Foods High in Vitamin E: A Per-Serving Table From USDA Data

Short answer: The richest food sources of vitamin E per serving are wheat germ oil (20.3 mg per tablespoon), dry roasted sunflower seeds (7.4 mg per ounce) and dry roasted almonds (6.8 mg per ounce), from USDA data compiled by the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, as of October 2026. Adults need 15 mg of vitamin E a day, so one ounce of sunflower seeds or almonds covers close to half the daily target in a single handful.

Vitamin E on food labels means alpha-tocopherol, the one form of the vitamin the body keeps and uses, out of the eight forms found in food. That detail matters when you read tables, because some foods carry large amounts of other tocopherols that do not count toward the vitamin E figure. Walnuts are the classic example on this site: they are rich in gamma-tocopherol but provide only about 0.2 mg of alpha-tocopherol per ounce, which is why they have their own walnuts nutrition page and do not appear near the top of this table.

This page is the second of two missing entries in our nutrient table set, alongside the new foods high in potassium table. Together they complete the set that feeds our Prostate-Friendly Food Data asset, in the same format as the existing vitamin D, magnesium, selenium, lycopene and zinc tables: amounts only, USDA sourced, no claims attached.

Which foods have the most vitamin E per serving?

The structure of the list is simple. Oils top it because vitamin E is fat soluble and concentrates in the oil fraction of seeds. Nuts and seeds follow. Vegetables and fruits contribute small amounts per serving, and they matter mainly across a whole day of eating rather than in any single portion. Olive oil, which this site covers in its olive oil buying guide, sits in the middle of the oil group at roughly 2 mg per tablespoon in USDA data, well below sunflower oil but used in larger quantities in most kitchens.

How much vitamin E do adults need each day?

The Recommended Dietary Allowance for adults is 15 mg of alpha-tocopherol a day, for both men and women. Unlike potassium, vitamin E has a full RDA, and the Daily Value on labels matches it at 15 mg. NIH notes that most Americans get less than the RDA from food alone, though frank deficiency is rare and usually tied to conditions that impair fat absorption rather than to diet alone.

Vitamin E is also one of the nutrients where the food-first framing of this site matters most. The figures above are food amounts. High-dose supplements are a different category, with an adult upper limit of 1,000 mg a day for supplemental alpha-tocopherol, and they can interact with blood-thinning medication. Nothing on this page is a reason to start a supplement; it is a map of where the vitamin already sits in ordinary food.

Which pantry foods make vitamin E easy to add?

Two staples do most of the work. The first is sunflower seeds. Terrasoul Superfoods organic hulled sunflower seeds come raw and shelled in a 2 pound bag, so they can go straight onto salads, oatmeal or yogurt without cracking shells. An ounce of the dry roasted form carries 7.4 mg in the NIH table; raw seeds test slightly lower per ounce in USDA data, but they are the same food in practical terms and the easiest daily habit on this list.

The second is almonds. Blue Diamond whole natural almonds in the 25 ounce resealable bag are raw and unsalted, and an ounce is roughly a small handful of about 23 nuts. Dry roasting concentrates the figure slightly to 6.8 mg per ounce in the table. Almonds keep for months in a cool cupboard, which is why they show up in so many pantry based eating patterns, including the Mediterranean diet for men guide on this site.

Oils are the third lever, used by the tablespoon. Wheat germ oil is the outlier at the top of the table, but it is a specialty product with a strong flavor, better suited to dressings than to cooking. Sunflower and safflower oils are the neutral workhorses. Because vitamin E degrades with prolonged high heat, oils deliver the most when they are used for dressings, dips and finishing rather than for long frying, a point that also applies to the extra virgin olive oil in our simple tomato sauce recipe.

How does vitamin E fit with the other nutrient tables?

Several foods recur across this site's tables, and vitamin E explains part of the pattern. Sunflower seeds also appear in discussions of selenium and healthy fats. Spinach appears on the magnesium table and adds 1.9 mg of vitamin E per boiled half cup here, six times the raw per-cup figure once cooking concentrates it. Broccoli, the base of our roasted broccoli with garlic and lemon recipe, contributes a modest 1.2 mg per half cup alongside its place on the cruciferous vegetables list.

The honest summary is that vitamin E is a nuts, seeds and oils nutrient. If those foods are already in your kitchen, your intake is probably respectable. If they are not, the table above shows exactly which ones move the number, and by how much, in USDA's own measurements. As with every table on ProstateFoods, these are nutrient amounts only. No food here is presented as treating, preventing or improving any condition, and the monthly Prostate-Friendly Food Data edition logs these foods on the same basis.

Sources

1. USDA Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/
2. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin E Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminE-HealthProfessional/
3. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels. https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-facts-label/daily-value-nutrition-and-supplement-facts-labels

ProstateFoods writes about food, not treatment. Nothing here is medical advice or a claim that any food treats, cures or prevents a disease. Talk to your doctor before changing how you eat, especially if you take medication or have a health condition. See our medical disclaimer.

Photo: A variety of nuts in clear jars by Towfiqu barbhuiya, via Pexels (Pexels license).