Nutrient Intake Calculator - Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA)
This nutrient intake calculator will help to estimate nutritional intake of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and whether your regular daily diet can meet dietary reference intakes (DRIs) by experts, when available.
Functions and benefits of DHA
- DHA can impact neural functions through neurotransmission, neurogenesis, myelination and more, while consumption has been associated to many positive effects including those on cognition1,2.
- Increased DHA consumption during pregnancy was also shown to be linked to pregnancy outcomes and certain cognitive aspects of the offspring2-4.
- Although the human body can naturally make DHA from alpha‐linolenic acid (ALA) in food sources, it is very limited and therefore DHA is considered as a conditionally essential nutrient, critical to be included in the daily diet across different life stages2,5.
Dietary intake of DHA
Examples of key food sources rich in DHA have been listed below6. Please input the approximate number of portions consumed for each item in a week, and a daily average intake will be calculated at the end to compare against DRIs.