Alpha-Tocopherol Content of Foods

Abstract

A variety of foods were assayed for α-tocopherol content using modern analytical technics. An important feature of this study was to assay foods as eaten to obtain a more accurate picture of the actual α-tocopherol intake in the diet. Of particular interest was the finding that frozen foods which were fried in vegetable oil were surprisingly low in tocopherol indicating severe losses of tocopherol during freezer storage. The α-tocopherol content of typical breakfast, luncheon and dinner menus was calculated using the values obtained in this study. These menus indicated a daily intake of α-tocopherol ranging from 2.6 to 15.4 mg. with an over-all average of 7.4 mg. This value is about half of previous estimates of daily vitamin E intake and therefore indicates the possibility of relatively low α-tocopherol intake in a portion of the population, depending somewhat on dietary habits. This observation points up the importance of doing more work in this area to establish more accurately the actual intake of both vitamin E and polyunsaturated fatty acids in order better to assess the adequacy of vitamin E in the “average” American diet.