Vitamin K (K for Clotting)
Anyone know anything about Vitamin K? Not too many people do as it is often forgotten or neglected in regards to its importance. Because of that there is not much research out there on it so let’s just dive right in and back out in a quick paragraph. If you want a great quick read with some good humor to it, keep reading. Vitamin K has 3 different subscripts to it similar to that of the vitamin B family with K1, K2, and K3. All 3 forms help mostly with blood clotting, but K1 helps with bone development and formation by helping some of the bone proteins bind to each other. This could be why vegetarians have low rates of osteoporosis, but being a vegetarian can still create osteoporosis due to other reasons such as phytic acid and numerous other proteins that cause malabsorption in the intestinal lining. But getting back to vitamin K though, I personally feel like it’s super important for clotting the blood. I’m not trying to bleed to death over some paper cut. Vitamin K1 is also known as Phytonadione and is abundantly found in dark leafy greens such as kale, broccoli, spinach, watercress, and turnip greens. An interesting second way to obtain vitamin K2 is via the intestinal bacteria. Those guys are pretty damn good synthesizing vitamin K2, also known as menaquinone. If you have plenty of vitamin K1 and 2 then K3 will be sufficient since it is simply a derivative. The bonus of having lots of this vitamin K is that your microbiome and it’s bacteria will be extremely helpful in keeping your immune system in top shape plus all those green leaves will provide plenty of magnesium and fiber and therefore keep your poops looking just the way they should. So do yourself a favor and eat as many dark green leaves as you can. The fortunate side to vitamin K is that it is fat soluble so we have storage for it as humans, but let’s be honest, nothing beats the feeling of an awesome bowel movement every day. Here’s a true story: I had been visiting my friends the other day and was getting on him for needing to change his eating habits. When he had received some news from his doctor a month prior it scared him a bit so he made a simple change. I told him to quit eating his cereal bran due to the garbage it is made from including wheat (contains gluten) and to eat a lot more dark green salads. After 2 days with no bran and an increase in dark green leaf consumption he proceeds to walk into his roommates room and waits patiently for him to wrap up what he was doing. The roommate turns and says, “Yes? What’s up?” and his response… “I have an announcement. I just had the best poop I’ve had in 6 months!” Hahaha. A priceless moment, that couldn’t be more accurate. Your poop tells all. Lesson learned? Eat your leaves!
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