Glossary

Category: R

  • Reference standards (international reference standard)/growth standards

    These refer to databases recording the linear and ponderal growth of healthy children. They include anthropometric data collected on suitably large samples, and analysed with precise specifications to provide a useful basis for reference.  

  • Reference nutrient intake (RNI)

    Defined by COMA (Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy for the UK Department of Health), most recently in 1991, as being the amount of each nutrient that is sufficient to meet the needs of the majority (mean +2 standard deviations) of healthy people in a defined population, or subgroup of it. Approximately equivalent (in…

  • Reference man, woman

    An arbitrary physiological standard; defined as a person aged 25, weighing 65 kg, living in a temperate zone of a mean annual temperature of 10°C. Reference man performs medium work, with an average daily energy requirement of 13.5 MJ (3200 kcal). Reference woman is engaged in general household duties or light industry, with an average…

  • Reference intakes (of nutrients)

    Amounts of nutrients greater than the requirements of almost all members of the population, determined on the basis of the average requirement plus twice the standard deviation, to allow for individual variation in requirements and thus cover the theoretical needs of 97.5% of the population.  

  • Reducing sugars

    Sugars that are chemically reducing agents, including glucose, fructose, lactose, pentoses, but not sucrose.  

  • Reciprocal ponderal index

    An index of adiposity; height divided by cube root of weight.  

  • Rumination disorder

    Rumination disorder

    A feeding and eating disorder of infancy consisting of the repeated regurgitation of food in the absence of associated gastrointestinal illness. Rumination disorder is mainly an eating disorder of infancy and childhood. After a period of normal development, an infant or child begins repeatedly and voluntarily to regurgitate and either spit out or (more commonly)…

  • Rubenstein-Taybi syndrome

    A syndrome characterized by short stature, moderate to severe learning difficulties, distinctive facial features, and broad thumbs and first toes. People with this condition have an increased risk of developing noncancerous and cancerous tumors, leukemia, and lymphoma. The syndrome is inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern and is uncommon, affecting an estimated 1 in 125,000…

  • Rozerem

    Brand name for the nonbenzodiazepine sedative-hypnotic drug ramelteon.  

  • Rorschach

    The “ink blot” test—in which, by scoring the subject’s responses to a set of 10 ambiguous forms on cards, inferences can be made about mental functioning and diagnosis, including psychological defenses and major conflicts. The test takes its name from its creator, swiss freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst herman rorschach (1884–1922).