HOLISTIC HEALTH

More on vitamin E

Vitamin E is a remarkable nutrient. It helps all muscle cells, including heart muscle cells, to repair themselves after any kind of exertion. This is good news not only for sports enthusiasts but elderly people suffering from muscle wasting.

Vitamin E in all its forms is an excellent antioxidant and antiinflammatory agent. During a study of men aged between 50 and 69, researchers found that those given natural vitamin E supplements had up to a 70% lower risk of developing pneumonia, depending on other lifestyle habits.

Excellent sources of natural vitamin E include fresh nuts, seeds, green, leafy vegetables, and raw or lightly roasted sunflower seeds. These are preferable to taking a supplement.

Vitamin E comes in two isoforms, tocopherols and tocotrienols, and each in turn has four sub-forms: alpha, beta, gamma and delta. The tocopherols are saturated (associated with fat) and the tocotrienols are unsaturated, and the two complement each other. Tocotrienols are hard to find in foods, as cold-pressed palm fruit oil (a prime source) has become unavailable in South Africa.

You can buy vitamin E supplements in both forms.

Do not take very large doses of fat-soluble vitamin E (tocopherol form), as it can build up and create an unhealthy imbalance. Only d-alpha-tocopherol is natural vitamin E (read the label).

Commercial sunflower seed oil has very little natural vitamin E due to heat and chemical processing.

• Johanita Louw has had a lifelong interest in holistic nutrition. Email her at farmersweekly@caxton.co.za. Subject line: Holistic health.