"Controversy Surrounds Vitamin E"

Interesting.

It's similar to B Complex as it exists in eight different forms. The most common one is Alpha-tocopheral and is typically the one you will see listed whether it's in your vitamin or lotion. The group however works better as a team than when one of the forms is isolated. Another thing to look for is whether it is a synthetic form or natural form. The synthetic form is called "dl" alpha tocopherol while the natural form is called "d" alpha tocopherol. If there's one thing I've learned from my research is that I will opt for the natural form in all of my vitamins.

As with Vitamin C, the controversy with E is the safety of taking high doses. There is voluminous material on this topic. When it comes to any product that comes with a warning or insufficient studies to make a conclusive judgement as to its safety, I err on the side of caution.

The RDA varies from 30 IU to 400IU based on who did the study. Pretty wide range. Vitamin E is essential to life and unlike B complex it is not "abundant" in our foods. Here is a list of foods in order of most to least mg of E per serving:

Wheat Germ Oil
Almonds (dry roasted)
Sunflower seeds (dry roasted)
Hazelnuts (dry roasted)
Peanut butter
Peanuts (dry roasted)
Spinach (boiled)
Broccoli (boiled)
Kiwi
Mango
Tomato
Spinach (raw)

Dr. Mercola's multi vitamin includes 400 IU of natural, "mixed" tocopherals. So once again, I will be content with the vitamin E that I get from my multi vitamin and the foods I eat.

If you are interested in reading more about this important vitamin, here is an excellent article.