Information
The Vitamin K Registry
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
PTINR.com Staff
A single source of foods and their vitamin K content is only a click away.
For many patients taking warfarin (Coumadin ®), information about dietary vitamin K is difficult to obtain. The US Food and Drug Administration requires that all food and beverage products be labeled with nutritional content; however, vitamin K information is not included on most labels. This omission makes it difficult, if not impossible, for patients to remain consistent in dietary vitamin K consumption.
The method of vitamin K measurement adds to the challenge vitamin K management. Vitamin K is measured in micrograms, and a microgram is one millionth of a gram. Quality Assured Services, Inc. (QAS) offers professionals and patients a comprehensive listing of the vitamin K content for over 1,200 common foods and beverages in their vitamin K registry. All vitamin K values in the registry are provided in micrograms, using United States Department of Agriculture food studies as their reference.
The registry now includes information about portion sizes. In addition to the searchable web-based registry, vitamin K content is also available as a printable version on PTINR.com.
Drop down menu
QAS provides a user-friendly drop down menu to look up individual foods. Visitors simply enter the food of interest in the search field, and the menu will assist in the completion of the search. Only foods with referenced vitamin K information are available. If a food is not listed, then there are not adequate published studies regarding its vitamin K content; omission from the registry does not indicate that a food contains zero micrograms of vitamin K.
Vitamin K registry – printable version
QAS also provides the entire listing of foods and beverages in a printable version for patients and professionals. This format allows a more practical means for consumers to reference foods while traveling, shopping, or dining out.
The printable version also categorizes foods into high, medium, and low vitamin K content, allowing patients and their clinicians to balance food choices for a consistent, healthy warfarin lifestyle. The entries are listed alphabetically to make it easy to quickly find an individual product choice.
Keeping track of food choices and their vitamin K content is also made easier by the vitamin K diary at PTINR.com, which allows patients to track dietary vitamin K from meal to meal and day to day. The diary enables the user to enter total vitamin K content from each meal, calculate daily vitamin K in-take, and determine total weekly vitamin K consumption. Patients who have changed from monthly to weekly INR testing will find the weekly vitamin K diary particularly helpful.