Vitamin E

One of the fat-soluble vitamins, vitamin E can be stored by the body so that you don’t need to eat it every day.

Vitamin E actually refers to a group of substances, each of which has a slightly different function. They’re not yet as well-understood as the B group vitamins, for example, so they’re generally referred to simply as vitamin E.

Best known as an antioxidant, vitamin E helps protect cells against the damaging effects of free radicals.

Where can I get it?

Vitamin E is made by plants, so the best sources are plant oils such as sunflower, rapeseed, corn and, to a lesser extent, olive oil. Almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, sunflower seeds and the wheatgerm in cereal products are good sources; green, leafy vegetables contain smaller amounts.

Foods containing large amounts of polyunsaturated fats (such as sunflower oil or spread) usually contain a lot of vitamin E. Most of us need to cut back on the total amount of fat we eat but it’s more important to concentrate on reducing the amount of saturated fat you eat for the health of your heart. Fats like sunflower oil are so rich in vitamin E, you need to eat very little to achieve the recommended intake.

How much should I eat?

Individual requirements for vitamin E vary a lot, which has made it difficult to set a recommended fixed daily intake. However, based on studies which investigated levels of vitamin E in the blood, it’s suggested that 4mg a day for men and 3mg a day for women is adequate. Pregnant women may need up to 6.2mg a day. A handful of almonds (around 12 whole almonds) or a tablespoon of sunflower oil contains about 6mg, while a tablespoon of rapeseed oil contains about 3mg.

Vitamin E deficiency in the UK is extremely rare because, while it may be present in quite small amounts, it’s found in so many foods. If you’re eating a varied, balanced diet, you’ll quite easily get all the vitamin E you need.

Dietary supplements can play a role in maintaining health but, as with other fat-soluble vitamins, there may be some danger in consuming extremely high levels, which will then be stored by the body. The effects of high levels of vitamin E supplements are still being researched but, at the moment, the advice is that less than 540mg a day in supplements is unlikely to cause any harm.

Food should provide your vitamins wherever possible because they work best alongside the other nutrients found in foods. Remember that, although some foods may provide greater benefits than others, the real benefits are to be gained through eating as wide a variety of foods as possible. For example, in order to do its job vitamin E needs some vitamin C (and other nutrients) around - yet another reason to eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.

What does it do?

Free radicals are a type of molecule, created by the body for a number of reasons – sometimes they act in your favour as part of the immune response - and if they get out of hand the body can usually deal with them.

However, for various reasons the number of free radicals can sometimes overwhelm the body’s mechanisms for handling them, and that’s when they start to cause damage, mostly to the structure of cells. This might happen as a result of exposure to pollution in the environment or cigarette smoke, for example and, unfortunately, the damage they cause builds up as you get older.

It’s thought that vitamin E, along with other antioxidants, interferes with the harmful chain reaction set up by free radicals and can avert this damage. It may help prevent the development of heart disease by stopping the free radicals building up plaque on the walls of your arteries

Some claims have been made that vitamin E can help prevent certain types of cancer, but the evidence is inconsistent. For now, research is ongoing.