Tocos? Yup, it’s kind of a weird name, and the first time you look it up, Google or autocorrect will be convinced that what you’re really trying to say is TACOS. But tocos is actually short for tocotrienols—a fat-soluble form of vitamin E that’s highly bioavailable (meaning, it’s super easy for your body to absorb). Tocos occur naturally in a bunch of foods, including palm oil, wheat germ, and barley. But most supplements—which are available as a fine cream-colored powder or as a pill—are derived from nutrient-dense rice bran. Prevention Premium: 10 Healthy Foods You’re Not Eating There are three good reasons why tocos are flying off the shelves. First, everyone who tries it says tocos has a subtle, vanilla ice cream-like flavor that makes coffee, tea, and lattes taste sweet, creamy, and delicious. Second, they’re supposed to make your skin look crazy gorgeous. And third, as far as natural skincare products go, tocos are dirt cheap: A 16-ounce bag is only about $20. (Take that, fancy night cream.) Despite eating a clean, fruit- and veggie-filled diet, I’ve noticed some sad changes in my skin over the last few years. It seems duller than it did when I was younger, and the texture isn’t quite as smooth as it once was. Since vitamin E is a potent antioxidant that fights skin-ravaging free radicals, trying tocos seemed like a no-brainer. When my package finally arrived, I gleefully tore open the box and set about brewing my afternoon coffee. The fluffy, ivory powder looked and smelled a bit like baby formula. And, tempted to try a spoonful of the stuff by itself, I found out that it tasted sort of like baby formula, too. It was milky, mildly sweet, and overall, pretty pleasant. But vanilla ice cream? That’s what you might call an alternative fact. Undeterred, I stirred the recommended 1 tablespoon serving into my coffee. Thanks to all the hype I’d read online, I was legitimately expecting my black cuppa joe to be transformed into a sweet, velvety latte. But instead, the tocos sort of clumped up. It made the coffee taste the slightest bit milky, but it wasn’t sweet at all. This was disappointing, to say the least. But since the tocos didn’t make my coffee taste any worse, I decided to keep using it. Over the next few weeks, I also tried stirring it into my oatmeal, adding it to smoothies, and whisking it into homemade almond milk and turmeric lattes (check out these 5 things that happened when one woman ate oatmeal every morning for a month). It was never bad, but it didn’t add much flavor, either. All of this would have been fine if I noticed a difference in my skin. But after a month of having tocos daily, my face looks pretty much the same. This week, my skin actually seems a little duller than usual, but that’s likely the result of the nasty cold I’ve been battling for the last 5 days. (What does work? Prevention’s new Younger In 8 Weeks plan can help you lose up to 25 pounds in 2 months—and look more radiant than ever!) My tocos came in a big bag, so I still have quite a bit left. Of course, I didn’t want to just throw it out, so I started digging around to see whether this supplement might be useful for anything else. Turns out, tocotrienols are known to boast neuroprotective, anti-cancer, and cholesterol-lowering properties, according to a Nutrition & Metabolism review. So even though they haven’t made me look any younger, they might still do my body good.
