How to Reduce Your Vitamin K Intake

Spinach is high in vitamin K.

Vitamin K toxicity is rare, but no one should take doses higher than 500 micrograms unless directed to do so by a doctor. Your doctor also might limit your intake if you are taking blood thinners, since vitamin K might interfere with them. Always talk to your doctor before changing your eating habits, especially when considering reducing your intake of necessary nutrients like vitamin K.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

1. Limit foods that contain a high amount of vitamin K -- 60 micrograms or more -- to one serving per week. Foods that are high in vitamin K include dark leafy vegetables like spinach, broccoli and kale.

2. Limit foods that contain a medium amount of vitamin K -- 30 to 60 micrograms -- to three servings a day or less. Common foods on this list include romaine lettuce, spaghetti sauce and frozen blueberries.

3. Keep your reduced vitamin K intake consistent. The international normalized ratio, or INR, is a system for reporting blood coagulation test results. A spike in your vitamin K intake will lower your INR significantly and affect your test results; depending on the severity of your condition, this could be dangerous. If your INR test results are too low and your doctor recommends lowering vitamin K levels even more, make sure to stay consistent after reducing the levels again.

4. Use online tools to calculate and monitor your daily and weekly intake of vitamin K. Again, the most important thing to do is keep your levels constant by eating relatively the same amount of vitamin K weekly. See the USDA searchable database link in Resources.

Tips & Warnings

• Not keeping your vitamin K levels consistent will make your INR results fluctuate.

References

• Life Clinic: Vitamin K
• Self Nutrition Data: Foods Highest in Vitamin K

Resources

• USDA Searchable Database for Nutritional Information