Vitamins · 4 min read ·

Vitamin E: from oil and nuts, not capsules

Vitamin E protects the fats in your cells from damage. Vegetable oils, nuts and seeds provide plenty — high doses from supplements did more harm than good in large trials.

E

In a nutshell

1What it does and how much you need

Vitamin E is an antioxidant: it protects unsaturated fatty acids in cell membranes and in the blood. EFSA now counts only alpha-tocopherol as vitamin E, because it is the only one the body keeps in blood and tissues; the liver breaks down the other tocopherols.1

EFSA recommendation 13 / 11 mg EFSA set the adequate intake of vitamin E at 13 mg of alpha-tocopherol a day for men and 11 mg for women, including during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Vitamin E deficiency has not been reported in healthy people who eat little of it.1

2Where to find it

Data 41 mg Vegetable oils, nuts and seeds have the most vitamin E. A hundred grams of sunflower oil contain 41 mg, sunflower seeds 35 mg, almonds 26 mg and hazelnuts 15 mg; rapeseed oil 17.5 mg and olive oil 14.3 mg.3

3Natural or synthetic?

In the EU, supplements may contain the natural form (D-α-tocopherol and its acetate and succinate), the synthetic form (DL-α-tocopherol and DL-α-tocopheryl acetate) and mixed tocopherols.4 Natural alpha-tocopherol from plants has a single spatial form of the molecule (RRR); the synthetic one is a mixture of eight forms (all-rac).5

Weak evidence — small studies 2 : 1 In experiments with labelled vitamin E, people had about twice as much vitamin E in their blood after the natural form as after the same dose of the synthetic one. Until then, a ratio of 1.36 : 1 had been assumed.5,6

The explanation lies in the liver: the protein that sends vitamin E into the blood picks only some forms of the molecule, and the liver quickly breaks down the rest.1

4No fat, no absorption

Weak evidence — a small study 8 people Eight people took a capsule with 150 mg of vitamin E with different breakfasts. The most was absorbed with toast and butter (17.5 g fat); with cereal and semi-skimmed milk or with water alone, very little was absorbed.7
Weak evidence — a small study 26× In another study of 5 people, vitamin E from a capsule taken with skimmed milk was absorbed very poorly. The same dose in fortified cereal gave 26 times more in the blood.8

EFSA assumes that about 75% of vitamin E is absorbed from an ordinary diet — but fat is needed for that.1

5High doses harm

Moderate evidence +22% A summary of 9 randomised trials with 118,765 people: vitamin E raised the risk of bleeding in the brain by 22% and lowered the risk of stroke from a blocked artery by 10%. For every 1,250 people taking vitamin E there is one extra brain bleed.9
Moderate evidence — a large randomised trial +17% In the SELECT trial with 34,887 healthy men, 400 IU of synthetic vitamin E a day raised the risk of prostate cancer by 17% compared with placebo.10
Moderate evidence 400 IU A summary of 19 trials with 135,967 people: high doses of vitamin E (400 IU a day or more) raised overall mortality by 39 people per 10,000. The high-dose trials, however, were often small and included sick people.11

The tolerable upper intake level is 300 mg of vitamin E a day; EFSA is currently reviewing it.2

What to take from this

Sources

Written on , based on studies available at that date. Newer research may change the conclusions.

  1. EFSA NDA Panel (2015). Scientific Opinion on Dietary Reference Values for vitamin E as α-tocopherol. EFSA Journal 13:4149. doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4149
  2. EFSA (2025). Overview on Tolerable Upper Intake Levels as derived by the Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) and the EFSA Panel on Nutrition (version 11). efsa.europa.eu
  3. USDA ARS (2018). FoodData Central — SR Legacy, vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) per 100 g: sunflower oil 41.1 mg (FDC 171025), sunflower seeds 35.2 mg (FDC 170562), almonds 25.6 mg (FDC 170567), canola (rapeseed) oil 17.5 mg (FDC 172336), hazelnuts 15 mg (FDC 170581), olive oil 14.3 mg (FDC 171413). fdc.nal.usda.gov
  4. Directive 2002/46/EC on food supplements, Annex II — forms of vitamins and minerals permitted in supplements (consolidated version 26 Nov 2025). eur-lex.europa.eu
  5. Jensen S. K., Lauridsen C. (2007). Alpha-tocopherol stereoisomers. Vitam Horm 76:281–308. doi.org/10.1016/S0083-6729(07)76010-7
  6. Burton G. W. et al. (1998). Human plasma and tissue alpha-tocopherol concentrations in response to supplementation with deuterated natural and synthetic vitamin E. Am J Clin Nutr 67:669–684. doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/67.4.669
  7. Jeanes Y. M. et al. (2004). The absorption of vitamin E is influenced by the amount of fat in a meal and the food matrix. Br J Nutr 92:575–579. doi.org/10.1079/BJN20041249
  8. Leonard S. W. et al. (2004). Vitamin E bioavailability from fortified breakfast cereal is greater than that from encapsulated supplements. Am J Clin Nutr 79:86–92. doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/79.1.86
  9. Schürks M. et al. (2010). Effects of vitamin E on stroke subtypes: meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ 341:c5702. doi.org/10.1136/bmj.c5702
  10. Klein E. A. et al. (2011). Vitamin E and the risk of prostate cancer: the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). JAMA 306:1549–1556. doi.org/10.1001/jama.2011.1437
  11. Miller E. R. et al. (2005). Meta-analysis: high-dosage vitamin E supplementation may increase all-cause mortality. Ann Intern Med 142:37–46. doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-142-1-200501040-00110

This is general information and does not replace a doctor. Taking blood thinners? Take high doses of vitamin E only after talking to a doctor.