Today I thought I would share an article with you about Vitamin K, the vitamin that everyone forgets because they never put it in multivitamins (because it’s expensive and can’t be absorbed when there’s vitamin E around).

Vitamin K is super-important as a vitamin. It’s fat soluble, meaning you need to eat it with a bit of fat such as coconut oil or olive oil in the meal to get it to absorb properly. It works very closely with vitamin D and calcium to contribute to bone health, but also plays a part in the blood system. Unfortunately, there are a few problems with getting the vitamin K into your diet, even though plenty of foods have a small amount of vitamin K in them.

Vitamin E vs Vitamin K:
The problem with getting the vitamin K that’s present in most foods, is that it fights with vitamin E for absorption, and only one of them can be absorbed at any one time. You need to eat foods high in vitamin K in different meals to foods high in vitamin E, because the higher the vitamin E value, the less vitamin K can be absorbed, and vice versa, making it no good to eat them together.

So where can I get Vitamin K?
Kale. Kale kale kale. Curly Kale is the absolute best source of vitamin K – just 100g cooked provides 768% of your Daily Value of vitamin K! With that much K getting into your system, there’s no way that pesky vitamin C can stop it getting absorbed! Sometimes I accidentally call vitamin K “vitamin kale” because they’re so closely linked.

Broccoli is another excellent source of vitamin K, with 97% of your Daily Value per 100g. However, kale is the absolute best plant source of vitamin K because broccoli has a lot of vitamin C (102% of your DV per 100g) so this will prevent vitamin K absorption.

How can I get Vitamin E as well?
You can still get all your vitamin E, just make sure your vitamin E- focussed meal is a separate meal to your vitamin K-focussed meal. It’s actually very difficult to NOT get your vitamin E requirements in any given day, given that the majority of nuts and seeds in our diets contain vitamin E, as well as the humble avocado – look up the nutrition facts for any given food so you can make sure your vitamin K meals don’t get eclipsed by vitamin E content.

What does Vitamin K do?
Reduces bruising, helps blood clotting, increases brain sulfatide action (so thickens the protective myelin sheaths around nerve cells – in studies in mice, a shortage of sulfatides caused paralysis and subsequently increasing vitamin K levels reversed the paralysis over several months), reduces nerve cell death (so protects against Alzheimers), stops unabsorbed calcium building up in the blood stream, thus preventing calcification of arteries, there’s also good evidence from Japan that it prevents post-menopausal osteoporosis.

Signs of a Vitamin K deficiency:
Bruising easily, including finding bruises you don’t remember getting, redness of skin, difficulty concentrating and tiredness. Long term vitamin K deficiency has been linked to osteoporosis and coronary heart disease.

What if I still can’t get enough Vitamin K?
Vitamin K is really important. It helps your blood to clot properly and prevents calcification of arteries. Without vitamin K, you can’t absorb calcium properly. If you aren’t getting enough vitamin K in your diet, a supplement is probably in order.

All vitamin K supplements are not created equal, however, as they can either be vitamin K2 or vitamin K1.
NOTE: Do watch out for anything claiming to be “vitamin K3” – it’s a toxic synthetic form of the vitamin which has been banned by the FDA, because in large doses it can cause hemolytic anemia and cytotoxicity in liver cells. Sometimes “vitamin K3” is called “menadione.” Either way, avoid K3 at all costs.

Vitamin K1 is a plant source, which we convert in our bodies to vitamin K2. Conversion to K2 is less efficient than directly taking in vitamin K2, so you will need more vitamin K if you follow a plant based diet. Vitamin K1 is a vegan source of vitamin K.

Vitamin K2 is an animal source, either as an animal slaughter or dairy industry byproduct, which is ready for use where your body needs it. It’s more efficiently absorbed, which is why vitamin K deficiency is unusual in our meat-centric society. If the packaging just says “vitamin K” and doesn’t specify, it’s probably vitamin K2, in which case, avoid it if you’re vegan or dairy free.

Additionally to the actual sources of the vitamin K, you need to check the other ingredients on the label to check for the usual suspects like “magnesium stearate” “stearic acid” or “gelatin” all of which are animal slaughter byproducts, unless the product is stated “suitable for vegetarians” at which point it’s safe to assume they’re vegetable magnesium stearate or vegetable stearic acid. There is no vegetable gelatin, veg*an things that do the same job have totally different names like pectin.

So there you have it.  Vitamin K is a very real and important vitamin that is most abundant in kale and broccoli.