VITAMIN E

Vitamin E was originally named “Fertility Factor X” in 1922 because rats could not reproduce without it. Two years later, researchers dubbed it “tocopherol” from the Greek τόκος (tokos), meaning “childbirth,” and φερειν (ferein), meaning “to bring forth.” Its precise role in rat fertility remains unclear and scientists have yet to conclusively demonstrate its essentiality to human reproduction.¹¹

Mice lacking the gene for the protein that transports vitamin E across the placenta conceive offspring that die within 11 to 15 days. The nutritional transport system of the placenta is observably malformed by the ninth day. The human placenta makes the same protein, so the role of vitamin E in constructing the nutritional transport system of the human placenta is probably similar. Vitamin E, then—despite the lack of published proof—is almost certainly essential to human reproduction.¹¹

Vegetable oils are high in vitamin E, but they are also high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), which deplete the body of this nutrient.¹² Palm oil is a much better source, having a vitamin Eto- PUFA ratio that is 8 times higher than that of soybean oil and 13 times higher than that of safflower oil.¹³ The vitamin E content of grass-fed animal fats is four times higher than that of grain-fed animal fats.¹⁴ Nuts, seeds, fresh fruits and vegetables and freshly ground grains also contain vitamin E.