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Health March 2014

Rainbow Kitchen

Greening Up in March

By Allison St. Claire

However, caution may be in order if like many older folks, you face the need to take blood thinners or you need new ways to “eat green” when diagnosis and/or drugs mean changes in your usual food choices.

You may be thinking green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, feeling “green” to augment your planet-friendly activities like recycling or composting more, or minding your body’s increasing desire to eat more healthy green things now that green shoots are starting to sprout forth from cold winter ground.

However, caution may be in order if like many older folks, you face the need to take blood thinners or you need new ways to “eat green” when diagnosis and/or drugs mean changes in your diet.  It’s especially important to keep intake of vitamin K, helpful for healthy bones, at a consistent level. A close friend now needs to take a blood thinner. Her love of salads precipitated an off-the-cuff, really simple, absolutely delicious recipe possibility shown below.

A highly recommended site for healthy diet information and lots of recipes for specific issues such as lactose intolerance, GERD, diabetes and blood thinner medications is drgourmet.com.

Coumadin, also known as warfarin, is a blood thinner used to reduce blood clot formation and prevent blocked arteries, heart attacks and stroke. Many foods are safe to eat while taking Coumadin, but some can affect how well it works. Vitamin K acts as a natural blood-clotting agent within the body and can therefore interact with Coumadin, making it ineffective. While taking a blood thinner, it is necessary to consume consistent amounts of vitamin K in your diet. The daily adequate intake of vitamin K for adult males is 120 micrograms; for adult females the adequate intake is 90 micrograms per day, according to the Institute of Medicine. Consult with your doctor for the appropriate level for you.

 

Vegetables

Vegetables are rich in many nutrients, including vitamin K. Green leafy vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, spinach, brussels sprouts and kale are especially good sources of vitamin K. This does not mean that you have to avoid these vegetables; you simply need to consume approximately the same amount each day. You can also choose from low vitamin K vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, celery, peas, cucumber, pepper, eggplant, tomato and zucchini. On average, you should eat two to four servings of vegetables per day with a serving equal to 1 cup raw vegetables or a half cup cooked vegetables.

 

Lettuce and Vitamin K

Though lettuce may not provide as much vitamin K as other sources, such as spinach and turnip greens, it's still a good source. Different types of lettuce provide different amounts of vitamin K. One cup of iceberg lettuce provides 14 mcg of vitamin K, while one cup of romaine lettuce contains 57 mcg, giving support to darker heads of lettuce providing more nutrients.

Here are some food values for green vegetables from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2010.

 

Food                                                   Serving Size                             Vitamin K (mcg)
Kale cooked 1/2 cup 531       
Spinach cooked 1/2 cup 444
Collards cooked 1/2 cup 418
Swiss chard raw 1 cup 299
Swiss chard cooked 1/2 cup 287
Mustard greens raw 1 cup 279
Turnip greens cooked 1/2 cup 265
Parsley raw 1/4 cup 246
Broccoli cooked 1 cup 220
Brussels sprouts cooked 1 cup 219
Mustard greens cooked 1/2 cup 210
Collards raw 1 cup 184
Spinach raw 1 cup 145
Turnip greens raw 1 cup 138
Endive raw 1 cup 116
Broccoli raw 1 cup 89
Cabbage cooked 1/2 cup 82
Green leaf lettuce 1 cup 71

 

Really Simple Low-Vitamin-K Mixed Salad

Prepare a bed of iceberg lettuce.  Add some carrot slivers, celery, peas, cucumber, pepper, tomato and grated zucchini and you've got a dynamite, filling salad. Throw in some croutons, cheese chunks, meats, fish and grains to add other vital nutrients – and voila – a whole meal on your plate and salad to boot. Pistachio nuts would top it off nicely.

And a final word about pistachios, which although not a vegetable, are green so they count for this column.

Pistachios' fat includes mostly healthy monounsaturated types such as oleic acid. Their high dietary fiber content is beneficial for regulating cholesterol levels, which entails increasing “good” HDL cholesterol in the bloodstream while reducing “bad” LDL cholesterol. Pistachios contain phytochemicals and other strong antioxidants such as carotenes, vitamin E and selenium, which help to scavenge tissue-damaging free radicals. In addition to thiamine and vitamin B6, pistachios contain other B vitamins that your body needs for strong metabolism and energy production. Furthermore, the protein in pistachios is considered complete, which means it contains all the essential amino acids that people cannot synthesize.


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Allison St. Claire loves to dream about, study, grow, play with, prepare and ultimately enjoy eating great food.

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