Define the Recommended Dietary Allowance of Vitamin E?
The requirements for the vitamin E are expressed in terms of tocopherol equivalents (TE) as mentioned earlier - 8 mg for females and 10 mg for males. It has been seen that the adequacy of RDA varies with PUFA content significantly; increased intakes necessitate larger amounts of vitamin E in the diet. FAO/WHO 2004 committee has suggested that when the main PUFA in the diet is linoleic acid, a α-tocopherol-PUFA ratio of 0.4 (expressed as mg tocopherol per g PUFA) is adequate for adult humans. This ratio has been recommended in the United Kingdom for infant formulas, Use of this ratio to calculate the vitamin E requirements of men and women with energy intakes of 2550 and 1940 Kcal/day, respectively, and containing PUFAs at 6% of the energy intake (approximately 17 g and 13 g, respectively), produced values of 7 and 5 mg/day of a-TEs, respectively.