Health Center

Antioxidants: Vitamin E

Vitamin E is perhaps the most important antioxidant nutrient when it comes to a healthy heart.

This is likely because vitamin E helps prevent LDL cholesterol from becoming oxidized or modified into a dangerous form.

Food Sources Are Few and Far Between

Getting ample amounts of vitamin E from diet alone isn't easy, as few foods beyond vegetable oils, nut and seed oils, and whole grains are good sources of vitamin E. Even these foods may not contain much vitamin E if they've been processed, as so many of today's foods are.

Processed Oils Are a Double Whammy

Processed oils are a double whammy to your cardiovascular system—they bombard your arteries with toxic trans-fatty acids, while depriving you of the very nutrient (vitamin E).

Cold-Pressed Oils Are Best

To minimize your intake of harmful trans-fatty acids while maximizing your intake of vitamin E, choose only high-quality oils. The healthiest vegetable oils by far are cold-pressed.

Unlike lesser-grade oils, which are extracted using high temperatures or harsh chemicals, cold-pressed oils remain in their natural chemical configuration, and the nutrients they contain are likewise unaltered.

Not surprisingly, cold pressing is a more labor-intensive process than heat or chemical extraction, making oils derived this way much more expensive. But they are definitely worth the investment.

Choose Raw Over Roasted

As for nuts and seeds, eat them raw rather than roasted. Like vegetable oils, nut and seed oils are damaged by heat, transforming their good fats into unhealthy trans-fatty acids. And purchase whole grains only. The process of refining flour strips it of nutrients, including vitamin E.

Supplements Are a Must

Even if you follow all of these recommendations, you're likely to find it impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin E from food sources alone.

Yes, you may be able to get the paltry RDA of 15 milligrams (23 IU), but the most compelling studies on the role of vitamin E in protecting your body have used doses much higher than this—anywhere from 400 IU to 1,000 IU.

That's one reason I consider nutritional supplementation to be a must for every man, woman, and child.

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