The Insanely Important Vitamin that Almost Everyone Is Missing Out On

Hardly a day goes by when the media isn't yammering on about a new study that finds we aren't getting enough vitamin D, or calcium, or omega-3 fatty acids. But vitamin E? Almost zero play—save for a new PLoS One study that says nearly 90% of people in their twenties and 70% of people in their thirties aren't getting enough, especially people who get their vitamin E through food alone.
The numbers are crazy, especially when you consider the fact that vitamin E, which is an antioxidant, is kind of a big deal. Inadequate levels are linked to infertility, which might be especially important to twenty- and thirty-somethings who are thinking about having a baby. Your body also needs vitamin E to keep your immune system strong—it helps you avoid a week in flu hell when everyone around you is sniffling, sneezing, and hacking away. Perhaps most importantly, some research suggests that vitamin E could play a role in staving off serious health problems like heart disease, cognitive decline, and some cancers.  
But there's one teeny, tiny thing. The study was actually conducted by scientists who work for a company that manufactures nutritional products. So are the findings just a ploy to scare health-obsessed millennials into buying tons of vitamin E supplements? Well…you can't rule that out entirely. But the researchers were analyzing data taken from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which is pretty hard to argue with.
Still, not everyone is convinced that vitamin E inadequacy is a huge problem. Adults need 15 mg of vitamin E daily, and it's easy to find in foods like nuts, seeds, leafy greens, and vegetable oils like sunflower and safflower oil, says Keri Gans, R.D., author of The Small Change Diet. "If you're not eating an overly processed diet, then you're probably covering your bases," she says.
But plenty of people—especially younger ones—do eat a highly processed diet, and it could be that many of those people ended up in the study. If you're one of them, there's a good chance that you aren't getting enough vitamin E (or enough of most valuable nutrients) and should start thinking about trading your Doritos Locos Tacos for a salad or something. But if you're already eating pretty clean? This is one nutrient that you probably don't need to worry about.

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