5 Foods That Will Put More Vitamin K In Your Diet

While vitamin K might not be talked about as much as some other vitamins, this vitamin is crucial when it comes to proper clotting of blood. Vitamin K is also essential in forming and modifying proteins for your body to use to repair and grow bones and distribute calcium. This makes vitamin K incredibly important for those whose bones are still growing as well as for preventing bone fractures in adults and the elderly. Vitamin K is also known to prevent calcification of the arteries.
Here is a list of foods that are will give your body the added boost of vitamin K that it needs to function properly.
1. Romaine Lettuce
Just two cups of these crisp, dark green leaves has 120% of the recommended daily value of vitamin K.  Most of the vitamins in romaine lettuce are found in the darkest outermost leaves so it is suggested that rather than removing and discarding these leaves, they should be scrubbed and cleaned well enough for use in your salads or other dishes. If you aren’t a fan of romaine lettuce, pinach is a good substitute for romaine when it comes to salad greens with high vitamin K content and carries just about as much of the vitamin as romaine.
2. Brussel Sprouts
While brussel sprouts supply a ton of different vitamins and minerals, they contain mostly vitamin K.  In fact, just one raw cup of these small and slightly bitter “mini-cabbage” vegetables provides about 195% of the recommended daily value of vitamin K. While some people may find brussel sprouts to be too bitter in taste, there are many ways to cook with them that will tone down the bitterness. Try chopping them up into tiny pieces and adding the pieces to a stir-fry, or cooking them with some liquid smoke and a pinch of sugar.  Again, as with romaine lettuce, the outermost leaves of the brussel sprouts contain the most amounts of vitamin K, so these leaves should be cleaned well and left intact for cooking.
3. Dark Leafy Greens

This broad category encompasses a number of different greens, including kale, collards, swiss chard, turnip and mustard greens, as well as others. All of these greens are incredibly high in vitamin K. With kale having a whopping 1327% of the recommended daily value in one serving, collard greens having 1045%, swiss chard with 716%, turnip greens with 662%, and mustard greens with 524%, getting enough vitamin K should be worry-free if you just bring a few of these greens into your food routine.
4. Avocados
Avocados are versatile, common, and contain a decent amount of vitamin K. Just one cup of avocado contains almost 40% of the recommended daily intake of the vitamin. Try some guacamole and chips, or some avocado sushi (vitamin K is found in seaweed, too).  Or, slice some up in a salad or eat one by itself to get your daily dosage of vitamin K quickly and easily with no cooking required.
5. Wheatgrass

Wheatgrass is a popular superfood for many of the health benefits it offers. The chlorophyll found in wheatgrass activates an enzyme in your body that helps with the creation of vitamin K. The chlorophyll itself also contains vitamin K, adding a double dose of this important vitamin. One serving of wheatgrass contains about 50% of the daily recommended intake amount of vitamin K. If you don’t want to worry about getting freshly pressed wheatgrass, consider buying wheatgrass powder which is still high in vitamin K and incredibly convenient to use whenever you want a healthy boost.