Warfarin, your diet, and vitamin K foods

What do I need to know about my diet?

Some foods you eat affect the way warfarin works in your body. Try and keep eating what you normally do. It is most important to eat a healthy, consistent, and balanced diet.

Certain foods and dietary supplements have vitamin K. Vitamin K works against warfarin.

• If you eat more vitamin K, it can lower your INR.
• If you eat less vitamin K, it can raise your INR.

Important things to know about vitamin K are:

• Eat about the same amount of foods high in vitamin K each day.
• It is okay to eat foods high in vitamin K.
• Check with your provider before making any big changes in your diet.
• Contact your provider if there are sudden or big changes in your diet due to illness.

What is high in vitamin K?

The most common foods with high vitamin K are green leafy vegetables such as kale, collard greens, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, and lettuce.

Foods with vitamin K that could affect warfarin are listed on the next 2 pages. Other foods that could affect warfarin are beef liver or other animal liver products.

Vitamin K can also be found in some nutrition supplements, such as:

• Boost^®, Ensure^®, and Slim Fast^®
• Certain multiple vitamins and Viactiv^® calcium chews
• Tobacco, such as cigarettes and chewing tobacco

Talk with your provider if you have questions about vitamin K.

Vitamin K foods

Try and keep the same amount of vitamin K in your diet each day. All foods are okay, but do not make big changes to how much or what you eat. Check with your provider before making any big changes to your diet.

Very high in vitamin K (more than 800 mcg per serving)

High in vitamin K (400 to 800 mcg per serving)

Medium in vitamin K (80 to 400 mcg per serving)

Tables were adapted from the USDA National Nutrient database for Standard Reference