Why is the default vitamin E intake set at 15mg daily?

HarryD

Is this not a highly excessive intake?

According to the NHS (https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-e/) the amount needed for males is 4mg daily for males, not 15mg. Perhaps the oral bioavailability of Alpha-Tocopherol being low so high oral dose is needed to compensate? I can not find any answers looking through research myself.

pnot

According to the American NIH, 15mg/day is the RDA for males and females over 14. I have no answer on why these institutes would differ or which one would be more correct, but I assume this is where the 15mg/day number comes from.

Susan_RD_101

@HarryD

According to the Institute of Medicine (organization who develops the Dietary Reference Intakes), vitamin E requirements were set at a level that corrected experimentally induced deficiency in adults.

Determining requirement for this nutrient is tricky since there are SO many variations in the chemical structure of the vitamin. The discrepancy between countries likely comes from dispute regarding the biological activity of these various forms.

You can read more here: https://www.nap.edu/read/11537/chapter/25#236

Kind regards,