The Health Diva

Many scientists believe it is difficult for an individual to consume more than 15 mg/day of alpha-tocopherol from food alone, without also increasing fat intake above recommended levels.

If, like me, you believe that you need much more vitamin E than the RDA to fend off diseases, delay the onset of aging and even possibly slow down the progress of diseases like Alzheimer’s, then it is extremely difficult to get these amounts from food alone.

Food is a great way to get natural vitamin E, the whole family of compounds. You can easily meet the RDA if you include nuts, legumes and grains in your diet and use modest amounts of vegetable oils.

If you don’t want to take vitamin E supplements then consider wheat germ and wheat germ oil. These are great sources of natural vitamin E. Because they are rich in vitamin E you can raise your intake without taking in too much fat.

It is especially important to take the tocotrienols along with some form of oil or fat-containing food. When tocotrienols are taken on an empty stomach, absorption is reduced by an average of 50%.

So when taking tocopherol and/or tocotrienol vitamin E supplements, I would recommend that you take them with a meal or with fatty acid capsules like eicosanoil.