Vitamins and minerals are found in the foods you eat, and all are required by your body to grow and function properly. Vitamin E is one of the fat-soluble vitamins, meaning that when it is consumed your body stores it in fat tissues and the liver until it is needed. With a balanced diet you should be able to get sufficient amounts of all your vitamins, including vitamin E, from dietary sources.
Natural Vitamin E
Natural vitamin E is available in eight different chemical forms, alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta-tocopherol and alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta-tocotrienol, with alpha- tocopherol being the only form that meets the requirements for your body. Vitamin E protects your lungs from getting damaged by pollutants in the air, is important for red blood cell formation and works to maintain many of your body's tissues in your skin, liver and eyes. Natural vitamin E is healthy for you in the proper amount. Due to the differences in the chemical make up of synthetic vitamin E, and your body's ability to absorb it, synthetic vitamin E is only half as effective as natural vitamin E.
Vitamin E RDAs
The recommended dietary allowance for vitamin E is determined by age. For infants ages 0 to 6 months the RDA is 4 mg a day, going up to 5 mg a day for infants ages 6 to 12 months. Children ages 1 to 3 have an RDA of 6 mg a day, and children ages 4 to 8 have an RDA of 7 mg a day, For children ages 9 to 13 the RDA is 11 mg a day. The RDA for adolescents ages 14 to 18 is the same as adults, which is 15 mg and only changes in the case of a lactation where a woman's RDA increases to 19 mg a day.
Vitamin E IUs
The tolerable daily upper limit of vitamin E is the amount considered safe for you to consume without having any negative health effects. This amount has not been established in children under a year. In children ages 1 to 3 the UL is 200 mg a day, and for children ages 4 to 8 the UL is 300 mg a day. The UL for kids ages 9 to 13 the UL is 600 mg a day and for ages 14 to 18, the UL is 800 mg a day. For adults, the vitamin E UL is 1,000 mg a day, even for women who are pregnant or lactating. Supplementing with vitamin E should only been done with a doctor's recommendation.
Vitamin E Natural Sources
Foods that are naturally high in vitamin E are nuts, seeds, plant oils, wheat germ, and green leafy vegetables. To put the amount of vitamin E in food in perspective, 1 tbsp. of wheat germ provides 20.3 mg of vitamin E, 1 oz. of dry roasted almonds provides 7.4 mg of vitamin E, 1 tbsp. of safflower oil provides 4.6 mg of vitamin E, and half a cup of broccoli provides 1.2 mg of vitamin E.
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