Anyone will tell you that getting the right amounts of vitamins and minerals in your diet is absolutely vital for your wellbeing. Whether you want to give your wellness an overall boost, or you want to guard yourself against developing certain diseases, vitamins and minerals can help you do it. But, with so many out there, some of the key vitamins can pass you by so let’s take a look at one such vital vitamin: vitamin E.
Vitamin E has several important functions. The vitamin helps to protect the membranes of cells, which maintains their structure, and it can even be used to treat flu as it is a ‘natural viral’ killer. By increasing your levels of B cells, vitamin E fights germs and other harmful foreign elements in your body because the B cells it boosts grow the antibodies which destroy the bacteria of flu.
Great, so that’s vitamin E, but where do you find it? Luckily, you can probably get all the vitamin E you need in your diet, and plant oils, such as soya, corn and olive oil, are particularly rich sources of the vitamin. However, you can also get you vitamin E from supplements, if you prefer, or in other good food sources such as nuts and seeds and wheat germ, which is found in cereals and cereal products.
However, before you fill your cupboards will a year’s supply of wheat germ, bear in mind that you don’t really need a lot of vitamin E to reap the maximum benefits. It’s recommended that women intake 3mg of vitamin E a day, whilst men need 4mg daily. You don’t even need to have vitamin E in your diet every day, as any that your body does not need immediately is stored for future use.
If you’re worried about overdoing it, there isn’t enough evidence to suggest that taking high doses of vitamin E has any nasty side effects, but that isn’t conclusive. The Department of Health advises that you get the amount of vitamin E you need by eating a varied and balanced diet, and if you do take vitamin E supplements, you should avoid taking too much. However, you can take up to 540mg a day of vitamin E supplements, and it’s unlikely to cause any harm.
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