The daily diets of those living in Poland contain well under the amount of tocotrienols required daily in order to achieve beneficial effects, according to research recently published by the Warsaw University of Life Sciences in Poland in Biology and Life Sciences Forum.
 
Tocotrienols are a family of vitamin E compounds with a wide spectrum of unique biological actions, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, and beneficial effects on heart, brain, and liver health.
 
The authors of the study developed a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) which assessed the intakes of vitamin E-rich foods in 202 adults, and tracked their intakes over three months as well as over a 24-hour window leading up to the survey. A USDA database was used to calculate the average consumption of individuals isomers and the sum of tocotrienols.
 
In most human clinical studies, having a daily dosage between 30 and 400 mg of mixed tocotrienols were necessary in order to achieve beneficial effects. For the general population, the recommended daily intake of dietary tocotrienols ranges between 30 and 50 mg/day, with recommendations higher for specific health conditions. However, the FFQ approach showed an average tocotrienols intake of 2.25 mg/day in women and 2.14 mg/day in men when looking at the three-month assessment. Similarly, a 24-hour dietary record showed 1.955 mg/day for women and 2.761 mg/day for men. This was similar to a study conducted on a Japanese population, in which the total intake of tocotrienols ranged from 1.9 to 2.1 mg/day.
 
In the present study, the highest content in the diet was beta-tocotrienol, which is present in whole-grain pasta, wholemeal bread, carrot juice, brown rice, and crackers, while the lowest was delta-tocotrienol, which is found in brown rice and wholemeal bread.
 
“Due to the low proportion of tocotrienols in the diet, it seems beneficial to popularize knowledge regarding their influence on health and food sources,” the authors concluded.
 
“This is an interesting study that quantifies the overall daily tocotrienol intake via our daily diet. While tocotrienols are naturally present in our diet, this study showed that it is insufficient to depend on diet alone, especially for women,” said Bryan See, vice president of PhytoGaia, an ingredient supplier specializing in tocotrienols. “Two questions came to mind immediately – could these extremely low dietary tocotrienols intakes be extrapolated or indicate the tocotrienol intake in the wider population, especially the European continent? And how do we increase the intake of tocotrienols to the level that confers benefits in view of the low intake of tocotrienols in the general population such as Asian and Western diets?”