Almonds, good source of vitamin E

Eating almonds significantly increases vitamin E levels in the plasma and red blood cells and simultaneously lowers cholesterol levels, finds a small study.

It is claiming to be the first to demonstrate almonds’ effect on raising vitamin E levels.

Adding almonds to the diet could help people meet the RDA for vitamin E without having to resort to supplements, say the researchers from Loma Linda University in the US.

They compared the effects of three different diets consumed for four weeks each by 16 healthy adults. The different diets included a control that did not include almonds, a low-almond diet (replacing 10 per cent of calories with almonds) and a high-almond diet (20 per cent of calories made up by almonds).

Study participants did not take multivitamins, vitamin E supplements, or other dietary supplements before or during the study.

People that gained 10 per cent of their calories from almonds increased their vitamin E levels by 13.7 per cent, write the authors in this month's Journal of the American Dietetic Association (vol 105, no 3, pp449-454).

When participants consumed 20 per cent of their calories from almonds, the effect was greater, increasing their vitamin E levels by 18.7 per cent.

Participants also reduced their total cholesterol by 5 per cent and lowered their LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol by nearly 7 per cent as a result of consuming a high-almond diet.