Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin, known mostly for its role in forming blood clots.
It’s pretty rare to get a severe vitamin K deficiency, it typically only happens with a malabsorption disorder or being malnourished for a period of time.
Vitamin K refers to a group of fat-soluble vitamins. The 2 that are found in most people are K1 and K2:
- Vitamin K1 is the most dominant (75-90% of total vitamin K) and is found mostly in typical plant foods like leafy greens.
- Vitamin K2 is mostly found in animal products and fermented food. It’s also produced by bacteria in your gut, so it’s not essential to get it from your diet.
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How Much Vitamin K Do You Need Per Day
You should be aiming for 90 to 120 mcg of vitamin K per day (the RDA).
It’s very easy to get this amount without trying. You can get 2+ times the RDA in a single serving of certain vegetables.
Unlike certain other fat-soluble nutrients, there’s no upper limit currently set for vitamin K. Essentially, you don’t have to worry about getting too much from food (although taking too many vitamin K supplements could be an issue).
The Top Vegan Vitamin K Whole Food Sources Per Serving
To create this list, I extracted data from the USDA’s food nutrition database for over 100 whole foods that are vegan.
This is the result when sorting in terms of vitamin K content.
| Food | Vitamin K (mcg) per 100 grams | Vitamin K (mcg) per 100 calories |
|---|---|---|
| Swiss chard | 830 | 4378 |
| Spinach | 483 | 2105 |
| Kale | 390 | 1091 |
| Mustard greens | 258 | 961 |
| Turnip greens | 251 | 767 |
| Watercress | 250 | 2083 |
| Rapini | 224 | 1013 |
| Lettuce (red leaf) | 140 | 1084 |
| Brussels sprouts | 140 | 391 |
| Arugula | 109 | 434 |
| Broccoli | 102 | 298 |
| Cabbage | 76 | 307 |
| Pine nuts | 54 | 8 |
| Asparagus | 51 | 234 |
| Leek | 47 | 77 |
| Bok choy | 46 | 354 |
| Green bean | 43 | 139 |
| Cashew | 35 | 6 |
| Okra | 31 | 96 |
| Celery | 29 | 209 |
| Plantain | 29 | 24 |
| Cowpeas | 27 | 27 |
| Seaweed (dried) | 26 | 9 |
| Peas | 25 | 31 |
| Parsnip | 22 | 30 |
| Avocado | 21 | 13 |
| Blackberry | 20 | 46 |
| Cucumber | 16 | 107 |
| Cauliflower | 16 | 61 |
| Artichoke | 15 | 32 |
| Grapes | 15 | 21 |
| Hazelnut | 14 | 2 |
| Carrot | 13 | 32 |
| Kidney beans | 8 | 7 |
| Tomato | 8 | 44 |
| Raspberry | 8 | 15 |
| Chestnut | 8 | 3 |
| Green bell pepper | 7 | 37 |
| Plum | 6 | 14 |
| Lima beans | 6 | 5 |
| Rye grain | 6 | 2 |
| Cranberry | 5 | 11 |
| Red bell pepper | 5 | 19 |
| Fig | 5 | 6 |
| Pear | 4 | 8 |
| Flaxseed | 4 | 1 |
| Zucchini | 4 | 25 |
| Mango | 4 | 7 |
| Chickpeas | 4 | 2 |
| Eggplant | 4 | 14 |
| Pecans | 3 | 0 |
| Garlic | 3 | 3 |
| Black beans | 3 | 3 |
| Apricot | 3 | 7 |
| Squash | 3 | 19 |
| Melon | 3 | 8 |
| Fava bean | 3 | 3 |
| Walnut | 3 | 0 |
| Mung bean | 3 | 3 |
| Date | 3 | 1 |
| Peach | 3 | 7 |
| Guava | 3 | 4 |
| Cantaloupe | 2 | 7 |
| Apple | 2 | 4 |
| Strawberry | 2 | 7 |
| Nectarine | 2 | 5 |
| Cherry | 2 | 3 |
| Cassava | 2 | 1 |
| Wheat flour (whole-grain) | 2 | 1 |
| Sweet potato | 2 | 2 |
| Lentils | 2 | 1 |
| White potato | 2 | 2 |
| Olive | 1 | 1 |
| Radish | 1 | 7 |
| Barley | 1 | 1 |
| Pineapple | 1 | 1 |
| Gourd | 1 | 3 |
| Navy beans | 1 | 0 |
| Lime | 1 | 2 |
| Banana | 1 | 1 |
The best vitamin K foods are almost entirely vegetables, with the exception of a few fruits like plantains and blackberries, and pine nuts.
Have a salad every day or two and you’ll be fine.
The Best Types of Plant-Based Foods for Vitamin K
Any dark leafy green will give you plenty of vitamin K in a single serving. But just about any vegetable in general will give you enough to high your RDA.
Let’s look at a few other types of plants that are good other than leafy greens:
- Broccoli – Known for being a great source of many vitamins, vitamin K included.
- Cashews – One of the only non-vegetable foods to make the list above is cashews with 35 micrograms of vitamin K per 100 grams. You probably won’t meet your RDA alone with cashews, but they can be a nice addition to salads or soups.
- Pine nuts – Similar to cashews, pine nuts make a great addition on top of meals.
One final thing to consider is that vitamin K is often added to foods (fortified). So even if you are the type of person who hates vegetables for some reason and lives off of pre-prepared foods, you can still get enough vitamin K in most cases (I wouldn’t recommend it though).
