Food and Nutrition Science: Vitamin E-asy

What is a vitamin?
-A vitamin is any of a group of organic substances essential in small quantities to normal metabolism, found in minute amounts in natural foodstuffs or sometimes produced synthetically: deficiencies of vitamins produce specific disorders.

What about Vitamin E?
-Vitamin E is part of a family of fat-soluble vitamins and acts as a powerful antioxidant in the body. An antioxidant is a compound that fights damaging free radicals by neutralizing them. Free radicals are disease-causing agents that can build up in the body. When we continuously consume foods with antioxidants, in this case, Vitamin E and our body can fight off these disease-causing agents. Vitamin E assists in strengthening our immune system and helps to protect us from a variety of problems as well as several serious illnesses. Vitamin E can be obtained from food for supplements.

How does it help?
- Vitamin E is important in the formation of red blood cells and helps the body use vitamin k.
- Vitamin E improves circulation, is necessary in the repair of tissue, promotes normal blood clotting and healing, but can also help to reduce scarring.
- Vitamin E also helps prevent anemia, maintains healthy skin and hair.
- It also boosts your immune system, protection of the nerves and muscles, protection against eye disorder, defense against arthritis and asthma, and various diabetes.
- Also can prevent heart disease and cancer.
- It is such a powerful antioxidant, it protects the cells against the damage that free radicals can impose on them. Free radicals damage can lead to the development of heart disease and cancer. Protects cell membranes.
- If you include sources of vitamin E or supplements in your diet you can help to prevent the damage of UV rays to your skin.
- Along with the ways that it works to protect your body, it can also help in fighting and protecting you from Alzheimer's disease and inflammation of the pancreas.
- Vitamin E helps protect your lung cells and limit damage from air pollution, enhances insulin function and improves blood glucose metabolism-which makes vitamin E great for people with diabetes and is great for ladies entering menopause because it reduces the symptoms.

What is the necessary requirements for daily intake by gender and age?
-The amount of vitamin E you need depends on your age, your weight and the problems you are trying to solve or prevent. For optimal health and disease prevention, it is recommended that you aim for 200 (IU) of vitamin E per day to help lower raised cholesterol levels. To help combat coronary artery disease and poor circulation you should take 400 (IU). Older adults take it to help reduce blood pressure, relax leg cramps, helps to prevent cataracts, and perhaps to assist in reducing age spots. Women find it useful in the treatment of premenstrual syndrome and breast disease. Teenagers, both male and female are required 15 mg of vitamin E each day.

*Heres a tip: Take your vitamin E supplement or food with vitamin C. These two antioxidants work together to prevent the oxidant that causes clogs in vessel walls and pairing them on a daily basis can make your real age three years younger!

What foods contain vitamin E?

-Vitamin E is found in many foods such as:
- Vegetable oils-corn, canola, sunflower, sesame, cottonseed, peanut, rice bran, soybean, and palm oils.
- Nuts-almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pistachios, and hazelnuts.
- Oil seeds
- Legumes, grains, corn, lentils, what, rice, northern beans, chickpeas. barely grass, and oats.
- Peanut butter and dry roasted peanuts
- Boiled spinach, chopped and boiled broccoli, raw tomato's, and red bell peppers.
- Kiwi fruit and sliced mango
- Cereal-raisin bran and corn flakes.

*Below is a chart on more foods that contain vitamin E but also the serving size needed for daily intake.

Food	Serving Size	Vitamin E(micrograms)	Percent of RDA
Almond oil	1 tablespoon	5.3	35.3
Almonds, dried	1 ounce	6.72	44.8
Apple with skin	1 medium	0.81	5.4
Asparagus, frozen	4 spears	1.15	7.6
Avocado, raw	1 medium	2.32	15.4
Corn oil	1 tablespoon	1.9	12.6
Corn oil (Mazola)	1 tablespoon	3	5
Cottonseed oil	1 tablespoon	4.8	32
Egg, whole, fresh	1 large	0.88	5.8
Hazelnuts, dried	1 ounce	6.7	44.6
Macaroni pasta, enriched	1 cup	1.03	6.8
Mango, raw	1 medium	2.32	15.4
Margarine (Mazola)	1 tablespoon	8	53.3
Margarine (Parkay,diet)	1 tablespoon	0.4	2.6
Mayonnaise (Hellmann's)	1 tablespoon	11	73.3
Miracle Whip (Kraft)	1 tablespoon	0.5	3.3
Olive oil	1 tablespoon	1.6	10.6
Palm oil	1 tablespoon	2.6	17.3
Peanut butter (Skippy)	1 tablespoon	3	5
Peanut oil	1 tablespoon	1.6	10.6
Peanuts, dried	1 ounce	2.56	17
Pistachio nuts, dried	1 ounce	1.46	9.7
Safflower oil	1 tablespoon	4.6	30.6
Soybean oil	1 tablespoon	1.5	10
Spaghetti pasta, enriched	1 cup	1.03	6.8
Spinach, raw	1/2 cup	0.53	3.5
Sunflower oil	1 tablespoon	6.1	40.6
Sweet potato	1 medium	5.93	39.5
Tomato juice	6 fluid ounces	0.4	2.6
Tomato, red, raw	1 tomato	0.42	2.8
Turnip greens, raw	1/2 cup chopped	0.63	4.2
Vegetable-oil spray	2.5 second spray	0.51	3.4
Walnuts, English	1 ounce	0.73	4.8
Wheat-germ oil	1 tablespoon	20.3	135.3

What is the impact of deficiency and excessive amount of vitamin E?

-Vitamin E deficiency symptoms may occur in people who have problems with digesting fat and also in premature babies.

In babies, these are the symptoms they may have:

- Their growth is slow

- Weight gain is insufficient (sometimes there may be a weight loss)

- Lack of appetite

- Physical and mental development abnormalities

In children, these are the symptoms they may have:

- Weak muscles

- Growth is slow

- Limb ataxia

- Neurological disorders

- Position senses disorders

- Disorders in some reflexes (or loss)

In adults, these are the symptoms they may have:

- Neurological disorders

- Low red blood cell levels

- Fertility problems and reduction of sex drive

- Anemia

- Cataracts

- Brain function disorders

- Liver function disorders

- Weak muscles

Vitamin deficiency can lead to major complications in life. You may take supplements in order to promote a healthy lifestyle especially if your not getting enough vitamin E from foods. Foods rich in vitamins will help you overcome vitamin E deficiency problems.Consume healthy foods and healthy drinks that contain vitamin E. Women of menopausal age, pregnant women and those who take contraceptive pills require vitamin E supplements.

Be careful!

-Vitamin E is a fat soluble vitamin and since it will be stored in the body in fatty tissue it can reach toxic levels. People who decide to take mega doses of vitamins and don't know what they're doing it for can suffer from too much of a good thing with this vitamin. If you are taking multi-vitamin supplements and a separate supplement, make sure that you are not taking a toxic dose. Also, watch out if you are taking iron as well as vitamin E they should be taken at different times of the day because iron in the form of ferrous sulfate will destroy the vitamin.

Vitamin E is an important element in your arsenal of disease battling nutrients and there is an increasing lack of vitamin E in our diets because we depend so much on processed food and the depletion of nutrients in the soil.

What is a recipe that contains a food item of vitamin E?

-A recipe containing a food item of vitamin E is called Not-So-Heavy-Date-Nut, with the ingredient of almonds.

1 1/2 heaping cups dates (about 40 medium dates), pitted and roughly chopped