food high in vitamin k

[caterb85]

Does anyone know how high cauliflower is in vitamin k?

 

[Nancy]

Raw cauliflower, per 100 grams, has 16 mcg. By comparison, spinach has 482.9 mcg.

 

[Bina]

That's right.....cauliflower is low. Stuff it in!

 

[Eva]

Per ounce, according to "The Coumadin Cookbook" Food list:

Fresh/frozen-boiled=5.600 mcg
Raw = 1.400 mcg

I was given a copy of that book by my cardiac rehab center nurse. I find it very interesting.

As said above, enjoy!

 

[duncanjo]

by god please put that away, its death staring in ur eyes..LMAO j/k

 

[Cooker]

As said before ... dose the diet and don't diet the dose ... in other words, eat whatever you want and adjust your warfarin if need be.... I do not give a thought to the amount of K in the foods I eat ... but that's me

 

[Ross]

Don't even start with worrying about how much vit K is in something. All your going to do is set yourself up to go insane. Throw it out the window and eat what you want, then dose the diet that you eat.

 

[Karlynn]

Living a life on Coumadin is simple.

You take your pills, you test, you adjust dose if INR is too high or too low and you live your life.

I haven't given a seconds thought to how much vitamin K my food contains in probably 15 years. If anyone is spending a lot of time figuring out how much K they are consuming they're making this a LOT harder than it needs to be.

The only things you should be mindful of is prepackaged diet and fitness shakes and food. Many use soy as their source of protein and soy is high in K. It doesn't mean you can't consume it regularly, just make sure you test to find if you need to increase your dose. I personally stay away from that stuff because I know I won't be consistent with it.

 

[catwoman]

I was given a copy of that book by my cardiac rehab center nurse. I find it very interesting.

It's "interesting" reading, but don't use it as a bible.

I used vitamin K lists my first year or so on warfarin and then realized how many favorite foods I was avoiding. I'd have waitresses peel cucumbers for salads, forgo sushi because of the nori, limit myself to just one serving of green stuff a day, avoid pickles, alfalfa sprouts, cole slaw, etc., etc.

Then I got a life I stay pretty consistent on what I eat, not just because I'm on warfarin, but it's also a pretty good way to maintain a healthy weight.

 

[Jkm7]

It's "interesting" reading, but don't use it as a bible.

I used vitamin K lists my first year or so on warfarin and then realized how many favorite foods I was avoiding. I'd have waitresses peel cucumbers for salads, forgo sushi because of the nori, limit myself to just one serving of green stuff a day, avoid pickles, alfalfa sprouts, cole slaw, etc., etc.

Then I got a life I stay pretty consistent on what I eat, not just because I'm on warfarin, but it's also a pretty good way to maintain a healthy weight.

Thank you for adding the comment about being consistent.

I think it important for people new to ACT to be educated about dosing the diet but it it also VERY important for them to understand the need for consistency.

Consistency must be mentioned often IMO

The few months I was on warfarin, I ate what I wanted but remained consistent and all my health care providers stressed to me that was the key.

 

[Eva]

It's "interesting" reading, but don't use it as a bible.

As said before ... I do not give a thought to the amount of K in the foods I eat ...

Absolutely Not. Thanks for your warning...I referred to it only to answer the question...I find it interesting as it has nice recipes and very good tips. But as others say, and as Cooker said, I eat what I like without giving it a thought--I canot be confined to measuring or restricted to certain foods only, and I let my doctor worry about dose adjustment as needed.

 

[Ross]

Thank you for adding the comment about being consistent.

I think it important for people new to ACT to be educated about dosing the diet but it it also VERY important for them to understand the need for consistency.

Consistency must be mentioned often IMO

The few months I was on warfarin, I ate what I wanted but remained consistent and all my health care providers stressed to me that was the key.

Im anything but consistent. I just do my thing and I'm fine. Diet plays a very very small roll in INR. The bigger thing would be to say NO BINGING.

 

[Jkm7]

Ross..... I agree about the binging but also add that perhaps the quantity of vitamin k foods needs to be considered when saying diet hardly contributes to INR level.

If you eat one or two servings of broccoli a day and that is it, that is one thing.

But, if, like me, you are close to vegetarian and eat in the vicinity of 10 + servings of veggies daily, isn't that something else ?I am not vegetarian but eat very much more than average quantitites of greens/veggies. I also eat a fair amount of soy containing foods daily.

Doesn't that sort of diet affect INR and make for need for consistency?

 

[KristyW]

Ross..... I agree about the binging but also add that perhaps the quantity of vitamin k foods needs to be considered when saying diet hardly contributes to INR level.

If you eat one or two servings of broccoli a day and that is it, that is one thing.

But, if, like me, you are close to vegetarian and eat in the vicinity of 10 + servings of veggies daily, isn't that something else ?I am not vegetarian but eat very much more than average quantitites of greens/veggies. I also eat a fair amount of soy containing foods daily.

Doesn't that sort of diet affect INR and make for need for consistency?

Jkm,
I think that MOST of us are fairly consistent by nature. We tend to eat the same 10-20 meals on a regular basis. You ARE consistent as you consistently eat more than average quantities of high Vitamin K foods. For the most part, we eat what we like, and we eat that fairly consistently. Now Ross and I are very much the same in that when it's asparagus season...watch out! Asparagus 3 times a day until the season is over!!! Of course that just means testing a little more frequently and maybe a slight increase in warfarin dose. I don't let my ACT manager bully me into not eating the things I like in season just because she doesn't want to write down a change in dose in my chart.

The time to watch is when you make a CHANGE in your diet. It doesn't mean you can't change, just try to make the change permanent and monitor yourself until stable.

I went to eating South Beach style and my warfarin dose went from 35mg/week to 45mg/week. I then started an exercise program 3 months later and went from 45mg/week to 60mg/week. I was careful and made both changes about 1 week prior to my next INR test.

Our illustrious Al Lodwick has a saying about how Vitamin K affects our INR. His analogy is this: Imagine you are in a completely dark room, no windows, no light whatsoever. Now someone turns on a 3-way lightbulb to the 50 watt setting, that's a BIG change. Your eyes definitely need to adjust. Next the light turns to the 100w setting. You can tell the difference, but it's barely noticeable. Next is the 150w setting, still a change, but even less noticeable. Warfarin and vitamin K work the same way. Someone who avoids Vit K foods altogether will have a big adjustment when they start to add these foods in. But once they've started eating them, adding more doesn't really end up changing the dose much. That's why many of us take a multivitamin with a base amount of Vitamin K (I think mine has 50% of the RDA) We don't have to worry about the Vit K in our food as much because we're not going from a completely dark room to a lighted one.

I know this is rather rambling, but I hope it makes sense as to why Ross says that the food really doesn't matter that much.

 

[Jkm7]

Thank you, Kristy. Best explanation I have ever read. Very helpful.

 

[KristyW]

No thanks necessary...it was Al Lodwick's analogy...not mine

 

[Ross]

Ross..... I agree about the binging but also add that perhaps the quantity of vitamin k foods needs to be considered when saying diet hardly contributes to INR level.

If you eat one or two servings of broccoli a day and that is it, that is one thing.

But, if, like me, you are close to vegetarian and eat in the vicinity of 10 + servings of veggies daily, isn't that something else ?I am not vegetarian but eat very much more than average quantitites of greens/veggies. I also eat a fair amount of soy containing foods daily.

Doesn't that sort of diet affect INR and make for need for consistency?

Yes and no. Even though you eat large amount of these things, you've pretty much included just about any scenario in your dose as it stands. The worry would be if you suddenly stopped eating these things. In your case, even binging may not have all that much of an affect. All you can do is experiment and see for yourself.

Beleive me, I love my green veggies and I eat lots of them. I'm tweaked for them, so it's not a big issue.

 

[Jkm7]

It is hypothetical for me at this point. I have tissue valve and was only on warfarin 2 1/2 months post op. I never reached therapeutic range, despite taking 88 mg per week, before my surgeon let me stop ACT. However, I continue to read and study ACT as I know the possibility I could require it in the future.

While I was on warfarin, I ate my normal high soy, high greens diet and was active post op very early. It seems my metabolism of warfarin reflected all that.
I am interested to learn what I can about it.

 

[Ross]

It is hypothetical for me at this point. I have tissue valve and was only on warfarin 2 1/2 months post op. I never reached therapeutic range, despite taking 88 mg per week, before my surgeon let me stop ACT. However, I continue to read and study ACT as I know the possibility I could require it in the future.

While I was on warfarin, I ate my normal high soy, high greens diet and was active post op very early. It seems my metabolism of warfarin reflected all that.
I am interested to learn what I can about it.

Sorry I forgot you had that situation. I think it would be interesting, in your case, to estimate about how much Vit k you eat in a day. Christina, a member here, takes like 20mg a day or 140mg a week to maintain her range, but she's into herbal supplements and foods, so I'm sure that accounts for her large need. You may well be the same.

 

[Jkm7]

A close friend of ours who is a physician mentioned an on-going study in which they are studying people like me who require such high doses of warfarin to reach therapeutic range. He was suggesting I should become a part of it as I was a 'perfect subject' in his opinion.

While I did feel some pangs saying, No Thank You,that is what I did as it would have required me staying on warfarin far longer than was necessary for me. One of the reasons I chose tissue valve was to not have to take warfarin. At my last visit with my ACT manager, we speculated my weekly dose could well have ended up at 100 + mg until I would stabilize at therapeutic range.

If it was not so fresh after the trauma of learning I needed a second OHS so quickly, having just endured it and being early in my recovery when he mentioned it to me, I might have felt I would 'make that contribution' by participating but honestly, I did not feel up to it at the time. It would have required multiple trips into the city and a fair amount of effort and inconvenience on my part. I was fresh out of my second OHS in four years and still healing physically and emotionally.

I have some regrets now as in my heart (no pun intended) I know I should have done it for the good of others.