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7 Foods to Be Careful With While Taking Blood Thinners

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After my mom had heart surgery, my “nagging daughter” mode went up quite a few notches. While chatting on the phone one day, I scolded her for not eating more leafy greens like spinach and kale. That’s when she told me those nutrient-rich veggies are a little too rich when it comes to vitamin K and can negate the affect of her prescribed blood thinner.

That might sound like she was just trying to get me off her back about eating healthier, but it turns out she was right. According to the Mayo Clinic, vitamin K is a natural coagulant. That means eating a lot of foods with heavier amounts of it have the potential to counteract blood thinners, like Warfarin, and cause blood clots. 

However, it’s not an excuse to totally exclude certain vitamin K-rich veggies from your diet. The Mayo Clinic simply warns against eating large amounts of food with particularly high levels. They also list the daily recommended value of vitamin K for women as 90 mcg (micrograms). Of course, everyone is different. So if you’ve been prescribed blood thinners, it’s important to talk with your doctor about how much vitamin K is too much for your diet. 

To give you a better idea of exactly which foods you might need to careful about, we consulted the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) FoodData Central for some nutritional breakdowns.

Take a look below to see which foods have the highest levels of vitamin K that might counteract blood thinners.

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