specific group like one vitamin and other for minerals?
    – Freedo
    Jun 27, 2015 at 22:02
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    @Freedom "Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much." And while something like SSL/TSL can have a definitive answer, there is no real definitive answer for something like this. And which recommendations? Canada? Mexico? European Union? Australia? USA? etc etc. I personally don't think that a single source can be definitive in nutrition anyway, as it's still one of those areas where we don't know what we don't know, and as evidenced by the recent US dietary rec changes, things evolve as knowledge advances.
    – JohnP
    Jun 28, 2015 at 3:24
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Every SE site will reject as "too broad" any question which can be answered by writing an entire book.

Your question (What is the recommended intake of nutrients?) has hundreds of books written on that exact subject.

The fact that there is no single authority means that the subject is not scientifically and definitively settled. Also, the answer can vary from one geographical area to another.

It really is way too broad.

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  • I don't think that any of these books only talk about the recommended intake of nutrients, but much more aspects of nutrition. How it is not scientifically settled ? All the recommendations are made based on scientific studies and literature. But if the community decides so, Ok then.
    – Freedo
    Jun 27, 2015 at 22:45
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    @Freedom - "I don't think that any of these books only talk about the recommended intake of nutrients" How many of them have you read? Are you really saying there are no books on the subject? Also, science is not what you imagine it is if you cannot understand that different studies can come to different conclusions about the same thing.
    – anongoodnurse
    Jun 27, 2015 at 22:55

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