What do YOU know about Vitamin E?

It’s A Vitamin E Quiz!

No, really…it’s quiz time!
Quickly make a list of at least three things you know about Vitamin E.
Go!!!

1.
2.
3.


How did you do? Could you come up with three?

I’ll be honest. When I first started learning about *Real* skincare, I knew that Vitamin E was healthy for skin, but all I knew was that: 1.) It’s healthy and necessary for our skin and 2.) I think almonds have it.

Wow…I’ve come a long way!

When I started researching and really learning about being healthy from both the inside out and the outside in, I learned a lot about Vitamin E. In today’s post I share some of the knowledge I’ve picked up about Vitamin E oil. If you have some knowledge to share with me…Please Do! Leave me a comment below, Facebook me, or email me. I LOVE learning!


From Where Does Vitamin E Come?

Vitamin E can come from various sources, but they are all plant-based sources, as no animals can produce Vitamin E. All things containing Vitamin E contain it in varying amounts. Here is a good chart for reference:1

vitamin_e_chartFOODS
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You can see that the top three items are oil producing products, putting them as the highest Vitamin E producers. So, naturally my next question was which oils &/or fats produce the highest amounts of Vitamin E? Again, I found another helpful chart:2

vitamin E chartOILS FATS
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Let’s see if you’ve been paying attention to my past blogs (ahem…) 😉

How many items above are likely to be genetically engineered (GMO)?
Almost definitely, three (and possibly more)- Soy, Corn, Cotton. So, we want to avoid these for sources of Vitamin E, for sure!


What Is Vitamin E And What Can It Do For You?

Vitamin E oil is actually a family that contains eight different fat soluble antioxidant compounds. Of those, only one is suitable for humans – alpha-tocopherol (which is what you see on a label that says ‘Vitamin E’). In fact, our bodies work very hard to exclude forms of vitamin E other than alpha-tocopherol

Antioxidant
As mentioned above, Vitamin E is essentially a family of antioxidants. If you read my post about cocoa butter, you might remember that antioxidants (like those found in cocoa butter) help grab up free radicals that could otherwise inflict damage in your skin. This is good! Free radicals can lead to a host of problems in the body, such as heart disease and cancer. Studies conducted on mice show that the use of topical Vitamin E leads to reductions in UV-induced skin cancer.3 Antioxidants are awesome!

Wrinkles & Healing Properties

Because of the alpha-tocopherols (the beneficial antioxidant part of Vitamin E) there can be a great effect on reducing the length and depth of skin wrinkles.4 Among others, Vitamin E has also been shown to have excellent healing properties for burns, cuts, eczema, and psoriasis:

Clinical practice in dermatology indicates that alpha-tocopherol acetate is beneficial in xerosis, hyperkeratosis, asteatotic eczema, atopic dermatitis, superficial burns, cutaneous ulcers, onychoschizia and, in general, skin diseases in which an inflammatory process is activated. [There is] a remarkable moisturizing effect and minimization of transepidermal water loss.5

More awesomeness, right!?


Practically Speaking, What Does This Mean To You?

Vitamin E Oil
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Remember my blog post Skincare 101? We learned about the different layers of our skin, so this might make perfect sense to you. According to Maret G. Traber, Phd (Professor of Nutrition who spends a great deal of time in the lab studying things like this)…

[Vitamin E can] penetrate through the skin surface and get to the living cells. About 5% of the amount that’s smeared on the skin is actually converted to the free tocopherol once it’s inside those deep skin cells and provides beneficial antioxidant effects.6

So, this all means that Vitamin E has many beneficial properties for many different issues, problems, or concerns AND it penetrates down through our outer layer of skin where it can actually affect living cells. It provides sun care, burn care, eczema care, skincare, wrinkle care…awesome care!

When seeking out skincare products, it is a good idea to look for Vitamin E, but remember to verify from where it is sourced (keep those GMOs away from your body). Also, make sure that the Vitamin E is mixed with *Real* skincare ingredients (review this post as a reminder of what should not be in your skincare products). Better yet (yes…I just have to put in a shameless plug), purchase Pronounce skincare products. Go here to learn more.

Oh…what Vitamin E do I usually use? The one pictured here is okay, but this is my absolute favorite…I LOVE THIS ONE (and it’s affordable, too). It is sourced from non-GMO soy, and as you see above this is a great place to source natural Vitamin E.


What experiences have you had with Vitamin E? I’d love to hear your stories! Until next time…

xoxo,
Jess, aka Scratch Mommy


This post was shared at Whole Foods WednesdayLHITS, Eco Kids Tuesday, Thank Your Body Thursday.

Comments 3

  1. Hello! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my previous room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this post to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read. Many thanks for sharing!

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