The second of the fat-soluble vitamins is vitamin E, the body’s great protector of fats. While vitamin C guards the watery parts of the body, vitamin E works in the fatty parts — defending the membranes of your cells from damage. It is less talked about than C or D, but it quietly supports your cells, skin, and circulation every day.

What Vitamin E Does

Vitamin E is actually a family of related compounds that share a common talent for protecting fats from damage. Its main roles include:

• Antioxidant defense: this is vitamin E’s signature job. It protects the fatty parts of cells — especially cell membranes — from damage by free radicals.
• Protecting cell membranes: since every cell is wrapped in a fatty membrane, vitamin E helps keep those protective walls intact.
• Skin health: it helps protect skin cells, which is why it appears in many skincare products.
• Supporting circulation and immunity: it helps keep blood vessels healthy and supports immune function.

A Partnership With Vitamin C

One elegant detail of how the body works: vitamins E and C team up. When vitamin E neutralizes a free radical, it becomes “used up,” and vitamin C can help regenerate it so it can work again. It is a perfect illustration of a recurring theme in this series — vitamins rarely act alone, and a varied diet that supplies many of them lets them support one another.

Where to Find Vitamin E

Vitamin E is concentrated in fatty plant foods, which makes its best sources easy to remember:

• Nuts and seeds — especially almonds, sunflower seeds, and hazelnuts, which are among the richest sources of all.
• Plant oils such as sunflower, safflower, and olive oil.
• Leafy green vegetables like spinach.
• Avocado.
• Fortified cereals.

Because vitamin E is fat-soluble, eating these foods naturally provides the fat needed to absorb it — nuts, seeds, and oils carry their own fat with them. Deficiency is rare in healthy people eating a normal diet, since the vitamin is stored in the body and widely available in everyday foods.

A Note on Supplements

Vitamin E is a good example of why food beats high-dose pills. While the vitamin is essential, studies of large-dose vitamin E supplements have generally not shown the broad health benefits people once hoped for, and very high doses may carry risks. Getting vitamin E from a handful of nuts, a drizzle of good oil, and plenty of greens is the safe and effective route. Next, we complete the fat-soluble group with vitamin K, the vitamin behind healthy clotting and strong bones.

This article is intended as general nutritional information and is not a substitute for personalized advice from a doctor or registered dietitian.