How to Increase Vitamin K Intake

Vitamin K, which includes K1 and K2, is a fat-soluble vitamin that your body uses to clot blood. It also helps you maintain healthy, strong bones as you age, and helps prevent some kinds of cancer. Women should get 70 micrograms, or mcg, of vitamin K a day; men should take about 80 mcg.

Instructions

1. Eat a variety of leafy vegetables. Collard greens give you about 150 mcg of vitamin K per cup; chopped spinach provides 120 mcg; Kale has 547 mcg; and 1 cup of lettuce has 118 mcg.

2. Consume yogurt and have cultured milk, both of which help the intestines produce vitamin K2.

3. Have broccoli as a side dish in your meals, or include them in your casseroles. One cup of cooked broccoli has 420 mcg of vitamin K.

4. Put mayonnaise on your sandwiches. Mayonnaise has 11.9 mcg of vitamin K per tablespoon.

5. Cook with olive oil or canola oil to increase your vitamin K intake. Olive oil has 6.6 mcg of vitamin K per tablespoon, and Canola oil has 19.7 mcg. Soybean oil has the most vitamin K at 26.1 mcg.

Tips & Warnings

• Symptoms of vitamin K deficiency may include easy bruising, frequent nosebleeds, bleeding gums, blood in the urine and stool and heavy menstrual cycles.