Step Two Drop blueberries into your pancake batter. One-half cup of blueberries has 1.5mg vitamin E.
Step Three Fix yet another PB&J! Peanut butter offers 1mg vitamin E per tablespoon.
Step Four Add sunflower seeds to your muffin and quick-bread recipes. One-quarter cup has 7.5mg.
Step Five Crunch on nuts like almonds, cashews, filberts or pumpkin seeds for snacks. Nuts have about 7mg vitamin E per 1/4 cup.
Step Six Mash a sweet potato into plain mashed potatoes. Each sweet potato has 5mg.
Step Seven Dine on salmon with steamed broccoli on the side. Three ounces of salmon (about the size of a deck of cards) contains 1.3mg, and 1/2 cup of broccoli has nearly 1mg of vitamin E.
Step Eight Savor some creamy guacamole with baked tortilla chips. Avocados have 2 to 4 mg each.
Step Nine Use vitamin-E-rich cooking oils. Canola, safflower, corn, soy and sunflower oils have 6 to 8 mg vitamin E per tablespoon.
Tips & Warnings - The Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for vitamin E, in milligrams (mg), are: infants 0 to 6 months, 3mg; infants 6 to 12 months, 4mg; children 1 to 3, 6mg; children 4 to 10, 7mg.
- Vitamin E is an antioxidant; it protects the body from damaging free-radicals. It is linked to the prevention of cancer, macular degeneration and heart disease.
- Vitamin E is one of the many casualties of refining grains. When wheat is milled into white flour, almost all of the vitamin E is left behind. Whole wheat, brown rice and other whole grains are much better sources of E than their refined counterparts.
- If your child refuses wheat germ, don't worry. One meal will not make or break a good diet. Just serve plenty of vitamin-E-rich foods and look at your child's intake over three to five days.
- Wait until baby is at least 1 year before introducing crushed nuts. This helps prevent allergies.
- Nuts and nut butters can be choking hazards for young children. Consider waiting until children are 3 or 4 before offering them.
