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Vitamin E: the daily reference intake

The vitamin E adequate intake is 13 mg a day for men and 11 mg for women, counted as alpha-tocopherol only. Deficiency from diet essentially does not occur in healthy people, which makes this one of the least urgent numbers on the site — and one of the most heavily supplemented.

These are published population reference values, not a diagnosis and not a prescription. A reference intake describes what covers a healthy group; it cannot tell you your own status, and no page can. Pregnancy, chronic illness, medicines and malabsorption all change the picture — take those questions to a doctor, midwife, pharmacist or dietitian.

Vitamin E by age, sex and life stage

This page carries the adult values. EFSA also publishes lower adequate intakes for each child band; they are not reproduced here.

Only one of the eight forms counts

Vitamin E is a family of eight related compounds: four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. Only alpha-tocopherol is retained by a specific liver transfer protein and maintained in the blood, so it is the only one that meets the human requirement. EFSA reference values are expressed in milligrams of alpha-tocopherol, and so is the food data below.

This matters when reading a supplement label. Products sold as "mixed tocopherols" contain other forms that do not count towards the requirement in the same way, and the older international-unit convention converts differently for natural and synthetic material.

Where it comes from, and why oils dominate

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant that protects polyunsaturated fats from oxidation, so it tends to occur alongside them. Vegetable oils, especially sunflower oil, are the densest sources; sunflower seeds, almonds and hazelnuts follow; wheat germ is exceptional. Green vegetables and avocado contribute smaller amounts.

One consequence is often missed: a diet high in polyunsaturated fat raises the vitamin E requirement, because there is more to protect. EFSA discussed this relationship but set a single value rather than a ratio.

Deficiency is a medical situation, not a dietary one

Dietary vitamin E deficiency in otherwise healthy people is not seen. Where deficiency does occur it is because fat absorption is impaired — cystic fibrosis, cholestatic liver disease, short bowel — or because of a rare genetic defect in the transfer protein. Those are clinical situations managed with monitoring.

This is a useful counterweight to the marketing. If a product is offering to correct your vitamin E status and you absorb fat normally, there is very little to correct.

The bleeding interaction is the one to remember

High-dose vitamin E has an antiplatelet effect and adds to the effect of warfarin, other anticoagulants and aspirin. It is also usually stopped before surgery for the same reason. If you take an anticoagulant, treat a vitamin E supplement as something to clear with your pharmacist rather than as an ordinary vitamin.

The upper level

The tolerable upper intake level for adults is 300 mg a day of alpha-tocopherol. High-dose vitamin E interacts with anticoagulant and antiplatelet medicines and increases bleeding risk; anyone on warfarin or a similar drug should not take it without asking.

Ordinary food against the 13 mg male adequate intake

Top of this list: Sunflower seeds, 10.6 mg in a 30 g serving (2 tbsp) — 81% of the 13 mg male adequate intake. It would take about 2 of those to cover a full day from that one food, which is why a real diet spreads it across several rows.

Portion sizes are ordinary household servings chosen for this table, not official reference portions, and the shortlist is an editorial one: everyday foods eaten in this region rather than the highest per-100 g entries in the database. A raw per-100 g ranking would be topped by dried herbs, drink powders and fortified breakfast cereals, which answers a different question. The composition data is American, so where US fortification practice differs from European practice the row carries a dagger and the reason. For the full per-100 g ranking of a nutrient, the food-data section of this site publishes one.

For the full ranking of every food in the database by vitamin e per 100 g, see foods highest in vitamin e.

Sources: EFSA Dietary Reference Values · Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIII · USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy (food composition) · EFSA scientific opinion on dietary reference values for vitamin E as alpha-tocopherol (2015) · Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIII · checked 2026-09-06

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