Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant, which means that it can help prevent damage from free radicals in the body, chemicals that can lead to heart disease and cancer. Deficiency is quite rare, but eating a very low-fat diet can dramatically reduce levels of vitamin E in the body.
Benefits of Vitamin E
Vitamin E is important for the protection of cell membranes, and also keeps the skin, heart and circulation, nerves, muscles and red blood cells healthy. And according to Health Canada, people who consume a diet high in vitamin E have a lower risk of heart disease and cancer.
Many of the studies on vitamin E had conflicting results concerning its ability to reduce your risk of cancer or heart disease, but these studies looked at people taking high-dose supplements, not those focusing on getting vitamin E from their diet.
One caution: People taking blood thinners, such as warfarin, should not take vitamin E supplements because large doses of vitamin E also act as blood thinners, which may increase the likelihood of hemorrhaging and reduce blood clotting ability.
DRI for Vitamin E
Adult men and women and pregnant women should get about 22 IU of vitamin E per day; women who are breastfeeding need 28 IU per day. The upper limit for intake is 1,000 IU per day.
Food Sources of Vitamin E
Here are the top five food sources of vitamin E.
- Almonds, 1 oz, 11 IU
- Sunflower seeds, 1 oz, 9 IU
- Safflower oil, 1 tbsp, 7 IU
- Hazelnuts, 1 oz, 6 IU
- Peanut butter, 2 tbsp, 4 IU
Other sources of vitamin E include spinach and other greens, kiwi, avocado, broccoli and mango.
Here are some ideas for adding sources of vitamin E to your diet.
- Add almonds, hazelnuts or sunflower seeds to a salad or choose those as a snack.
- Snack on peanut butter on crackers.
- Encrust fish with crushed almonds and saute in safflower oil.
- Slice avocado onto your sandwich, or make guacamole to use as a veggie dip.
- Add greens or broccoli to your pasta dishes.
- Make Asian noodles with a peanut sauce, with a side of sauteed spinach.
Although eating foods high in vitamin E can be a challenge on a day-to-day basis, the effort is worth it. Even though many of these foods are high in fat, the fats they contain are healthy for the heart. If you're trying to lose weight, eating small portions of these foods can increase your satiety, which may help you eat less overall while not being overly hungry. That, plus the antioxidant power that these foods have, make boosting vitamin-E-rich food intake a healthy, and tasty, proposition.
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