Vitamin E is a vitamin that is often overlooked and less talked about, in comparison to its counterparts such as vitamin C and A.
But did you know – just like any other vitamin, vitamin E is just as important to our bodies, especially since it acts as a potent antioxidant to protect your cells against oxidative damage?
Yes, that’s right!
Vitamin E in food carries potent antioxidant properties to protect your cells against oxidative damage. In fact, getting enough vitamin E into your body system can aid in the treatment of certain skin conditions, boost hair growth and even support a healthy vision.
What are the top foods high in vitamin E? Where can I find them?
This class of vitamin can be found in a variety of nutrient-dense foods in Singapore, like fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
Here’s what you need to know about this important micronutrient and how you can make sure that you’re getting enough on a daily basis!
In this article about foods high in vitamin E, we will be covering:
- Vitamin E in Food: What is it and its Importance in the Body
- Top 15 Vitamin E Foods
- What are the Benefits of Vitamin E in Food?
- How Much Vitamin E Per Day?
- Signs of Vitamin E Deficiency
- How to Use Vitamin E Foods?
- Precautions
- In Conclusion
Vitamin E in Food: What is it and its Importance in the Body
Similar to vitamin D and A, vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin that acts as an antioxidant in the body.
It is then broken up into two different forms: tocopherols and tocotrienols. The most commonly found form in the modern Western diet is neither of them. Instead, it’s called alpha-tocopherol.
Because of its antioxidant properties and other health benefits, vitamin E is absolutely essential to our health. Vitamin E in food benefits many aspects of our health and has been shown to reduce PMS symptoms, support skin and hair health, and promote healthy vision along with carrying antioxidant properties.
Because it’s so abundant throughout the diet, Vitamin E deficiencies are incredibly rare and usually only occur in people with other health conditions that impair the absorption of fat.
However, if a deficiency in this vitamin ever occurs, it can come with some serious and long-lasting health complications if not addressed.
Top 15 Vitamin E Foods
Getting enough vitamin E in your food is crucial to overall health. Fortunately, vitamin E is abundant throughout certain food supplies, especially in nuts and many types of cooking oil. That’s why it is easy to meet the needs and avoid vitamin E deficiency!
So what are some top foods high in vitamin E?
Take a look at some of the top food sources on this list below and find out if it may be time to start upping your intake of vitamin E!
- Wheat Germ Oil: 20.32 mg (1 tablespoon) (101 percent DV) (1)
- Sunflower Seeds: 11.6 mg (1/4 cup) (58 percent DV)
- Almonds: 7.3 mg (28.3g) (37 percent DV)
- Hazelnuts: 4.2 mg (28.3g) (21 percent DV)
- Spinach: 3.7 mg (1 cup) (19 percent DV)
- Avocado: 3.1 mg (1 cup) (16 percent DV)
- Turnip Greens: 2.7 mg (1 cup) (14 percent DV)
- Butternut Squash: 2.6 mg (1 cup) (13 percent DV)
- Pine Nuts: 2.6 mg (28.3g) (13 percent DV)
- Palm Oil: 2.2 mg (1 tablespoon) (11 percent DV)
What are the Benefits of Vitamin E in Food?
The foods listed above are vitamin E-rich and supplementing and consuming them has been found to be associated with some of the following health benefits:
- Hold Antioxidant Properties
- Promote Hair Growth
- Improve Skin Health
- Support Healthy Vision
- Reduce PMS Symptoms
Hold Antioxidant Properties
Antioxidants are compounds that help fight off harmful free radicals in the body to prevent oxidative stress which could eventually lead to cell damage. Antioxidants are thought to play a critical role in health and diseases, with some research showing that they may protect you against several chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer.
Is vitamin E an antioxidant?
That’s right – not only is vitamin E a vitamin class but it is also an antioxidant! Vitamin E has been shown to carry powerful antioxidant properties that can help reduce the risk of developing diseases and protect the health of cells.
In fact, the most common type of vitamin E – Alpha-tocopherol has been shown to have both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties in the body.
Promote Hair Growth
Does vitamin E help grow hair?
Here’s a piece of good news!
Not only can vitamin E benefit your skin (giving you glowing skin), but it can also help keep your hair healthy and strong as well. In fact, some research suggests that adding more vitamin E foods into your diet can actually help promote your hair!
This is more evident especially after a recent study done in 2017 reported that oxidative stress is linked to hair loss.
How is this related to your intake of vitamin E?
Being a powerful antioxidant, ingesting vitamin food can help keep your hair healthy. In fact, supplementing with vitamin E for eight months increased the number of hairs of volunteers by 34.5 percent for research done on 38 people, looking at the effects that vitamin E has on them.
Improve Skin Health
If you’re looking to speed up wound healing or fix skin-related issues fast, eating more foods high in vitamin E may be able to help.
Why is that so? Does vitamin E help improve skin health?
Because it is an antioxidant by itself, vitamin E has been shown to aid in the treatment of a range of skin conditions.
It’s shown that combining vitamins A and E was able to help prevent the formation of skin conditions related to acne. One such example would be the formation of comedones and milia, which are tiny bumps that form on the skin.
Vitamin E has also been shown to carry other benefits when it comes to skin health, such as enhanced wound healing and skin cancer prevention. In addition, vitamin E may also help relieve inflammation, which may aid in the treatment of certain skin conditions such as eczema and acne!
Support Healthy Vision
Vitamin E is one of the key micronutrients that benefits your eye vision. In fact, vision loss is one of the most common symptoms of vitamin E deficiency!
Vitamin E may also help protect against certain eye disorders! A review published showed that a high intake of vitamin E foods or supplementation may be associated with a lower risk of age-related cataracts.
Another study has also found that taking a high dose of vitamin E helped normalize blood flow to the retina in people with type 1 diabetes, indicating that vitamin E may help protect against diabetes symptoms like vision loss!
Reduce PMS Symptoms
This may come as a shock to many but it’s true that vitamin E in foods helps reduce PMS symptoms.
Premenstrual syndrome, also known as PMS, is a cluster of symptoms that many women experience shortly before their periods, including mood swings, fatigue, depression, and most notably irritability!
Some research has found that vitamin E may be a natural and effective way to treat PMS symptoms. One study reported that vitamin E supplementation was able to improve three out of four classes of PMS symptoms in women.
How Much Vitamin E Per Day?
It’s no secret that vitamin E is a crucial antioxidant in our bodies, protecting our cell membranes and circulating serum lipoproteins from oxidation, therefore possibly delaying chronic diseases which is a sign of aging.
With that in mind, here comes the main question: How much vitamin E do we need per day?
One study conducted found out that, people who take at least 200IU vitamin E per day have 37% lower risk of developing cardiovascular diseases!
In general, there is no dose range of vitamin E recommended, but World Health Organization (WHO) has considered doses between 15-72mg (225IU to 1080IU) a day.
This is the recommendation for young adults, or adults aged 20 and above.
But what about children or toddlers aged below this age range?
Don’t worry as we will go through each soon! But do note that the vitamin E requirement for children can vary widely based on age. Listed below are the recommendations for vitamin E intake for kids to teens, from the National Institutes of Health:
- 0-6 months: 4mg daily
- 7-12 months: 5mg daily
- 1-3 years: 6mg daily
- 4-8 years: 7mg daily
- 9-13 years: 11mg daily
- 14+ years: 15mg daily
Signs of Vitamin E Deficiency
A deficiency in vitamin E is rare and typically only occurs in individuals who have an underlying condition that impairs the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin E.
What are some examples of these medical conditions?
In particular, people with Crohn’s disease, chronic pancreatitis or short bowel syndrome are at a higher risk for developing vitamin E deficiency!
Some common symptoms of a deficiency in vitamin E include:
- Muscle Pain
- Weakness
- Vision Problems
- Numbness
- Tremors
- Decreased Immunity
How to Use Vitamin E Foods?
In most cases, it’s best to get your vitamins through the above-listed vitamin E foods rather than supplements unless there’s supervision underway to minimize the risk of having foods rich in vitamin E.
In addition, including vitamin E foods into your diet such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts can also supply other important nutrients that your body requires!
In fact, foods rich in vitamin E are also good sources of vitamin C and K!
Precautions
Just like any other vitamins and minerals, moderation is key; increasing your intake of vitamin E foods too much over a short period of time is a concern for health safety.
Fifteen milligrams daily is the recommended daily dose for vitamin E. Exceeding the recommended dosage of vitamin E can cause serious side effects especially if you have existing health conditions such as diabetes.
Vitamin E supplementation may also cause other symptoms, such as nausea, stomach cramps, and many more!
For this reason, you should stick to increasing your intake of vitamin E foods and seek the doctor’s advice as always before incorporating supplementation into your diet!
In Conclusion
Vitamin E is a type of fat-soluble antioxidant, which could help your body reduce oxidative stress and block blood clotting. It’s also involved in maintaining eye health, brain function, and gene expression.
The good news? Vitamin E is found in abundance throughout many different foods, but the best sources of vitamin E include fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and oils.
Since that’s the case, it’s always recommended to incorporate a wide variety of vitamin E foods in your diet to help meet your micronutrient needs, unless supplementation of vitamin E is recommended by your doctor!
What do you think of these recommended top vitamin E foods? I’d love to hear what you think about the list, specifically whether you’ll be incorporating them into your diet next!
Let me know in the comment section down below!
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