Critique of the requirement for vitamin E

The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine recently published a comprehensive evaluation of antioxidants in human diets that includes dietary reference intakes for vitamin E. The new dietary reference intake is 15 mg (35 mol)/d for adults, which is 50% greater than the generous allowance in the 10th edition of Recommended Dietary Allowances published in 1989. Much of the data interpreted in these publications came from studies sponsored by the Committee of Nutritional Studies at Elgin State Hospital (Elgin, IL) of an earlier Food and Nutrition BOARD: The 50% increase in the recommended dietary allowances for vitamin E is not supported by any new data. It is possible that the publication of the Institute of Medicine did not take into consideration the effects of the oxidized lipids in the diets used to promote the development of vitamin E deficiency. If lipids, oxidized to remove tocopherols, had not been a part of the experimental diets, the minimum requirement for vitamin E would have been too small for possible evaluation. Studies on the different effects of saturated and oxidized lipids in the production of encephalomalacia in chicks and muscular dystrophy in rats are reviewed. The tolerable upper intake level of vitamin E supplementation is reported to be 1000 mg/d. It is possible that the universal consumption of aspirin may not have been taken into consideration when this level was determined. Vitamin E plus aspirin may increase the tendency to hemorrhage, which makes a lower upper intake level worth consideration.