Dietary vitamin E intake and plasma tocopherol levels of a group of adolescents from Spili, Crete

Vitamin E is a very important nutrient in the human diet mainly due to its antioxidant properties. In this study an attempt was made to measure and evaluate vitamin E intake and to determine plasma tocopherol levels in a group of adolescents in Spill, Crete, Greece, It is known that Crete is an area with a high consumption of olive oil. It has been shown in this study that the mean olive oil consumption of these adolescents was 70.7 +/- 15.4 g/day, Vitamin E intake was 11.7 +/- 2.3 mg/day and olive oil provided 67% of this intake. Furthermore the vitamin E/PUFA ratio in food intake was 1.5 mg/g a value higher than reported by other investigators for populations with a high consumption of seed oils. The mean serum a-tocopherol levels in the selected 12 adolescents was 0.79 mg/dl (range 0.7-1.02).