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Main to remember
- Vitamin E is an essential fat vitamin in certain foods.
- Get more vitamin E in your diet can help support your immune system and potentially protect against certain chronic diseases.
- However, routine vitamin E supplementation for prevention of primary diseases is not supported by research to date.
Vitamin E is a soluble nutrient in fat that is found in food, although you can also obtain it as a food supplement. It refers to a group of compounds with antioxidant properties, the most common being alpha-tocopherol, often listed on food labels.
1. Offer antioxidant advantages
Antioxidants protect your body’s cells from free radicals. It is believed that free radicals damage cells and contribute to chronic diseases. Vitamin E helps protect body fats from decomposition and formation of reactive oxygen species, a type of free radical that contains oxygen.
It is believed that a diet rich in antioxidants helps reduce the risk of many chronic diseases, including heart disease and cancer.
Although the addition of vitamin E to your diet can play a role in disease prevention, it has not been shown to prevent cancer. In a study, vitamin E supplements have actually increased the risk of prostrate cancer.
2. Maintains a strong immune system
Vitamin E can help stimulate the body’s immune defenses. A healthy immune system is important to prevent or reduce the effects of infections.
3. can reduce the risk of heart disease
Some observation studies have found a lower impact of heart disease with higher intake of vitamin E.
A large study of nurses aged 34 to 59 revealed that those with the highest vitamin E consumption had a lower impact of 30 to 40% of heart disease.
Although this study has found an association, it has not definitively shown that vitamin E directly affects the risk of heart disease. Likewise, another study revealed an association between the higher vitamin E intake from food and a lower incidence or mortality from heart disease.
These results led to research on the use of vitamin E supplements in the primary prevention of heart disease. However, several clinical trials have shown that routine vitamin E supplementation does not prevent heart disease.
However, current evidence supports the consumption of a variety of healthy foods that provide adequate vitamin E in food.
4. Can protect the health of the eyes
Age -related eye diseases are the main cause of poor vision and blindness in the elderly. Age -related macular degeneration (AMD) is such an eye disease. Due to its antioxidant effects, vitamin E can help protect the eyes from the damage of free radicals, which can contribute to eye diseases such as DMLA.
Vitamin E is one of the many nutrients included in an extra formulation studied for advanced DMLA. The supplement includes:
- 180 milligrams (MG) of alpha-tocopherol
- 15 mg of beta-carotene
- 500 mg of Vitamin C
- 80 mg of zinc
- 2 mg of copper
The study on age -related eye diseases (ARED) revealed that supplementation (compared to placebo) reduced the risk of developing an advanced 25% DMLA in high -risk those.
5. Can slow down or prevent cognitive decline
Some studies have found a correlation between the high vitamin E intake (coming from food and supplements) and a less cognitive decline and a reduction in the risk of dementia. In turn, other clinical trials focused mainly on vitamin E supplementation have not discovered that it can slow down the cognitive decline.
Due to these mixed results, routine vitamin E supplementation is not recommended for the primary prevention of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, many of these studies have used amounts of vitamin E greater than the recommended daily quantity, which can cause harmful side effects when used in the long term.
Another study has revealed that the food intake of vitamin E could help reduce the future cognitive decline in the elderly. However, more research is required.
How many vitamin E do I need?
Vitamin E is an essential nutrient and is in food and supplements. The Food and Nutrition Council of the Institute of Medicine has established a recommended food allowance (RDA) for vitamin E. The RDA is the average daily amount of a nutrient necessary for healthy individuals.
| Recommended food allowance for vitamin E | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age | Male | Female | Pregnancy | Lactation |
| 0-6 months * | 4 mg | 4 mg | ||
| 7-12 months * | 5 mg | 5 mg | ||
| 1 to 3 years old | 6 mg | 6 mg | ||
| 4-8 years | 7 mg | 7 mg | ||
| 9-13 years | 11 mg | 11 mg | ||
| 14 years and over | 15 mg | 15 mg | 15 mg | 19 mg |
* The amounts for infants are considered to be an adequate contribution (AI)
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required that food manufacturers and supplements qualify the quantities of vitamin E in MG instead of international units (IU).
If necessary, the conversion factors are as follows:
- 1 mg alpha-tocopherol = 1.49 IU natural form or 2.22 IU
- 0.67 mg alpha-tocopherol = 1 ui natural form
- 0.45 mg alpha-tocopherol = 1 iu synthetic form
How to add vitamin E to your diet
Adding foods rich in vitamin E to your diet is a first step to ensure that your needs are met. Foods rich in vitamin E include:
- Oils: Wheat germ, sunflower, carthame, corn and soy oils
- Sunflower seeds
- Nut: Almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts
- Peanut butter
- Vegetables: Spinach and broccoli
- Fruits: Kiwi, mango and tomatoes
If you cannot meet your vitamin E needs thanks to a single diet, supplements are available. Most vitamin E supplements are in the form of alpha-tocopherol and provide higher quantities than the GDR (67 mg or 100 IU).
Vitamin E is a liposoluble vitamin, which means that fat is necessary for absorption. Some people suffering from gastrointestinal conditions that lead to fat malabsorption (passing from fatty stool) may be more likely to develop vitamin E deficiency. Signs may include neuropathy, retinopathy, ataxia or the altered immune response. These people may need soluble forms in vitamin E water.
Can I get too much vitamin E?
No negative effect has been reported by consuming too much vitamin E food. However, some concerns about vitamin E routine supplementation include:
- Increased risk of hemorrhage or hemorrhagic stroke
- Increased risk of prostate cancer in men
- Increased risk of mortality
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