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How Much Vitamin K is in...?
Find out the exact amount of Vitamin K (in micrograms) of almost a thousand
common foods! Listed both alphabetically and then in order of the amount
of Vitamin K in the food, this downloadable list (not available in printed
book format) will help you know exactly how much Vitamin K you're eating. Just
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Will eating garlic counteract large amounts of Vitamin K?
I have been on Warfarin for post-PE blood thinning for about two and a half months now. I started reintroducing items containing vitamin K into my diet - the margarine substitute Earth Balance instead of butter, and some green vegetables. Specifically I've made a huge batch of pesto, since my mother's garden exploded with basil and parsley. I've been eating it fairly regularly since I made it (it's impossible to resist!). I've only been eating a few tablespoons at a time, but since I know it's high in vitamin K I have been trying to counteract the effect a bit with three or four cloves of garlic, boiled and eaten whole, which is also delicious. The total amount of vitamin K I consume at any given time is not massive, not like eating a plateful of mustard greens - probably between 100-200 mcg. I do intend to give away some of the pesto, but I will never give it up entirely. What do you think of this system?
So is my assumption, that eating large amounts of garlic following the pesto will help keep my INR in a safe range, a reasonable one?
Dr. Gourmet Says...
This could be very dangerous for you and cause wide swings in your INR. If you are going to begin to incorporate high Vitamin K foods in your diet, keeping in touch with your doctor to monitor carefully is key. A couple of tablespoons of basil pesto contains at least 120 micrograms (mcg) of Vitamin K.
Furthermore, there's no evidence that the garlic will offer you any protection at all. There is no evidence for it offering much protection for any health problems. Some studies have shown that it might be helpful with high blood pressure or cholesterol - but this evidence is slight at best. You are right that garlic is delicious, but it is not going to offset the effects of eating higher amounts of Vitamin K.
Garlic will possibly keep vampires away from you, however.
By entering an ingredient and following the steps this website will
report the complete nutritional values of any ingredient and many prepared
foods. The Vitamin K content is the last listing at the bottom of the
Vitamins section. If it is not there, the food or ingredient that you
searched on doesn't contain enough Vitamin K to be reported.
