Healthy Eating & Vitamin E

Vitamin E has antioxidant properties. Antioxidants are substances that can help your body’s cells against the effects of free radicals. Free radicals could have a role in heart disease, cancer and other chronic diseases. But you need to know that taking vitamin E supplements might not receive the same benefits as naturally occurring antioxidants found in food.

Sources of natural vitamin E is found in sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, pecans, almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, cashews, pine nuts, brazil nuts, leafy greens, avocados, red sweet peppers, mango, turnip greens, kiwifruit, blackberries, black currants, cranberries, olives, apricots, and raspberries. There  are plenty of sources that contain vitamin E. The recommended daily amount of vitamin E for adults is only 15 milligrams, which can easily be consumed in a balanced plant-based diet.

Why think about making sure your diet covers the daily vitamin E amounts is because vitamin E is a nutrient that has important role for vision, reproduction, and the health of the blood, brain and skin systems. Vitamin E research is showing that it helps reduce heart disease risk factors such as blood pressure, LDL, triglyceride levels, etc.

Taking vitamin E supplements can cause too much vitamin E in the body which in turn has health issues. Also vitamin E can interact with medications. Be sure to check with your physician if you think you need more vitamin E than what is in your diet.