What makes a good vitamin E food supplement

Published on 11/28/2021 by Dr. med. Christian Gersch
Dr. Gersch is a Kaiserslautern based concierge physican

The more polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) you consume, the more vitamin E you need to keep these reactive fats from spoiling.

However, almost all vitamin E-containing oils provide less vitamin E than they consume in the body. Just the phrase "rich in vitamin E" found on many vegetable oil bottles does not mean that it is a healthy product. The only oils that are an exception are olive oil and red palm kernel oil. Only these two oils provide you with more vitamin E than they need to metabolize on their own. Any rapeseed, soy or sunflower oil will take away net vitamin E.

Unfortunately, there is no good biomarker for the actual need for vitamin E. It can only be estimated and is around 11-15 mg per day PLUS 0,4 mg per gram of PUFA. Upper limits for supplementation are set at 540 mg in Europe and 1,000 mg in the USA.

The more polyunsaturated fat you consume (industrial food, fried food, but also many vegan products from the organic market), the more vitamin E you need. It is therefore a wise approach to ingest as little PUFA as possible. This is one of the recommendations from my patient manual.

Additional vitamin E

There are two situations where simply eating a large salad with lots of olive oil a day is probably not enough to get your vitamin E supply.

You have eaten a lot of polyunsaturated fats in the past, which your body has now stored in its body fat reserves. If you now get into fat burning (for example through [intermittent] fasting), these PUFAs are released and get into your blood.
You are eating a portion of fried chicken.

In both of these cases, I recommend taking a vitamin E supplement. This should be free of soybean and sunflower oil, which eliminates almost all products. Only Ultimate-E by Thorne seems to me to be a good, albeit expensive, short-term option. Unfortunately, the dosage is too high for long-term use (but you should simply work with olive oil and eat little PUFA).

ISBN:313154211X

Conclusion

Get vitamin E through olive oil. If you are fasting or eating polyunsaturated fats, a short-term vitamin E dietary supplement is recommended, see article for recommendation.

Any Questions?

If you have any questions about this topic or wish to get a personal consultation with our practice, please schedule an appointment. Appointments can take place in our Kaiserslautern office or over the phone.

📅 Schedule Appointment

Existing patients may also contact us by using our app.

Articles on my website are intended for the information of my patients. They cannot replace my personal advice or the advice of another doctor. Please do not use the information provided here for the diagnosis or treatment of a disease. See me or another doctor if you have any illness, condition related to any of the topics discussed in this article. Discuss any changes in your lifestyle or your diet with a healthcare professional before implementing them. Food supplements may interact with over-the-counter or prescription drugs. If you are taking any medication, never stop taking it on your own, change its dose, or take any other medication / supplements without first consulting me or another doctor.