With spring finally here, this is the perfect time to try and live a healthier lifestyle. One of the best ways to start living healthier is learning how important certain vitamins and minerals are to your body. While you do not need to know everything about them, it is a good idea to make sure you are eating enough of them, and to know what those vitamins do for your body. One of the more important vitamins to make sure you are getting enough of includes Vitamin E. This article is going to give you a basic overview of that vitamin, so you will know how much a day you should get, where you can get that vitamin at, and what the health benefits of it are.
What is Vitamin E?
Vitamin E is an important vitamin that helps the body perform many tasks. It is a vitamin that is needed, but cannot be produced, so you must get the right amount through your daily diet. Vitamin E deficiency is very rare however, because vitamin E is stored in fat, and can be in your body for months at a time.
The Health Benefits of Vitamin E
There is numerous health benefits associated with taking the correct amount of vitamin E daily. Most scientists agree that vitamin E helps with immune function, skin healthiness, wound healing, and the possible prevention of diseases. However, the prevention of diseases part might be associated with the healthier diet people are normally on if they pay attention to the daily vitamin intake and make sure they are staying healthy. Vitamin E is also an antioxidant, which antioxidants have been proven to help keep the body healthy.
Where you can find Vitamin E
You can find vitamin E in a number of different foods. The most common foods that provide vitamin E in people’s diets include: eggs, milk, asparagus, nuts, leafy greens like spinach, avocados, seeds, broccoli, peanut butter, most types of oil, and wholegrain foods. Vitamin E is another reason why wholegrain foods are becoming so popular, and are considered extra healthy for you.
Most multi-vitamins and supplements are also going to contain vitamin E, so depending on if you take vitamins; you may already be getting the recommend dosage of vitamin E at the start of your day.
Vitamin E Deficiency
Like most vitamins, deficiency of vitamin E can cause some health problems. Although rare, the most common forms of health problems associated with vitamin E deficiency are neurological problems that result from nerve damage. Health problems from a lack of vitamin E would also include muscle deficiencies.
More studies need to be done, but there has been some studies done that show long periods of vitamin E supplements can cause problems in certain cases; such as increased heart disease possibilities in chronic smokers. For more information on these studies, I would click on the following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_E
What is the Right Amount of Vitamin E for me?
The recommend amount of vitamin E is going to vary by age group. But for people 14 years or older, 15 mg (milligrams) are recommended per day. For the age group 9-13, 11mg per day is recommended. For children 4-8 years, 7 mg a day is recommended, and for 1-3 year olds, 6 mg a day is recommended. Most people who start their day with a multi-vitamin achieve proper intake levels. Otherwise, just keep track of the nutritional values of the foods you are eating to ensure proper intake.
It doesn’t matter what kind of vitamins you are consuming as all of them have a significant importance in taking the bar high and keeping the body fit and healthy but the vitamins that help with digestion are the most preferred ones.
