The foods you eat can affect how well warfarin works for you. It is important to be aware that changes in diet can affect your warfarin therapy. The most important thing to remember is to eat what you normally eat and not make any major changes in your diet without talking to your doctor.

Vitamin K is essential for a healthy diet so you should not try and eliminate vitamin K from your food intake. The recommended daily intake of vitamin K is the same for people who take warfarin and for those who don't.

The aim is to balance your vitamin K intake by being consistent with those foods that you eat. Both vitamin K and warfarin are removed slowly from the body. This means that daily changes in vitamin K intake are less important than weekly totals.

You don't have to eat the same types of food every day!

Having a diet with a variety of foods is important. Remember vitamin K is needed for a healthy diet and foods containing vitamin K should be included.

Foods high in vitamin K include broccoli, brussel sprouts, and green leafy vegetables like spinach and cabbage. Generally the greener the vegetable the higher the vitamin K content it has. Canola and soybean oil also have a high vitamin K content.

Most fruits, meats, dairy, and grain products have a low vitamin K content.

Dietary supplements such as Sustagen^® and Resource^® which your doctor may recommend for extra calories or nutrients are quite low in vitamin K.

From time to time you may wish to eat something that is not usually in your diet. A list of foods and their vitamin K content is provided below.

This is NOT a list of foods to avoid or a complete list of all foods containing vitamin K. It provides an idea of those foods with high and moderate vitamin K content as an aid to helping you maintain a consistent dietary intake.

Consistency is the key!

Any major changes to what you eat should be discussed with your doctor first. These include diets aimed at weight loss or if you wish to change to a vegetarian diet. Your doctor may want to monitor your INR more closely while you change what you're eating.