2000 Sees New Government Recommendations for Vitamin E

Last year, the National Academy of Science's Food and Nutrition Board issued Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) for antioxidant nutrients, including vitamin E. The 1989 Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA)—the previous measurement system for the board's suggested daily serving for vitamin E—was set at 10 mg for men and 8 mg for women. The new DRI was raised to 15 mg for both men and women and those above age 14, which is equal to 22 IU of d-alpha-tocopherol and 33 IU of dl-alpha-tocopherol. The new DRI for children is 6 mg for ages 1­3, 7 mg for ages 4­8, and 11 mg for ages 9­13. While this increase reflects an improvement from the older RDA, many researchers and medical experts believe that with all of the positive studies using higher doses of vitamin E, this increased DRI is still not high enough.