Veggies and Coumadin

[HiMyNameIsDale]

Does eating veggies including greens have a massive impact on your INR and coumadin levels? I am a vegetarian for the most part, but I will eat a bit of meat on a rare or special occasion. Right now I don't keep track of the amount of greens I eat during the week. Sometimes I have meals with lots of greens 4 or 5 days a week, while other weeks I have meals with lots of greens maybe 1 or 2 days a week. Is this inconsistancy going to create a problem? Am I going to have to create a schedule of days of the week that I eat greens in order to have stability? Are there any vegetarians that take coumadin on this forum with any reccommendations? I don't want to run into any huge problems with my INR if I end up taking coumadin.

 

[Bill B]

It's almost exclusively the DARK, LEAFY green vegetables that have lots of vitamin K: spinach, kale, collard greens. Most other vegetables, such as iceberg lettuce, califlower, cabbage, beans, etc., etc., for example, have far less vitamin K content per serving. The rule is not to necessarily avoid dark leafy green vegetables, but to be consistent in your intake. If you eat dark green leafy vegetables every day, continue to do so, or if you eat them once a week, continue that pattern. If you change your eating habits regarding these particular vegetables, your INR could change. On the other hand, if your vegetable intake involves mostly green beans, lettuce, etc., consistency if not that important. I was not a big spinach eater before, so I am not now. Other than the dark leafy green vegetables, I eat whatever vegetables whenever I want and my INR has been extremely stable. And I'll eat SOME spinach SOME times without any issue, just not a huge amount. So, say, if there is spinach scattered on a pizza, I don't get antsy, but I won't have a large spinach salad.

Here is a useful reference table.

https://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/12354500/Data/SR24/nutrlist/sr24w430.pdf

I decided that anything below around 100 mcg per serving is not going to do anything significant. Again, that's just my way of dealing with this long list. And even 200 is not enough to do anything measurable. I made a general conclusion that there are only a handful of dark leafy green things have enough vitamin K to have a significant effect.

Also, note the portion sizes. I've seen some reference tables that are very misleading, seeming to indicate iceberg lettuce, for example, has a lot of vitamin K, but they made the mistake of quoting content for an entire head of lettuce. Another list had pie crust high in vitamin K - again, stupidly quoting the content for an entire pie crust. A lot of people just accept that veggies in general are loaded and use these lists without even looking them over to understand them. Even INR clinic staff seem to have a lot of mistaken ideas and give misleading advice.

 

[Jkm7]

Many vegetarians eat a lot of soy. Soy can definitely impact your INR.
Consistency is the key.

Dose your diet; do not diet your dose.

 

[Bill B]

Soybeans per cup are 33 mcg. Soymilk is just 3 mcg/cup. You'd have to eat a LOT of soy. A LOT of just about anything is a bad idea for anyone.

What does dose your diet mean? Maybe I agree with it, but I've never understood exactly what it means. All I have done for the past 2 years is be a bit careful about big quantities of a few dark leafy green vegetables and things have been quite stable.

 

[AgilityDog]

Dose your diet means to try to eat a consistent diet, whatever you like, however you do it. Then adjust the coumadin dosage to keep you in range.

Too often people get a set dosage, and if that doesn't keep them in range then they try to eat no Vit K or eat lots of Vit K to compensate. No, eat what is "normal" for you, then adjust the coumadin dosage.

It takes time to figure out your dosage after surgery, because your metabolism is slow when you are ill, and speeds up as you get healthy and get back to your activities. Some medications also interact with coumadin and can change your InR for short term, or long term if you are on them forever.

I love to eat kale and cabbage,and spinach. I eat lots of veggies.