What it is
Vitamin E is a collection of fat-soluble vitamins
What it does
Vitamin E primarily functions as an antioxidant.
Recommended intake
The recommended intake for vitamin E is 15mg per day for men and women who aren’t lactating. Lactation can increase intake requirements for vitamin E.
There is no suggested upper limit for vitamin E intake from natural dietary sources of vitamin E, but most health authorities recommend consuming no more than 1000mg of vitamin E per day from fortified foods and supplements.
Likelihood of tracking completeness: Very low
Vitamin E is not a nutrient that food manufacturers are required to disclose on nutrition labels. The vast majority of food and beverage manufacturers do not voluntarily list vitamin E content on nutrition labels, so most branded products in the MacroFactor database lack information on vitamin E. So, if you’d like to accurately track your vitamin E intake, you’ll need to make a point of mostly tracking “common foods,” which come from research-grade databases that have full nutrient reporting.
For more on when you can track using branded foods versus common foods when you’re trying to accurately monitor your intake of particular nutrients, you should check out this article.
Likelihood of insufficient intake: Very high
Most adults don’t meet intake recommendations for vitamin E, but it’s questionable whether that’s particularly important.
For more on nutrients with a greater likelihood of insufficient or excessive intake, you should check out this article.
Signs of deficiency
Very few people need to worry about vitamin E deficiencies, because low intakes of vitamin E have not been shown to cause vitamin E deficiencies in healthy individuals. According to the EFSA:
“The classification of ‘vitamin E’ as an essential nutrient is based on animal studies and primary and secondary α-tocopherol deficiency in humans. The need for α-tocopherol in order to prevent fetal resorption in pregnant rats fed lard-containing diets is at the origin of the discovery of the vitamin. The chemical name ‘tocopherol’ derives from its essentiality for normal reproduction in animals, even though the essentiality for this function has never been demonstrated in humans. … Symptomatic α-tocopherol deficiency in individuals without any disease and who consume diets ‘low’ in α-tocopherol has not been reported.”
However, in people who have genetic disorders that stop virtually all absorption of vitamin E, neurological problems and retinopathy can occur.
Good sources
Nuts, seeds, peppers, green leafy vegetables, tomatoes, and wheat germ are good sources of vitamin E. Many oils are also fortified with vitamin E to prevent degradation during cooking.
Learn more
If you’d like to learn more about micronutrients generally, there’s a five-part series on the MacroFactor website you might enjoy.