Linus Pauling Institute Recommendation For Vitamin E
 

The scientists at the Linus Pauling Institute recommend taking 200 IUs of natural source d-alpha-tocopherol daily with food.  They feel it may help protect from cardiovascular diseases like heart disease & stroke, neuro degenerative diseases like dementia and Alzheimer's, and some types of cancer.  We personally think that you need all 8 of the vitamin E complex components in your supplement, and that you might very well need far less than the 200 IU of alpha-tocopherol if you are getting the other 7 components of the E complex.  In fact, according to Dr. Mercola, one of the tocotrienols, alpha tocotrienol, is 40 to 60 times more potent than alpha tocopherol in some of its antioxidant capabilities.  In spite of this, lots of health care professionals are still recommending supplementation of just the alpha tocopherol form.
 

Nuts:  A Good Source of Vitamin E
 

A review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition talks about how regular consumption of nuts, a good source of gamma tocopherol, is related to a lower risk of heart disease mortality.  This form of E is found in large quantities in pecans, walnuts and peanuts.  A moderate, regular consumption of nuts has also been shown to help people keep their weight down, so this is something you might want to consider adding to your diet if you are not allergic to nuts.
 

Vitamin E from Soybean Oil
 

Although many health care pratitioners feel that there is nothing wrong with consuming E that comes from soy bean oil, we have heard so many bad things about soy, that we think it's probably prudent to search out another source of vitamin E that does NOT come from soy.  Also, the E is contained in the oil, but so are pesticides and other chemicals, which are heavily used on soybean crops or in the processing of soybean oil today.  You want to make sure that any supplement you choose to take does not contain pesticides or other chemical residues.  In addition, most soy on the American marketplace today is a GMO type of soy, and those of you who have done much research on the problems with genetically modified foods will want to stay away from soy-based E for that reason as well.
 

Back to Vitamin E