Ask Dr. Gourmet

How Many Micrograms of Vitamin K Should I Have Per Day?

I was looking at one of your print outs, "Coumadin (Warfarin) and Your Diet." I was confused by the mcg per serving. How many mcg can you have in one day?

Dr. Gourmet Says...

The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for Vitamin K is 85 micrograms (mcg) per day. Most physicians recommend trying to keep levels no higher than this as a consequence of the effect that higher doses can have on INR levels.

There are few foods that contain more than 10 - 15 mcg of Vitamin K in a serving and less than 20 mcg would be considered a lower amount. Between 20 mcg and 40 mcg would be a moderate amount of Vitamin K. More than 40 mcg and there is an increased risk of an effect on the INR. There are many foods that are very high in Vitamin K. The most common of these include members of the cabbage family such as spinach, collard greens, kale and broccoli.

While eating about the same amount of these foods that are higher in Vitamin K each day can be a strategy most people have a hard time coordinating such a plan. Consequently, most physicians recommend avoiding such ingredients.

There are three lists on the Dr. Gourmet web site that can help you. They range from a quick and simple listing to a comprehensive list of ingredients used in recipes on the Dr. Gourmet website that gives the amount of Vitamin K in micrograms. Here are the links to those lists:

Basic list
http://www.drgourmet.com/md/warfarinbrief.pdf

List of foods with relative amounts of Vitamin K
http://www.drgourmet.com/md/relativewarfarinlist.pdf

Comprehensive list
http://www.drgourmet.com/md/warfarincomprehensive.pdf

In addition there is an easy way to find out about the nutrition content of any food. The USDA National Nutrient Database is at this link: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/index.html

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.

Thanks for writing,

Timothy S. Harlan, MD, FACP, CCMS
Dr. Gourmet

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