Embark on a wellness journey with our guide on Vitamin E rich foods. This essential nutrient, found abundantly in nuts, seeds, and leafy greens, is a powerhouse antioxidant crucial for overall health.
Our curated list of foods high in Vitamin E, interactive charts, and nutritious recipes provide a robust foundation to meet your dietary goals.
Explore a plethora of vitamin E food sources, comprehend your daily requirements, and elevate your culinary game with our Vitamin E-boosting recipes.
- High Vitamin E Foods (Per Serving)
- Vitamin E Rich Foods (Per Calorie)
- Vitamin E Food Chart
- How Much Vitamin E Do You Need?
- Vitamin E-Boosting Recipes
- Why is Vitamin E Important?
- What Are the Roles of Vitamin E in the Body?
- Deficiency Conditions Associated with Vitamin E
- Who Is at Risk for Vitamin E Deficiency?
- Stretch Target for Vitamin E
- Availability of Vitamin E in the Food System
- Synergistic Nutrients
- Processing Losses
- How Can I Calculate if I am Getting Enough Vitamin E?
High Vitamin E Foods (Per Serving)
Because vitamin E is fat-soluble, it is found readily in fatty plant foods like nuts and seeds.
If you find yourself falling short of the recommended vitamin E intake, it’s time to focus on foods that pack in more vitamin E per serving, like:
- cod liver oil
- sunflower seeds
- almonds
- salmon
- hazelnuts
- peanuts
- olive oil
- broccoli
- spinach
- shrimp/prawns
- avocado
- butternut squash
To help you get started, the infographic below shows the vitamin E provided by popular foods in the average serving sizes consumed by our Optimisers.
Once you’re ready to revitalise your diet with a wider variety of vitamin E-rich foods, you can download our printable list of foods with more vitamin E per serving here.
Vitamin E Rich Foods (Per Calorie)
Once you know you’re getting the minimum amount of vitamin E your body needs, you can zero in on foods that deliver more vitamin E per calorie to increase your satiety and nutrient density, like:
- coriander
- chicory greens
- radicchio
- chard
- watercress
- spinach
- mustard greens
- collards
- beet greens
- asparagus
- sunflower seeds
- broccoli
The infographic below shows popular foods that provide more vitamin E per calorie.
For more variety, check out our printable list of vitamin E-rich foods per calorie.
Vitamin E Food Chart
Curious about how your favourite foods stack up in the thiamine game? Dive into our dynamic chart showcasing popular foods, comparing vitamin E content per calorie and serving. For an immersive experience, explore the interactive Tableau version.
How Much Vitamin E Do You Need?
Our satiety analysis reveals that your body craves at least 7 mg of vitamin E per 2000 calories. However, achieving the Optimal Nutrient Intake of 15 mg per 2000 calories from food aligns with an impressive 21% reduction in energy intake.
Notice towards the right that a very high intake of vitamin E (e.g. from refined vegetable oils) tends to lead to a rebound satiety response. Once you reach the Optimal Nutrient Intake for Vitamin E, there’s no benefit of more vitamin E. Instead, it’s time to focus on your other priority nutrients.
Vitamin E-Boosting Recipes
Elevate your culinary game with our chart, showcasing over 1750 NutriBooster recipes used in our Micros Masterclass. We’ve plotted these recipes based on vitamin E content versus protein percentage. The further right you go, the more vitamin E you can enjoy with fewer calories.
Dive into the details with our interactive Tableau chart on your computer. Click on each recipe to uncover its magic and even feast your eyes on mouthwatering pictures!
Why is Vitamin E Important?
- Antioxidant properties: Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that helps protect the body from damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals. Free radicals can damage cells and contribute to the development of chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Vitamin E helps neutralise these free radicals, protecting the body from their harmful effects.
- Skin health: Vitamin E is known for its skin-protective properties. It can help protect the skin from sun damage, reduce inflammation, and improve skin elasticity. Vitamin E is also believed to help prevent premature skin aging, making it a vital component in anti-aging foods.
- Immune function: Vitamin E helps support immune function by promoting the growth and activity of immune cells. It can also help reduce inflammation, which is important for a healthy immune response.
- Heart health: Vitamin E may help reduce the risk of heart disease by preventing the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, which is known to contribute to the development of heart disease. Vitamin E may also help improve blood flow and prevent blood clots, making it a key component of heart-healthy foods.
- Eye health: Vitamin E may help protect the eyes from age-related macular degeneration and cataracts, two common eye conditions that can cause vision loss.
What Are the Roles of Vitamin E in the Body?
- Vitamin E has many roles in the body, but it is mainly known for its job as an antioxidant – it works by scavenging free radicals that damage cells and tissues.
- We need vitamin E to use oxygen and prevent fatty acids in our cell membranes from becoming damaged or oxidised.
- The immune system requires vitamin E to function properly.
- Vitamin E is known to prevent the formation of blood clots and to regulate the clumping of platelets.
- Studies have shown that vitamin E is essential in preventing degeneration of eyesight and conditions like macular degeneration and cataracts.
- The body requires the antioxidant abilities of vitamin E to prevent neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dementia, and other nervous system disorders.
- Vitamin E is fat-soluble, so we can easily store it for later and don’t need to consume it every day. Due to its antioxidant properties, it is often added to foods to prevent spoilage.
- Although vitamin E is essential, we are unlikely to be deficient because it is so common, especially with the increased use of vegetable oils over the past century.
- Vitamin E, found in brain-boosting foods, also helps prevent neurodegenerative conditions.
Deficiency Conditions Associated with Vitamin E
Because vitamin E is so ubiquitous, we don’t know much about the levels that cause a deficiency in humans. However, when we induce deficiencies in lab animals, they become infertile.
Deficiencies in humans are likely to lead to other conditions and symptoms, like:
- poor healing of the gut, skin, and lungs,
- heart disease,
- haemolytic anaemia,
- eye disorders,
- cancer,
- decreased cognition,
- increased propensity for thyroid disorders
- infection, and
- chronic degenerative diseases.
Who Is at Risk for Vitamin E Deficiency?
Because vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin, the body needs to utilise dietary fats to absorb this nutrient. As a result, conditions that contribute to fat malabsorption like:
- celiac disease,
- liver dysfunction,
- pancreatitis,
- irritable bowel syndrome (IBS),
- inflammatory bowel disease (IBD),
- cystic fibrosis, and
- short bowel syndrome.
Someone living in a developing area where foods containing vitamin E is scarce may be at increased risk for deficiency. Similarly, someone consuming minimal fat or vitamin E is also at risk.
Stretch Target for Vitamin E
The Dietary Recommended Intake (DRI) for Vitamin E has been set at 12 mg of alpha-tocopherol for men and women. The estimated average requirement (EAR) was set at 15 mg alpha-tocopherol.
While it is hard to overdose on Vitamin E from food, an upper limit of 300 mg/day has been set for supplementation.
Availability of Vitamin E in the Food System
The chart below illustrates the near-mirror increase of vitamin E and plant-based oils in our food supply.
Synergistic Nutrients
Vitamin E works synergistically with vitamins A, B2, B6, B12, C, K copper, folic acid, glutathione, iron, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sodium, and zinc.
So, to optimise vitamin E’s beneficial functions, you should ensure you get a complete profile of synergistic nutrients in foods that naturally contain more vitamin E per calorie.
Processing Losses
Vitamin E is unstable in light, heat, and alkaline environments. Therefore, up to 80% of Vitamin E is destroyed during flour milling.
Although processed plant oils like corn, safflower, soybean, and sunflower oils contain high amounts of vitamin E, they have been processed under high heat and, therefore, have questionable contents.
In addition, because refined fats provide minimal satiety and drive excess calorie intake, high intakes of these oils have been linked to diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), heart disease, and inflammation. For this reason, they might not be reliable sources of vitamin E!
How Can I Calculate if I am Getting Enough Vitamin E?
If you’re interested in determining if you’re getting the right amount of vitamin E in your diet, you can check your nutrient profile using our Free 7-Day Nutrient Clarity Challenge.
After a week of tracking your current diet in Cronometer, Nutrient Optimiser will give you a prioritised list of foods and NutriBooster recipes that will help you plug your current nutritional gaps, including selenium.
Nutrient Density Starter Pack
We’re eager to make the process of Nutritional Optimisation as simple as possible. So, to help you increase your intake of all the essential nutrients, including vitamin E, when you join our free Optimising Nutrition Community, you’ll get a starter pack that includes:
- Food Lists – optimised for each essential nutrient, goals, preferences and conditions.
- The Healthiest Meal Plan in the World – see what a week of nutrient-dense eating looks like.
- Recipes – check out samples of each of our NutriBooster recipe books.
- 7-Day Nutrient Clarity Challenge – identify your priority nutrients and the foods and meals that contain them.
