| Word | Description |
| Daily Value | DV, a term on food labels based on the RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) designed to help consumers use food label information to plan a healthy diet. The Daily Value serves as a basis for declaring on the label the percent of the DV for each nutrient that a serving of the food provides. For example, the Daily Value for fat, based on a 2,000-calorie diet, is 65 grams (g). A food that has 13 g of fat per serving would state on the label that the "percent Daily Value" for fat is 20 percent. That is because 13 grams represents 20% of 65 grams. The DV also provides a basis for thresholds that define descriptive words for nutrient content, called descriptors, such as "high fiber" and "low fat." For example, the descriptor "high fiber" can be used if a serving of food provides 20 percent or more of the Daily Value for fiber-- that is, 5 g or more. |
| DASH diet eating plan | This is the name of a clinical study that tested the effects of nutrients in food on blood pressure. Study results indicated that you can reduce high blood pressure by following an eating plan that emphasizes fruits, vegetables, fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products, and is low in saturated fat, total fat, and cholesterol. |
| Dehydration: | Excessive loss of body water. |
| Diabetes | A condition caused by the body’s inability to use insulin to process the glucose (sugar) in the blood properly and so the level of glucose in the blood is too high for good health. It can be caused by too little insulin (a chemical produced by the pancreas to regulate blood sugar), resistance to insulin, or both. |
| Diabetes risk factor: | A life style or life situation that increases a person's chances of developing a disease. |
| Diabetes symptoms | Many people have no signs or symptoms. Symptoms can also be so mild that you might not even notice them. Some people have symptoms but do not suspect diabetes. Symptoms include increased thirst, increased hunger, fatigue, increased urination, especially at night, weight loss, blurred vision or sores that do not heal. Many people do not find out they have the disease until they have diabetes complications, such as blurry vision or heart trouble. If you find out early that you have diabetes, then you can get treatment to prevent damage to the body. |
| Diastolic pressure | Diastolic blood pressure measures the pressure in your blood vessels between heartbeats, when your heart is resting. |
| Dieback | Death of branches, either partial or entire, that can result from leaving a ragged cut or a long stub above the dormant bud. |
| Diode | A simple semiconductor device |
| Direct Sunlight | having at least 6 hours of sunlight |
| Diuretic: | Anything that promotes the formation of urine by the kidney. |
| Drip Line | The outermost reach of the branches away from the tree trunk |
| Duct Tape | Fabric based tape with a rubber adhesive used in many households for temporary fixes, but has proven to become brittle and fail over time. |
