υγεία – Page 12

Potassium is a mineral found in varying amounts in almost all foods. Vegetables, especially green leafy varieties, are generally our richest sources of potassium.

We list three excellent sources of potassium, 16 as very good sources, and 39 as good sources by our Nutrient Rating System. In other words, over half of our WHFoods provide you with significant amounts of potassium! In fact, all of our WHFoods contain at least some small but measurable amount of this mineral.

Along with sodium, chloride, calcium, and magnesium, potassium is an electrolyte, meaning that it helps to conduct electrical charges in the body. Like all the other electrolytes, our bodies have evolved elaborate systems to control blood levels in a narrow range. This is good news since normal levels of potassium are absolutely critical to life—if potassium levels get too high or too low, the heart and nervous system completely shut down. Luckily, most of us are able to obtain enough potassium from foods to meet our most basic needs. But since just meeting a minimal intake need is not a recipe for health, many people in the United States often fail to obtain optimal amounts of this nutrient, and pay a health cost for it.

This is because Americans fail to regularly eat fresh fruits and vegetables, while eating heavily salted prepared foods. In fact, a recent survey suggests that only about 5% of Americans meet minimal goals for eating fruits and vegetables. If you do not regularly meet these goals, it will be difficult to ensure your potassium intake will be optimal.

It is impossible to understand the role of potassium without addressing sodium as well. Sodium and potassium exist in a partnership, and each important use of potassium requires sodium to maintain balance. Importantly, as average diets in the United States have become depleted in potassium, they have become much more concentated in sodium.

For example, a heavily salted commercial tomato juice—despite containing a potassium rich food like tomato—often contains a ratio of sodium to potassium of more than 2:1. This ratio is not a desirable one! By comparison, our Mushroom, Tomato, and Basil Frittata has a ratio of sodium to potassium of 1:3, a much more health-promoting pattern. In fact, we believe one of the central benefits of the World’s Healthiest Foods approach is the way it rebalances sodium and potassium in a manner that is more consistent with good heart and kidney health.

Role in Health Support

Maintaining Normal Blood Pressure

Diets high in potassium are associated with improved blood pressure control. There are several mechanisms contributing to this beneficial effect, including improved kidney function, reduction in blood clotting, and more efficient opening of blood vessels. Because of these important benefits, therapeutic diets aimed at improving blood pressure control often place primary focus on increasing potassium from foods.

A good example of how foods rich in potassium can decrease elevated blood pressure is seen in the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet trials, where participants with high blood pressure who consumed an average of 8 to 10 total servings of fresh fruits and vegetables per day experienced significant drops in their blood pressure level. These servings focused on whole food choices similar to those featured in our recipes and the diet avoided processed and salt-choked choices like French fries. One key factor in these blood pressure benefits was the healthy balance of potassium to other minerals in these fresh fruits and vegetables.

Kidney Health

Perhaps the most important way to ensure strong kidney health is to keep your blood pressure under good control. As discussed above, diets high in potassium are well known to help with this.

In addition, diets rich in potassium have been associated with a reduction in kidney stone risk. This is thought to be because the naturally occurring potassium salts in plant foods help to neutralize acidity in the blood stream. This prevents leeching of calcium from the bones to buffer the acid, which in turn reduces urine calcium, preventing its deposition in the form of a stone. Please note that while diets rich in potassium can be helpful in preventing certain kidney-related problems in a healthy people with good kidney function, persons already known to have kidney problems and who are diagnosed with certain diseases of the kidney may need to carefully regulate their intake of potassium, since their kidneys might not otherwise be able to regulate the levels of potassium in their bloodstream.

Summary of Food Sources

Probably the first food that comes to mind when thinking about potassium is the banana. This is not wrong—by our Rating System, bananas are a good source of potassium. But there are 32 foods on our Rating Chart with more potassium per calorie than the banana.

Speaking more generally, the most potassium-rich food sources of potassium are fruits and vegetables. Some legumes, fish, and dairy products can also make important contributions to our daily potassium intake; yet, because these foods have more calories, they are not as highly rated by our Nutrient Richness System. For example, Swiss chard and lima beans both contain nearly 1000 milligrams of potassium, but because a serving of lima beans contains six times as many calories than a serving of chard, the nutrient richness of the chard is higher.

Potassium content within the group of fruits and vegetables can vary widely, even between two foods that seem superficially very similar. For example, a cup of cooked Swiss chard contains more than three times as much potassium as the same amount of kale or mustard greens.

smoothies

Fresh juices and smoothies make a nutritious snack or breakfast, helping you meet your daily fruit recommendation, between 1.5 to 2 cups per day, as set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Blending fruits does not significantly change their nutritional value unless you store the blended drink for an extended period.

Dr. Brian Clement, director of the Hippocrates Health Institute, has made several statements online claiming that green smoothies should not be considered “health food” and should instead be considered “recreational” because the act of blending them for 90-120 seconds destroys anywhere from 85-92% of nutrients in a smoothie.

His premise is (overly)simple. Oxidation caused by oxygen being sucked into the blender during a blend cycle “destroys” nutrients in the food that would otherwise be preserved if eaten in its solid state.
Now I’m not denying that some nutrient loss does occur from blending. However, oxidation occurs when whole foods are juiced, cut, chopped, shredded, peeled, chewed, dehydrated and otherwise exposed to air. Nutrients in food begin to degrade the instant they are harvested, exposed to UV light and heat. You can’t get 100% of the nutrients in every food unless you get down on all fours and eat plants right out of the soil they grow in.

First of all, a professional blender blends a smoothie in 30 seconds or less, not 90-120 seconds (the time it takes, he claims, to cause 92% nutrient loss).

Secondly, green smoothies are loaded with antioxidants such as vitamin C, vitamin E, flavonoids and carotenoids that help reduce and prevent oxidation.

Victoria Boutenko conducted an experiment on potatoes where she juiced one and blended the other. After two days, the blended potato had very little oxidation, most of which was at the top of the glass where the liquid was exposed to air. The juiced potato turned brown and oxidized much more rapidly.

folate

What can high-folate foods do for you?

Support red blood cell production and help prevent anemia
Help prevent homocysteine build-up in your blood
Support cell production, especially in your skin
Allow nerves to function properly
Help prevent osteoporosis-related bone fractures
Help prevent dementias including Alzheimer’s disease

What events can indicate a need for more high-folate foods?

Continue reading “folate”

Sugar

we need sugar to live, it is responsible for a lot of the energy our body produces.

It’s a matter of how much activity from different sorts of taste buds the brain labels as a good thing.

When our taste buds developed, some way back in our evolutionary history, there would not have been any problems with obesity, acquired diabetes, etc. Sweetness in nature means sugar (fructose, glucose, sucrose), sugar means ready-to-use energy, which is pretty much always good. If you are choosing between two types of plant to eat, going for the sugary one is a big advantage.

People do seek out salty foods (in the West, everyone eats more than is recommended as it’s added to everything for taste). Salt (sodium chloride) is a very useful chemical as sodium ions are crucial in making nerves work. People don’t enjoy eating pure salt presumably because although eg heart disease might not have been a problem for our ancestors, it’s not that hard to kill yourself immediately with salt if you don’t know when to stop – especially if you live near the sea.

Bitterness mostly acts as a warning sign for decomposition and the presence of toxins in food. Humans have adapted to be able to enjoy a certain amount, but it’s usually a reason to be suspicious of a food. I’ve heard children are hypersensitive to bitterness, perhaps because it’s best for them to be extra wary of things which might be toxic, and this is why they are so suspicious of vegetables, never mind coffee.

‘Umami’ is supposed to help you with your protein needs, obviously.

Texture is also important of course, which helps us seek out fatty foods. (Fat, like sugar, was good news as an energy source.) Even if your nose and taste buds stopped working completely, you might still not be that keen on mud.

I don’t know about ‘tastes’ that aren’t in taste buds (ie those more closely connected to smell). It may be that we have a whole range of indicators for freshness/nutrition/edibility and that these various smells/flavours set them off.

Humans are particularly good at enjoying a range of tastes though – chilli and mint probably evolved their temperature-related flavours to put animals off eating them.

Uploaded on Jul 30, 2009

Watch “The Skinny on Obesity” with Dr. Lustig: http://www.uctv.tv/skinny-on-obesity
Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin. Series: UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public [7/2009] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 16717]More UCTV videos about sugar: http://www.uctv.tv/sugar
Dr. Lustig’s book (comes out Dec 27, 2012), “Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease”: http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Chance-Beat…

Published on Oct 18, 2013

(Visit: http://www.uctv.tv/) Dr. Robert Lustig, UCSF Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, updates his very popular video “Sugar: The Bitter Truth.” He argues that sugar and processed foods are driving the obesity epidemic, which in turn affects our endocrine system. Series: “UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine presents Mini Medical School for the Public” [10/2013] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 25641]

By Dr. Mercola

“Death by sugar” is not an overstatement…
Evidence is mounting that sugar is the primary factor causing not just obesity, but also chronic and lethal disease.
There’s really no doubt anymore that excess sugar can be toxic to your body, and it’s only a matter of time before it will be commonly accepted as a causative factor of most cancers, in the same way as we accept that smoking and alcohol abuse are direct causes of lung cancer and cirrhosis of the liver.
Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, is one of the leading experts on childhood obesity, and has been a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism.
His work has highlighted the major differences in how different sugars are broken down and used by the human body.
If you haven’t already seen it, I would strongly encourage you to watch Dr. Lustig’s lecture featured above.
He’s a very compelling lecturer and you will learn loads, particularly about how fructose is ruining your health biochemically.

People Are Really Waking Up to the Dangers of Sugar

His lecture, which was posted on YouTube in July 2009, went viral and has received more than 2.2 million views so far.
Many of those views are no doubt due to this newsletter, as my two previous articles on Dr. Lustig’s work: “Sugar May Be Bad, But This Sweetener is Far More Deadly”, and “This Common Food Ingredient Can Really Mess Up Your Metabolism” alone have well over one million views. People are watching the lecture at the rate of 50,000 a month, even though it’s 90 minutes long, The New York Times reports.ⁱ Calling sugar a “toxin” or a “poison” 13 times, and referring to it as “evil” five times, Robert Lustig explains that the dangers of sugar apply to all forms of it, whether it’s the white granulated stuff – commonly known as sucrose – or high fructose corn syrup.
And his stance has nothing to do with calories, according to the NYT:
“It’s a poison by itself,” Dr. Lustig says.

What is trans fat?

rans fat raises your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and lowers your HDL (“good”) (HDL) cholesterol. Find out more about trans fat and how to avoid it.

By Mayo Clinic Staff

Trans fat is considered by many doctors to be the worst type of fat you can eat. Unlike other dietary fats, trans fat — also called trans-fatty acids — both raises your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and lowers your HDL (“good”) cholesterol.

A high LDL cholesterol level in combination with a low HDL cholesterol level increases your risk of heart disease, the leading killer of men and women. Here’s some information about trans fat and how to avoid it.

What is trans fat?

Some meat and dairy products contain small amounts of naturally occurring trans fat. But most trans fat is formed through an industrial process that adds hydrogen to vegetable oil, which causes the oil to become solid at room temperature.

This partially hydrogenated oil is less likely to spoil, so foods made with it have a longer shelf life. Some restaurants use partially hydrogenated vegetable oil in their deep fryers, because it doesn’t have to be changed as often as do other oils.

Trans fat in your food

The manufactured form of trans fat, known as partially hydrogenated oil, is found in a variety of food products, including:

Baked goods. Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks. Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavor the popcorn.
Fried food. Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough. Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine. Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Reading food labels

In the United States if a food has less than 0.5 grams of trans fat in a serving, the food label can read 0 grams trans fat. This hidden trans fat can add up quickly, especially if you eat several servings of multiple foods containing less than 0.5 grams a serving.

When you check the food label for trans fat, also check the food’s ingredient list for partially hydrogenated vegetable oil — which indicates that the food contains some trans fat, even if the amount is below 0.5 grams.

Salt, Oil, Sugar

Published on Feb 1, 2013

If you read the studies, the Mediterranean Diet is healthy IN SPITE OF olive oil, not because of it. For more info and to get the full talk on DVD: https://secure2.vegsource.com/catalog…

This is a short excerpt from the talk of Michael Klaper MD at the Healthy Lifestyle Expo 2012, and comes from the Bronze DVD set.

If you have read about a recent study on the Mediterranean Diet (2/2013) which seemed to promote olive oil and nuts, read this link to get the facts on this study: http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2013o…

Zinc

from The George Mateljan Foundation World’s Healthiest Foods

World’s Healthiest Foods rich in zinc

FoodCalsDRI/DV

Beef13337.1%

Lamb35035.1%

Sesame Seeds20625.3%

Pumpkin Seeds18022.9%

Lentils23022.8%

Garbanzo Beans26922.8%

Cashews22121%

Quinoa22218.3%

Turkey16717.7%

Shrimp13516.8%

For serving size for specific foods see the Nutrient Rating Chart.

Basic Description

From a food standpoint, zinc may be a less familiar dietary mineral than iron or calcium or sodium, but it is no less important to our metabolism or our health. Like magnesium, zinc is used as a cofactor by a number of critical enzymes. (This “cofactor” status of zinc means that zinc participates directly in the activity of the enzymes.) In fact, more than 300 zinc-dependent enzymes are currently known. Even a mild dietary deficiency of zinc can have far-reaching health implications. Immunity, reproduction, skin health, and vision are just some of the areas that can be affected.

The importance of this mineral to multiple body systems makes it even more important for us to get an adequate amount of zinc in our daily diet. This task can be a very challenging one. Although there is some amount of zinc in all WHFoods, no individual food ranks as an excellent source of this mineral. Only five foods rank as very good sources, and 24 foods rank as good sources of zinc. If you are seeking to increase your dietary intake of zinc, this limited number of ranked foods means that you cannot count on any particular food to obtain your 11 milligrams of daily zinc. (This is the amount that constitutes the DRI, or Dietary Reference Intake level for this mineral.) Instead, you’ll need to depend on the many different WHFoods groups and diversity in your meal plan. Our Summary of Food Sources section will provide you with additional recommendations in this area.

Like sodium and potassium, or calcium and magnesium, zinc and copper have overlaps in transport and metabolism. For this reason, balancing dietary zinc and copper sources may help prevent deficiency or excess of either mineral.

Role in Health Support

Immune Function

Diets low in zinc can induce measureable reductions in the activity of the immune system. These reductions occur relatively quickly—in as few as four weeks after starting a low-zinc diet—and are reversible upon getting zinc back into the body.

This experimental low-zinc diet only contained 2-3.5 milligrams of zinc per day, or less than you would have in a single serving of our Mediterranean-Style Salad.

It appears that elderly individuals are especially prone to developing reduced immunity related to poor zinc nutrition. Even in this at-risk population, restoring zinc status appears to reverse the detrimental changes within weeks.

One research group has gone so far as to recommend using a Mediterranean-style diet—a diet very similar to the World’s Healthiest Foods approach—to protect against zinc deficiency in elderly individuals. We couldn’t agree more.

Skin Health

Researchers have been able to induce acne symptoms in young men by feeding them diets deficient in zinc. This effect occurs surprisingly quickly, with one research group demonstrating a significant change in skin health within 12 days of depleted zinc foods. Other researchers have been able to demonstrate a number of other skin and related symptoms, including facial rash, foot fungus, and canker sores. Again, each of these changes was reversed when zinc was brought back into the diet. While we don’t want to overgeneralize about the significance of this study—and are by no means saying that most acne is caused by zinc deficiency—it does suggest that too little zinc from a meal plan can be a factor in compromising skin health, and that it’s worthwhile building your zinc intake up to recommended levels in order to support the health of your skin.

Sensory Organs

Acute depletion of zinc can causes loss of the sense of taste and appetite. The level of zinc deficiency necessary to cause these changes appears to be more severe than the immune system changes reported above, and is often related to another factor such as cancer treatment or anorexia. One research group recently estimated that about 15% of elderly people who lost their sense of taste did so due to zinc deficiency, and some others did so due to more serious conditions; so make sure to report this symptom to your doctor if you develop it.

Like the other symptoms related to zinc deficiency, this change in sense of taste appears to be reversible in the majority of people who get back to normal zinc status. Here are a couple of recipes—Braised Red Curry Lamb and Vegetables as well as Healthy Chef’s Salad with Walnuts and French Dressing—that should help to combat zinc-related loss of sense of taste, both by acting as good sources of zinc, and by including a good zing of spices.

Zinc is also critical to vision. It works together with vitamin A to help sense light and to send nerve impulses to the brain. Although we don’t currently know how much of age-related vision loss is due to zinc deficiency, researchers have shown that zinc levels in the retina (the part of the eye that sees light) decline in tandem with vision loss.

Male Reproductive Health

Advanced deficiency of zinc can impair motility and number of sperm. In one study, young male volunteers ate a diet with only 10% of the Daily Value requirement (15 milligrams) for a little over a month. Researchers measured sperm quality and quantity before and after the zinc-deficient diet.

This study demonstrated that even brief periods of severe zinc deficiency can lead to measureable changes in sperm composition and quantity. Studies correlating diseases known to impair zinc nutrition with reduced fertility seem to second this conclusion. Here’s a recipe—our 7-Minute Sautéed Crimini Mushroom—rich in zinc and selenium, another nutrient necessary for proper sperm production.

Summary of Food Sources

The most well-known fact about zinc in foods is almost certainly that oysters are rich in zinc. A typical oyster weighing approximately one ounce will contain about 8-9 milligrams of zinc. So two oysters would put you over the WHFoods recommended daily amount of 11 milligrams. In addition to oysters, other shellfish tend to be rich in this mineral, as are many other animal foods. Shrimp, for example, rank as our 10th best WHFoods source of zinc. And our Oyster and Clam Chowder recipe contains more than 400% of the DRI for zinc.

Statistically, red meat and poultry make up the biggest contributions to zinc intake in the diets of Americans. However, this statistic is somewhat misleading, since the two animal meats are quite different in their concentration of zinc. Grass-fed beef ranks as our top WHFoods source of zinc with 1 milligram in every ounce. However, pasture-raised chicken only ranks as our 44th best source of zinc, with only one-quarter milligram per ounce. (The reason that poultry makes such a large zinc contribution in U.S. diets is due to the large volume of poultry that we eat.) The bottom line here: if you enjoy both beef and chicken in your meal plan but want to focus on your intake of zinc, beef is your better option. Fish—including scallops and shrimp—are both good sources of zinc. After beef, our best WHFoods land animal source of zinc is lamb.

It is also true that many nuts and seeds are rich in zinc. Sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds, for example, rank in our Top 10 WHFoods sources for this mineral! And cashews are not far behind at our 11th best source. These nuts and seeds also provide the largest amounts of zinc to our 7-Day Healthiest Way of Eating Plan. For people eating a largely plant-based diet, these sources will be necessary on a daily basis to ensure a consistent intake of zinc. Shiitake mushrooms,crimini mushrooms, spinach, and asparagus are examples of very good plant-food sources of zinc. Among our WHFoods whole grains, quinoa and oats are you best zinc sources.

For most nutrients, there are a few food sources that stand out as providing most of a day’s supply. Other than oysters, this is not true for zinc. Because of this, you’ll need to have multiple contributors most days to reach your recommended intake level. With 38 of our World’s Healthiest Foods containing at least 1 milligram of zinc, you’ll have a wide variety of items to choose from to make sure you meet your goal.

Nutrient Rating Chart

Introduction to Nutrient Rating System Chart

In order to better help you identify foods that feature a high concentration of nutrients for the calories they contain, we created a Food Rating System. This system allows us to highlight the foods that are especially rich in particular nutrients. The following chart shows the World’s Healthiest Foods that are either an excellent, very good, or good source of zinc. Next to each food name, you’ll find the serving size we used to calculate the food’s nutrient composition, the calories contained in the serving, the amount of zinc contained in one serving size of the food, the percent Daily Value (DV%) that this amount represents, the nutrient density that we calculated for this food and nutrient, and the rating we established in our rating system. For most of our nutrient ratings, we adopted the government standards for food labeling that are found in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “Reference Values for Nutrition Labeling.” Read more background information and details of our rating system.

World’s Healthiest Foods ranked as quality sources of zinc
Food	Serving Size	Cals	Amount (mg)	DRI/DV (%)	Nutrient Density	World’s Healthiest Foods Rating
Beef	4 oz	132.7	4.09	37.18	5.0	very good
Spinach	1 cup	41.4	1.37	12.45	5.4	very good
Asparagus	1 cup	39.6	1.08	9.82	4.5	very good
Mushrooms, Shiitake	0.50 cup	40.6	0.96	8.73	3.9	very good
Mushrooms, Crimini	1 cup	15.8	0.79	7.18	8.2	very good
Lamb	4 oz	350.4	3.87	35.18	1.8	good
Sesame Seeds	0.25 cup	206.3	2.79	25.36	2.2	good
Pumpkin Seeds	0.25 cup	180.3	2.52	22.91	2.3	good
Garbanzo Beans	1 cup	269.0	2.51	22.82	1.5	good
Lentils	1 cup	229.7	2.51	22.82	1.8	good
Cashews	0.25 cup	221.2	2.31	21.00	1.7	good
Quinoa	0.75 cup	222.0	2.02	18.36	1.5	good
Turkey	4 oz	166.7	1.95	17.73	1.9	good
Shrimp	4 oz	134.9	1.85	16.82	2.2	good
Tofu	4 oz	164.4	1.78	16.18	1.8	good
Scallops	4 oz	125.9	1.76	16.00	2.3	good
Green Peas	1 cup	115.7	1.64	14.91	2.3	good
Oats	0.25 cup	151.7	1.55	14.09	1.7	good
Yogurt	1 cup	149.4	1.45	13.18	1.6	good
Beet Greens	1 cup	38.9	0.72	6.55	3.0	good
Summer Squash	1 cup	36.0	0.70	6.36	3.2	good
Broccoli	1 cup	54.6	0.70	6.36	2.1	good
Swiss Chard	1 cup	35.0	0.58	5.27	2.7	good
Brussels Sprouts	1 cup	56.2	0.51	4.64	1.5	good
Miso	1 TBS	34.2	0.44	4.00	2.1	good
Parsley	0.50 cup	10.9	0.33	3.00	4.9	good
Sea Vegetables	1 TBS	10.8	0.33	3.00	5.0	good
Tomatoes	1 cup	32.4	0.31	2.82	1.6	good
Bok Choy	1 cup	20.4	0.29	2.64	2.3	good

World’s Healthiest Foods Rating	Rule
excellent	DRI/DV>=75% OR Density>=7.6 AND DRI/DV>=10%
very good	DRI/DV>=50% OR Density>=3.4 AND DRI/DV>=5%
good	DRI/DV>=25% OR Density>=1.5 AND DRI/DV>=2.5%

Impact of Cooking, Storage and Processing

Like other minerals, zinc in foods is remarkably stable to shelf storage. In fact, your foods will go bad long before the zinc content changes in any relevant way. But because many of the zinc-rich foods (meats, shellfish, and seeds, for instance) have such a limited shelf life for other reasons (like risk of bacterial contamination), you’ll want to be careful in the way you store them.

Cooking meat does not lead to dramatic loss of zinc. So unlike some other minerals—for example, potassium—you don’t need to be concerned here about losing too much zinc if you enjoy cooked meats in your meal plan. (And by the way, we do not recommend consumption of raw meat due to contamination risk.)

In plant foods, you can expect some zinc loss in cooking liquids, but this loss tends to be less than that seen with most other minerals. For example, boiled lentils lose about 10-20% of their zinc content. While this loss is not exactly irrelevant, in a practical sense, this still leaves lentils as a good source of dietary zinc (and given that lentils generally are not eaten raw you can know that by preparing them you are still enjoying a zinc-rich food).

Soaking beans, seeds, and grains for several hours, then allowing sprouts to form, may significantly improve zinc bioavailability from these foods.

Risk of Dietary Deficiency

While the average U.S. diet provides adequate zinc for most men and women, symptomatic zinc deficiency does sometimes occur in the U.S. Unlike for many of the other minerals, however, the beef-rich diet of many Americans (averaging about 1 pound of beef per week) tends to provide zinc in good supply. Not only beef, but other animal meats, provide us with substantial amounts of zinc, including grass-fed lamb and pasture-raised turkey. Perhaps the biggest risk of zinc deficiency in a healthy adult would occur in a person who consumed few animal foods and whose diet was largely based on processed foods, with no routine intake of nuts, seeds, fresh vegetables, or whole grains.

On average, U.S. children have sufficient intake of zinc. By the DRI standard described below, less than 5% of children in any age group are currently eating zinc-deficient diets.

While the above statistic might sound like good news, it isn’t because children appear to be depending more and more on fortified foods—foods with extra added zinc in processing—rather than meeting their zinc needs from whole, natural foods. For example, ready-to-eat processed cereals have become an important source of zinc in kids’ diets. This trend has three unwanted results. First, it leaves kids lacking in nutrients that are naturally present alongside of zinc in whole foods. Second, it leaves kids with imbalanced intake of zinc in relationship to other nutrients (like copper). And third, it puts kids at risk of excess zinc intake due to overconsumption of fortified processed foods. According to present-day research, nearly 90% of children under age 1, and 50% of those aged 1-3 years, eat more than the age appropriate upper limit of zinc daily.

Vegetarian diets tend to be a bit lower in zinc than diets that contain meat. Still, this difference is not as great as you might predict from looking at the food source lists below. According to a 2013 review of previously published research, vegetarians on average eat just under 1 mg of zinc less than meat-eaters in their daily diets. If you eat a largely or fully vegetarian diet, including seeds on a daily basis might be a good step toward ensuring good zinc nutrition.

Other Circumstances that Might Contribute to Deficiency

In addition to poor dietary supply, increased need for zinc (beyond our typical everyday needs) can also contribute to a relative deficiency of this nutrient. Infections, trauma, stress, and steroid medications are just some of the examples of situations where body tissues take up extra zinc from the blood, creating a relative deficiency.

Serious gastrointestinal problems can impair the ability to absorb zinc from foods. For example, more than half of people with an inflammatory bowel disorder called Crohn’s disease have evidence of zinc deficiency. If you have inflammatory bowel disease, you’ll probably need some help from a doctor or nutritionist to ensure good vitamin and mineral intake.

Our bodies are able to somewhat compensate for a very low zinc intake by reducing the amount of the mineral lost in the urine and feces. People with kidney or bowel diseases may not be as equipped to respond to temporarily low-zinc diets as people with normal organ function.

Relationship with Other Nutrients

Too much zinc in the diet or from dietary supplements can impair copper nutrition. This interaction can occur in two ways. First, copper and zinc may directly compete for absorption from our gastrointestinal tract. Second, diets high in zinc may lead to overproduction of a protein called metallothionein, a protein that binds both copper and zinc. This second type of interaction might turn out to be the most important type in this arena.

The takeaway message here is probably two-fold. First, focus on foods that are strong sources of both copper and zinc. Sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds would be good examples of these. Secondarily, using high doses of zinc supplements to circumvent the difficulty in finding good food sources may do as much or more harm as good.

Phytate—a phosphorus-rich molecule that may provide us with health benefits well beyond its phosphorus content—is also a molecule that can inhibit absorption of dietary zinc. (Phytate can inhibit the absorption of other minerals as well, including iron.) While phytate can be broken down in our large intestine by naturally occurring bacteria, it may not be a good thing to have too much zinc bound together with phytate, since zinc is typically absorbed from our digestive tract much earlier during the process of digestion. If too much zinc remains bound to phytate before the two can be separate, we may not be able to absorb as much zinc as would otherwise be desirable. As discussed earlier in this profile, sprouting grains and legumes may help reduce phytate levels to a significant degree. We would like to point out, however, that there is no research to suggest that consumption of non-sprouted whole grains and legumes in a balanced diet increases a person’s risk of zinc deficiency.

Risk of Dietary Toxicity

The major risk associated with excessive zinc intake is that you will crowd out the ability to absorb other important minerals. In particular, high zinc intakes impair absorption of copper, a nutrient we already struggle to obtain from our diets. Reduced copper absorption, in turn, can lead to anemia and a resulting fatigue.

Fortunately, it appears that all the published cases of excessive zinc intake involve either a nutritional supplement or a related non-dietary exposure (denture creams, for instance, can contain excessive amounts of zinc). It would be theoretically possible to obtain too much dietary zinc by eating several oysters every day, but this has never been reported to be a problem in published research studies, perhaps because oysters are also rich in the other minerals that compete with zinc for absorption.

There is a Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) set for zinc by the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences of 40 milligrams per day. The basis for this recommended limit involved research on enzyme activity in red blood cells. (The enzymes required a special balance between copper and zinc to function properly, and too much zinc upset this balance.) As described earlier, a good balance of zinc and copper in food might be able to help offset possible problems even if zinc intake regularly exceeded the UL. It is always worth remembering that ULs set by the National Academy of Sciences refer to regular intake of nutrients on a routine basis, not occasional intake every once in a while.

Disease Checklist

Common cold
Acne vulgaris
Down syndrome
Canker sores
Liver disease
Ulcer
Diabetes
Depression
Macular degeneration
Infertility (male)

Public Health Recommendations

The 1999 Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) levels for zinc as established by the National Academy of Sciences are as follows:

0-6 months: 2 mg
7-12 months: 3 mg
1-3 years: 3 mg
4-8 years: 5 mg
9-13 years: 8 mg
14-18 years, female: 8 mg
14-18 years, male: 11 mg
19+ years, female: 8 mg
19+ years, male: 11 mg
Pregnant women, 14-18 years: 12 mg
Pregnant women, 19+ years: 11 mg
Lactating women, 14-18 years: 13 mg
Lactating women, 19+ years: 12 mg

All of the DRI recommendations above are Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs), except the recommendation for 0-6 month old infants, which is an AI (Adequate Intake) recommendation. (AI intake recommendations are somewhat less precise than RDA recommendations.)

The Daily Value (DV) for zinc is 15 mg per day for adults and children older than 4 years. DVs are the standards used on food packaging labels.

The National Academy of Sciences has set a Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for zinc intake at 40 mg per day for adults. As noted in the toxicity section above, it would be very unusual to consistently be above this threshold by dietary intake alone.

As our WHFoods recommendation level for zinc, we chose the DRI standard for males 14 years and older of 11 milligrams. With the exception of pregnancy and lactation, this level covers the needs of females 14 years and older as well.

References

Alaimo K, McDowell MA, Briefel RR, et al. Dietary intake of vitamins, minerals, and fiber of persons ages 2 months and over in the United States: Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Phase 1, 1988-91. Advance Data 1994;258:1-28.
Aliani M, Udenigwe CC, Girgih AT, et al. Zinc deficiency and taste perception in the elderly. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr 2013;53:245-50.
American Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada. Position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada: Vegetarian Diets. J Am Diet Assoc 2003;103:748-65.
Arsenault JE, Brown KH. Zinc intake of US preschool children exceeds new dietary reference intakes. Am J Clin Nutr 2003;78:1011-7.
Bae YS, Hill ND, Bibi Y, et al. Innovative uses for zinc in dermatology. Dermatol Clin 2010;28;587-97.
El-Tawil AM. Zinc deficiency in men with Crohn’s disease may contribute to poor sperm function and male infertility. Andrologia 2003;35:337-41.
Erie JC, Good JA, Butz JA, et al. Reduced zinc and copper in the retinal pigment epithelium and choroid in age-related macular degeneration. Am J Ophthalmol 2009;147:276-82.
Foster M, Chu A, Petocz P, et al. Effect of vegetarian diets on zinc status: a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies in humans. J Sci Food Agric 2013;93:2362-71.
Gerber N, Scheeder MRL, Wenk C. The influence of cooking and fat trimming on the actual nutrient intake from meat. Meat Science 2009;81:148-54.
Grahn BH, Paterson PG, Gottschall-Pass KT, et al. Zinc and the eye. J Am Coll Nutr 2001;20:S106-18.
Haros M, Carlsson NG, Almgren A, Larsson-Alminger M, Sandberg AS, & Andlid T (2009). Phytate degradation by human gut isolated Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum ATCC27919 and its probiotic potential. International journal of food microbiology, 135 (1), 7-14 PMID: 19674804
Haros M, Bielecka M, Honke J, & Sanz Y (2007). Myo-inositol hexakisphosphate degradation by Bifidobacterium infantis ATCC 15697. International journal of food microbiology, 117 (1), 76-84 PMID: 17462768
Hunt CD, Johnson PE, Herbel J, et al. Effects of dietary zinc depletion on seminal volume and zinc loss, serum testosterone concentrations, and sperm morphology in young men. Am J Clin Nutr 1992;56:148-57.
Imoscopi A, Inelmen EM, Sergi G, et al. Taste loss in the elderly: epidemiology, causes and consequences. Again Clin Exp Res 2012;24:570-9.
Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board. Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Arsenic, Boron, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silicon, Vanadium, and Zinc. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001.
Kahmann L, Uciechowski P, Warmuth S, et al. Effect of improved zinc status on T helper cell activation and TH1/TH2 ratio in healthy elderly individuals. Biogerontology 2006;7:429-35.
King JC. Zinc: an essential but elusive nutrient. Am J Clin Nutr 2011;94:679S-84S.
Maserejian NN, Hall SA, McKinlay JB. Low dietary or supplemental zinc is associated with depression symptoms among women, but not men, in a population-based epidemiological survey. J Affect Disord 2012;136:781-8.
Mocchegiani E, Romeo J, Malavolta M, et al. Zinc: dietary intake and impact of supplementation on immune function in elderly. Age 2013;35:839-60.
Solomons NW. Mild human zinc deficiency produces an imbalance between cell-mediated and humoral immunity. Nutr Rev 1998;56:27-8.
Taylor CM, Goode HF, Aggett PJ, et al. Symptomatic zinc deficiency in experimental zinc deprivation. J Clin Pathol 1992;45:83-4.
Wang N, Hatcher DW, Toews R, et al. Influence of cooking and dehulling on nutritional composition of several varieties of lentils (Lens culinaris). LWT Food Sci Technol 2009;42:842-8.
Wang N, Hatcher DW, Tyler RT, et al. Effect of cooking on the composition of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L.). Food Res Int 2010;43:589-94.

vitamin E

from The George Mateljan Foundation World’s Healthiest Foods

World’s Healthiest Foods rich in

vitamin E

Sunflower Seeds20482%

Almonds13240.2%

Spinach4124.9%

Swiss Chard3522%

Avocado24020.7%

Peanuts20720.2%

Turnip Greens2918%

Asparagus4018%

Beet Greens3917.4%

Mustard Greens3616.6%

For serving size for specific foods see the Nutrient Rating Chart.

Basic Description

Vitamin E is a blanket term for eight different naturally occurring nutrients—four different tocopherols and four different tocotrienols. Each of these vitamin E types is considered a fat-soluble antioxidant, and all eight are found in varying degrees in our daily diet. You may sometimes hear all eight molecules being referred to collectively as “tocochromanols.”

The most famous of the vitamin E group is alpha-tocopherol. Both with respect to diet and high-dose supplementation, it is among the most intensely studied of nutrients. This is because its ability to help prevent free radical damage is well documented Public health recommendations for vitamin E are typically measured in milligram equivalents of alpha-tocopherol equivalents, or mg ATE. You will find this abbreviation being used throughout our live website charts.

However, despite the current prominence of alpha-tocopherol in public health recommendations and nutrition research, scientists are also interested in potential health benefits associated with lesser studied members of the vitamin E family, especially the tocotrienols. Like tocopherols (including alpha-tocopherol), tocotrienols are naturally occurring forms of vitamin E. Since they cannot be converted by humans into alpha-tocopherol, the tocotrienols are not considered relevant in meeting vitamin E needs. However, preliminary studies suggest that tocotrienols can provide us with health benefits in a way that is distinct from alpha-tocopherol, as well as other tocopherols. We look forward to future research in this area.

In this introductory description of vitamin E, it is also worth mentioning the unusually confusing nature of its units of measurement. There is really no such thing as “milligrams of vitamin E” since this description fails to explain what forms of the vitamin were considered when making the determination. As mentioned earlier, our website chart present vitamin E data in terms of “mg ATE” which stands for “milligrams of alpha-tocopherol equivalents.” However, other types of equivalents can be used in presenting vitamin E data. For example, equivalents of d-alpha-tocopheryl acetate and equivalents of d-alpha-tocopheryl succinate can be used. (These two chelated, synthetic forms of vitamin E are frequently found in dietary supplements due to their longer shelf life).

While many of the World’s Healthiest Foods are rich in vitamin E, we see that average U.S. adults fail to come close to a minimal requirement for this important nutrient. Below, we’ll give you some guidance to help you chose foods rich in vitamin E that will better help you meet your daily needs.

You’ll have a number of foods to choose from to build a menu that is rich in vitamin E. We list seven of the World’s Healthiest Foods as excellent sources of vitamin E. Another six foods rate as very good sources, while twelve foods are listed as good.

Role in Health Support

Protection Against Free Radical Damage

Vitamin E is a potent antioxidant. Because it is fat soluble, we see it offer protection against damage to the fats that line the outside of every cell of our body.

When the fats in our membranes become damaged, important cell functions become compromised. Based on this important mechanism, researchers have studied whether diets low in vitamin E are associated with many diseases associated with aging.

We also see vitamin E protect fats from free radical damage before we eat them. We’ll talk about the role of vitamin E in protecting foods during storage below in the Impact of Cooking, Storage, and Processing section.

Protection Against Heart Disease

Vitamin E helps protect LDL cholesterol (sometimes referred to as “bad” cholesterol) from free radical damage. Free radical damage typically involves an unwanted interaction with a reactive oxygen-containing molecule. When vitamin E is deficient—and under some other circumstances as well—it is possible for LDL cholesterol to become insufficiently protected and damaged by oxygen. When damaged in this way, the LDL cholesterol is often referred to as “oxidized LDL.” If the process continues, it is possible for oxidized LDL to accumulate in blood vessel walls and create the early stages of hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis).

Diets rich in vitamin E from vegetables, fish, and plant oils—like the Mediterranean diet for example—have been linked to cardiovascular prevention in large health surveys. Understand, though, that the potential benefits of this diet are not limited to or fully explained by vitamin E, and that dietary supplements of vitamin E (in comparison to vitamin E in food) have not demonstrated the same sort of preventive benefit that researchers hoped to see.

Summary of Food Sources

Of our seven excellent sources of vitamin E, five are green leafy vegetables. Followers of our WHFoods site will probably not be surprised by this—green leafy vegetables score well as sources of many different nutrients. With respect to vitamin E, their combination of nutrient richness and low calories is very compelling to our rating system. Expect each serving of greens to contain about 15 to 25% of your daily requirement.

Outside of greens, the foods with the most vitamin E tend to be high fat foods. These include nuts, seeds, extracted oils, and fatty fish. The amount of vitamin E per serving of nuts or seeds can vary widely, but you should expect to receive at least about 10% of your daily need, and sometimes as much as 80% (as we see with sunflower seeds).

Many oil rich-plants give us good amounts of vitamin E. These include olives and avocados, both of which provide between 10-15% of your daily need. Because these oily foods contain more calories, we rate them as good rather than very good or excellent sources. Still, we encourage using these plants or plant oils to help provide vitamin E.

We see a few of our World’s Healthiest seafoods are rich sources of vitamin E. Shrimp and sardines are two examples of this, with each topping 10% of daily requirements. Salmon and cod contain a little less vitamin E, yet can still be solid contributors.

Because most U.S. residents fail to get enough vitamin E in their daily diet, we recommend paying some attention to food sources of this important antioxidant. As long as you make a few of these vitamin E rich foods staple foods in your daily diet, you should be able to meet your intake requirements through foods alone..

Perhaps the easiest way to make sure you are getting enough vitamin E is by including sunflower seeds as snacks or as part of meals. This recipe for Healthy Turkey Salad contains nearly the whole Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) in one meal. Here are a few more recipes—Pureed Sweet Peas and 5-Minute Collard Greens with Sunflower Seeds—that include sunflower seeds.

We can also rely on meals that contain multiple foods providing more modest amounts of vitamin E, and allow them to stack up to become a more substantial amount. Our Poached Eggs Over Spinach and Mushrooms recipe contains spinach, eggs, and olive oil as sources of vitamin E. Together, they provide one-third of the RDA in only 10% of your daily calorie intake.

Recipes that contain nuts and nut butters will be a nice way to add vitamin E into your meals. You can be creative in the way you do this; for example, our 10-Minute Apricot Bars is a dessert recipe that provides more than 40% of the RDA for vitamin E.

There is a balance between getting plenty of fat-rich foods as sources of vitamin E and overdoing it and letting the calories pile up. As long as you choose wisely, you should be able to cover your vitamin E needs with just a few rich sources.

Nutrient Rating Chart

Introduction to Nutrient Rating System Chart

In order to better help you identify foods that feature a high concentration of nutrients for the calories they contain, we created a Food Rating System. This system allows us to highlight the foods that are especially rich in particular nutrients. The following chart shows the World’s Healthiest Foods that are either an excellent, very good, or good source of vitamin E. Next to each food name, you’ll find the serving size we used to calculate the food’s nutrient composition, the calories contained in the serving, the amount of vitamin E contained in one serving size of the food, the percent Daily Value (DV%) that this amount represents, the nutrient density that we calculated for this food and nutrient, and the rating we established in our rating system. For most of our nutrient ratings, we adopted the government standards for food labeling that are found in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “Reference Values for Nutrition Labeling.” Read more background information and details of our rating system.

World’s Healthiest Foods ranked as quality sources of vitamin E
Food	Serving Size	Cals	Amount (mg (ATE))	DRI/DV (%)	Nutrient Density	World’s Healthiest Foods Rating
Sunflower Seeds	0.25 cup	204.4	12.31	82.07	7.2	excellent
Spinach	1 cup	41.4	3.74	24.93	10.8	excellent
Swiss Chard	1 cup	35.0	3.31	22.07	11.3	excellent
Turnip Greens	1 cup	28.8	2.71	18.07	11.3	excellent
Asparagus	1 cup	39.6	2.70	18.00	8.2	excellent
Beet Greens	1 cup	38.9	2.61	17.40	8.1	excellent
Mustard Greens	1 cup	36.4	2.49	16.60	8.2	excellent
Chili Peppers	2 tsp	15.2	2.06	13.73	16.2	excellent
Almonds	0.25 cup	132.2	6.03	40.20	5.5	very good
Broccoli	1 cup	54.6	2.26	15.07	5.0	very good
Bell Peppers	1 cup	28.5	1.45	9.67	6.1	very good
Kale	1 cup	36.4	1.11	7.40	3.7	very good
Tomatoes	1 cup	32.4	0.97	6.47	3.6	very good
Avocado	1 cup	240.0	3.11	20.73	1.6	good
Peanuts	0.25 cup	206.9	3.04	20.27	1.8	good
Shrimp	4 oz	134.9	2.49	16.60	2.2	good
Olives	1 cup	154.6	2.22	14.80	1.7	good
Olive Oil	1 TBS	119.3	1.94	12.93	2.0	good
Collard Greens	1 cup	62.7	1.67	11.13	3.2	good
Cranberries	1 cup	46.0	1.20	8.00	3.1	good
Raspberries	1 cup	64.0	1.07	7.13	2.0	good
Kiwifruit	1 2 inches	42.1	1.01	6.73	2.9	good
Carrots	1 cup	50.0	0.81	5.40	1.9	good
Green Beans	1 cup	43.8	0.56	3.73	1.5	good
Leeks	1 cup	32.2	0.52	3.47	1.9	good

World’s Healthiest Foods Rating	Rule
excellent	DRI/DV>=75% OR Density>=7.6 AND DRI/DV>=10%
very good	DRI/DV>=50% OR Density>=3.4 AND DRI/DV>=5%
good	DRI/DV>=25% OR Density>=1.5 AND DRI/DV>=2.5%

Impact of Cooking, Storage and Processing

The vitamin E in foods degrades slowly over time. For example, at room temperature, wheat flour loses about one-third of its vitamin E at close to one year of storage. That said, most people would be making use of their wheat flour long before this year-long time period.

Similarly, olive oil kept in a closed bottle will lose about 20-30% of its vitamin E over six months of storage. Don’t leave the bottle open, though, as all of the vitamin E will be gone after three or four months if you do. (While leaving olive oil in an opened bottle might sound unlikely, there are a good number of olive oil containers in the marketplace that feature an unsealed spout, and we do not recommend storage of olive oil in this way. You will find many more details about olive oil storage in our Extra Virgin Olive Oil food profile.)

Vitamin E also gets damaged by high heat cooking. For example, heating olive oil at 340°F (172°C) will lead to a destruction of the vitamin E, with almost half lost at three hours, and almost all of it gone by six hours. At WHFoods, we do not generally recommend any heating of extra virgin olive oil, and if we do include it in a heated sauce or other recipe, we heat it very gently and briefly. The delicate nature of vitamin E, and the fatty acids it protects, are good reasons to avoid heating of this oil. We adopt a similar approach for oil-rich foods like nuts and seeds, which we recommend be consumed in raw or minimally cooked form.

Usually in this section of our nutrient profiles, we discuss how specific nutrients are damaged in the storage of foods. But with respect to vitamin E, it is equally important to note that this nutrient can protect the foods from damage. For example, meat from chickens fed diets high in vitamin E show less evidence for free radical damage to their fats over 10 days of storage. Presumably, this vitamin E richness in the food consumed by the chickens helped protect their body fat from damage by oxygen. (We don’t have research comparing the human health consequences of consuming chicken fat with and without varying degrees of free radical damage. But we do know that animals fed diets that are rich in vitamin E typically provide us with animal foods that have good amounts of this vitamin as well.)

Risk of Dietary Deficiency

Given that the average U.S. adult eats exactly half the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) for vitamin E—7.5 mg of the recommended 15 mg per day—the risk of dietary deficiency of vitamin E in the United States is substantial. In fact, vitamin E is one of the most common vitamin deficiencies in the United States, with as many as 92% of men and 98% of women failing to reach target intake goals.

In 2006, a research group from Tufts University did a statistical model of the best way to ensure vitamin E nutrition while staying within normal calorie levels and without impairing other nutrient intake. Among their conclusions, they asserted that a low intake of nuts and seeds—70% of their subjects didn’t eat any of either—was predictive of low vitamin E intake. Analyzing this conclusion in reverse, this is further evidence that nuts and seeds can be a good place to start when trying to achieve strong vitamin E nutrition. (Of course, low intake of dark green leafy vegetables by the average U.S. adult is another reason why so many people in the U.S. fail to meet their vitamin E needs.)

At first, it may seem like a paradox that we tend to eat diets high in fat, yet fail to have reliable vitamin E nutrition. That’s because not every type of dietary fat is as rich in vitamin E as nuts or seeds. The way plant cooking oils are manufactured and processed can lead to significant destruction of the nutrient before it ever gets to your plate. Generally speaking, you should expect highly processed foods (e.g., oils made from nuts and seeds) to contain less vitamin E than their whole, natural counterparts (e.g., whole nuts and seeds).

Other Circumstances that Might Contribute to Deficiency

Diets that overly restrict fat can limit vitamin E intake substantially. It will not be impossible to achieve vitamin E nutrition with a very low fat diet, but you’ll need to work much harder to do it. For example, if you decided that you wanted to get 100% of your DRI for vitamin E from sunflower seeds alone—our richest WHFoods source—you would need to allow for 18 grams of fat in your day’s food just to provide that amount. In an 1,800-calorie meal plan, that amount of fat would represent 9% of total calories all by itself. If you consumed an additional 18 grams of fat from all of the rest of your foods on that day, you diet for that day would already be close to 20% fat. On the other hand, if you were willing to obtain your vitamin E exclusively from dark green leafy vegetables, you could get 100% of the DRI from about 5 cups, representing 150-200 calories but only 2-5 grams of fat.

Any disease or medication that impairs the ability to digest fats will also endanger vitamin E nutrition. If this potentially describes you, make sure to talk to your doctor to make sure that you are protected against deficiency.

Relationship with Other Nutrients

Diets high in polyunsaturated fats—the type found in most fish and vegetable oils—may increase your requirement for vitamin E. Some sources recommend an older standard of an extra 0.6 mg of vitamin E for each gram of polyunsaturated fat. We are not convinced that this level of specificity is well supported, even though the principle of increasing vitamin E intake along with increased intake of polyunsaturated fat makes good sense to us. The World’s Healthiest Foods recipes tend to be moderate in polyunsaturated fats (and much higher in the more stable monounsaturated fats than most U.S. diets), and as such, we believe that our WHFoods recommendation of 15 milligrams of d-alpha-tocopherol equivalents per day should suffice for the average person.

Like other dietary antioxidants, vitamin E needs help from multiple nutrients to do its job at maximum efficiency. In particular, vitamin C helps to recycle vitamin E so it can continue to neutralize free radicals over and over again.

If vitamin K levels are low, too much vitamin E can lead to problems involving too easy bleeding from injuries and too slow closing of wounds. The amounts of vitamin E necessary to create this effect are large, however, and probably not achievable via diet alone. (In other words, dietary supplementation of vitamin E would most likely be required to create this degree of imbalance between vitamin E and vitamin K.)

Risk of Dietary Toxicity

We are not aware of a single published report of adverse effects from dietary vitamin E. Reflecting this lack of evidence for harm, the National Academy of Sciences set the Tolerable Upper Intake Limit (UL) for vitamin E at 1000 mg, more than 60 times the DRI, and more than 100 times what an average American eats in a day. You can feel confident that you are not eating toxic levels of vitamin E in your daily diet. Translated into IU, 1,000 milligrams of vitamin E represents 1,490 IU of d-alpha-tocopherol and 1,360 IU of d-alpha-tocopheryl acetate.

Disease Checklist

Cancer
Heart attack
Stroke
PMS
Fibrocystic breast disease
Diabetes
Epilepsy
Alzheimer’s disease
Parkinson’s disease
Macular degeneration
Cataract
Intermittent claudication
Cold sores
Immune health

Public Health Recommendations

In 2000, the National Academy of Sciences established a set of Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) for vitamin E. These recommendations included Adequate Intake (AI) levels for infants under one year of age, and Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for everyone else. These milligrams amounts represent alpha-tocopherol equivalents, or mg ATE. DRIs for vitamin E are as follows:

0-6 months: 4 mg
6-12 months: 5 mg
1-3 years: 6 mg
4-8 years: 7 mg
9-13 years: 11 mg
14+ years: 15 mg
Pregnant women: 15 mg
Lactating women: 19 mg

The most common DRI for vitamin E—15 milligrams ATE (alpha-tocopherol equivalents) —translates into approximately 22 IU of d-alpha-tocopherol and 20 IU of d-alpha-tocopheryl acetate. (The form of d-alpha-tocopherol is a naturally occurring form of vitamin E that is chemically classified as “non-esterified” and d-alpha-tocopheryl acetate is an esterified form commonly found in supplements due to its longer shelf life.)

The 2000 DRI recommendations also included a Tolerable Upper Intake Limit (UL) for adults of 1000 mg per day. As discussed above, this is more than an order of magnitude beyond even what the most vitamin E-rich diet could ever contain. For this reason, we should consider this UL more for supplement intake than guidance around dietary choices. Translated into IU, 1,000 milligrams of vitamin E represent 1,490 IU of d-alpha-tocopherol and 1,360 IU of d-alpha-tocopheryl acetate.

The Daily Value (DV) for vitamin E is 30 IU. The measurement of IU, short for International Units, is an older way to quantify vitamin E with 1 milligram of d-alpha-tocopherol from food equivalent to 1.49 IU.

References

Azzini E, Polito A, Fumagalli A, et al. Mediterranean diet effect: an Italian picture. Nutr J 2011;10:125.
Ben-Hassine K, Taamalli A, Ferchichi S, et al. Physicochemical and sensory characteristics of virgin olive oils in relation to cultivar, extraction system and storage conditions. Food Res Int 2013;54:1915-25.
Casal S, Malheiro R, Sendas A, et al. Olive oil stability under deep-frying conditions. Food Chem Toxicol 2010;48:2972-9.
Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for vitamin C, Vitamin E, Selenium, and Carotenoids. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 2000;284-324.
Gao X, Wilde PE, Lichtenstein AH, et al. The maximal amount of dietary alpha-tocopherol intake in US adults (NHANES 2001-2). J Nutr 2006;136:1021-6.
Krichene D, Allalout A, Mancebo-Campos V, et al. Stability of virgin olive oil and behavior of its natural antioxidants under medium temperature accelerated storage conditions. Food Chem 2010;121:171-7.
Luciano G, Moloney AP, Priolo A, et al. Vitamin E and polyunsaturated fatty acids in bovine muscle and the oxidative stability of beef from cattle receiving grass or concentrate-based rations. J Anim Sci 2011;89:3759-68.
Narciso-Gaytan C, Shin D, Sams AR, et al. Dietary lipid source and vitamin E effect on lipid oxidation stability of refrigerated fresh and cooked chicken meat. Poult Sci 2010;89:2726-34.
Nielsen MM, Hansen A. Stability of vitamin E in wheat flour and whole wheat flour during storage. Cereal Chem 2008;85:716-20.
Sen CK, Khanna S, and Roy S. (2006). Tocotrienols: vitamin E beyond tocopherols. Life Science 78(18): 2088-2098.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2012. Total Nutrient Intakes: Percent Reporting and Mean Amounts of Selected Vitamins and Minerals from Food and Dietary Supplements, by Family Income and Age, What We Eat in America, NHANES 2009-2010.
Valk EE, Hornstra G. Relationship between vitamin E requirement and polyunsaturated fatty acid intake in man: a review. Int J Vitam Nutr Res 2000;70:31-42.

SEED FATTY ACID COMPOSITION

Taken from Paleo Diet

In the following table we list the fatty acid content of most commercially available seeds. You can use these tables to help you make an informed decision in choosing a seed based upon its fatty acid composition. If you are unfamiliar with fatty acid nomenclature and how the different types of fatty acids impact your health please refer to our fatty acid primer. Continue reading “SEED FATTY ACID COMPOSITION”