How to turn VEGAN and manage vit K

[rubywhistle]

Hi all I am 4 weeks post op mitral valve repair (min invas) feeling GREAT

I am not on warfarin just baby asprin but still am aware of the need to keep vit k levels safe to aviod clots.
I have always eaten spinach leaves and have been interested in vegie and vegan food right up until surgery. Recently have seen the documentary 'forks over knives' and thought whole foods plant diet could be for me I will talk to my doctor about it ect but wanted to put the feelers out to you guys.

Anyone had experience with vegan diet or had drs recomend it or warn agaisnt?

Has anyone else seen this film?

Anyone on here a vegan and if so how do you manage vit k level?


For those who havent heard of it
Doco trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ijukNzlUg

 

[D.C.]

I Also watched "Forks over Knives" at a vegetarian supper club. It was great to watch.

My wife has been vegetarian for 6 years so my meat consumption has been reduced a great deal. Smaller amounts when I eat it. Still eat mostly chicken 1 to 2 times a week and red meat about once a week(3-5oz) and fish once a week. I am liking all the vegetarian dishes and do not miss meat on the all veggie days. Since retiring in July have dropped 15#'s. Also hitting the gym on a regular basis.

With the increased vegetarian dishes served at my house I have had to increase my anticoagulant from from the mid 40's to about 52 mg a week and still not quite where i want it. Expect another increase today after test.

 

[markp66]

If your not on warfarin you can consume as much vitamin k as you want. After a certain level your blood doesn't clot anymore. If you don't consume any vitamin k then yes, there is a chance that you may bleed slightly more. Best to talk to a doctor about this but from people I've spoken I really dnt think you need to manage your vitamin k levels.

 

[nngbwh]

My family went true vegetarian last year and my INR has always been stable. My diet consist of veggies/fruits/mock meats and etc. :thumbup: I will not eat anything that walks, runs, skips, hops or crawls.

 

[Fundy]

Can anyone recommend a website with good vegan recipes, or even better ( vegan + fish + chicken + almonds + eggs u consider yo) recipes. Whatever that type of diet is called. but I would like to get a handful of gourmet quality vegan meals to start eating.

From what i gather vitamin K foods usually bring essentials like magnesium as well. If you consider magnesium essential. I've seen that magnesium itself also has a lot to do with reducing calcification in arteries, kidneys, and brain tissue. but in studies I see its usually only 5-10% improvement over control groups in blind studies. However, that in itself is significant in my opinion. Considering I've seen big name pharma tout 1% gains over control groups as reason to heavily market their goods sometime.

 

[Paleowoman]

Can anyone recommend a website with good vegan recipes, or even better ( vegan + fish + chicken + almonds + eggs u consider yo) recipes.

You can't have vegan and fish, chicken and eggs Vegan means nothing from animals at all, not even milk ! It's not what humans were designed to eat....but I won't go further into this kind of debate !

 

[Bina]

I know many people who are eating a vegetarian diet or a "modified" vegetarian diet with good success but it
does take some work to learn where your required vitamins and minerals are. Many times a vitamin supplement
is still required. Some people will include fish which is a good idea.

Going vegan is another story.....as paleogirl said: no animal based products at all, including broth, gelatin, yogurt,
ice cream, etc. That is way too difficult for me, and I figure that if I was designed to eat all vegan, just as my
goats do, then God would have given me multiple stomachs too.

Tonight hubby and I each had a very small portion of meat with lots of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and some
potato on the side. Yummy, and filling enough. NO salt, NO gravy, just pure food.
My INR is rock steady.

 

[Tom Berning]

Fundy, if you google for vegan and vegetarian recipes/cookbooks you'll find more than you can possibly read, you might try this one http://happyherbivore.com/ , also look at this one http://www.molliekatzen.com/. These are the ones my wife likes, she is serious vegan, I'm a 98% vegetarian, (you just can't do a good latte with soy milk ).

 

[Jkm7]

My cardio is strongly supportive of people who eat vegan or vegetarian whether on coumadin or not.

 

[Fundy]

Thanks Tom, you don't happen to have any low cost favourite vegetable juice recipes that can be made with a blender do you. I was quite impresseed with the benefits of juicing. Particularly the diet for pancreas cancer i came across somewhere on the web. I don't remember what it was called but it seemed like 12-13 pounds of vegetables each day. Most of it juiced. 10% of subjects beat the cancer and supposedly all other medical attempts were 0%

 

[robojerry]

Hi Ruby,

I've been a vegan since I was about 15, and had my aortic valve replaced when I was 23 (I'm now 28). Throughout, all of my cardios and GPs have never had a problem with it and most have said its a good option. As for the Vitamin K, so long as you are maintaining a balanced diet you should be getting everything you need. The best option is to avoid processed food stuff and "meat substitutes" because they tend to be packed full of salt, and its best to avoid the mindset that you need to replace the meat in everything. It better just to rely on veg, pulses, grains, beans, etc. That said, if, for example, you find a recipe for Thai Chicken Curry, all you need to do is replace the chicken with tofu (and sub anything like oyster sauce or leave it out altogether). You can get some really good cheese, butter, and yoghurt substitutes, although, I have to admit,some are terrible. But it's strange for me because people will often ask me if my soya yoghurt tastes like 'normal' yoghurt and I can't really answer because its been so long since I had dairy yoghurt that I can remember what it tastes like. So to me, soya yoghurt is 'yoghurt', and soya cheese, although it might taste different to people who eat dairy everyday, tastes exactly like 'cheese'. So it gets easier as you go along.

Same with checking everything in shops; by now I know what is suitable and what isn't, and I can usually guess if something new is going to be suitable or not. Either way, I know what to look for on the back of packs so it only takes me a second or two to see if a new flavour of crisps or a new cooking sauce is suitable for a vegan diet. Once you get over the first bumps on the road, it really becomes very easy to maintain, and your experience with food will be the same as meat-eaters or veggies.

Also, nutritional yeast is a godsend for adding a nutty, cheesy flavour to things like mash potato or soups. Oh, and soups take me about 20mins to make and thye can be packed full of everything you need out of a meal.

Any questions, feel free to ask,
J

 

[Bill B]

I'm not sure what the problem might be managing Vitamin K as a vegan. Only dark green veggies (like spinach, kale, broccoli) have a lot. Regardless, with warfarin, the idea is to be somewhat consistent with foods that contain vitamin K. You can eat as much or as little as you want as long as you are fairly consistent. I don't have much vitamin K intake, which is one reason my warfarin does is so low (1.5mg/day except 3mg on Mon/wed/Fri). I've been perfectly stable for the last 12 months.

The main problem with PURE vegan diets, as I recall, is vitamin B12 deficiency. There have been some serious developmental complications from this in young kids put on pure vegan diets. I would expect vitamin D would be an issue as well.

 

[sarahsunshine]

Managing vitamin K shouldn't be a problem, particularly if you aren't on warfarin. Just like everything else, you need to make sure you are getting enough.

As with any change in diet you will need to make sure that you do it carefully and you are getting enough of everything. Every person's body is different. Personally, When I was extremely active and lived with a vegetarian, eating mostly vegetarian for 6 years, I had huge problems maintaining iron levels no matter how many iron rich foods I ate (beans and veggies). My docs recommended many supplements which caused constipation and such. Finding a local, antibiotic-free, ecologically conscious, hormone-free farmer helped me decide to re-include meat in my diet, and get rid of all the issues related to lacking iron.

Later I came across "Eat right for your type" which talks about the evolution of the different blood types, and how people with different blood types metabolize different types of food more efficiently. Lo and behold I disovered I was O-, which is the "carnivore" type. That made sense then why the vegetarian diet didn't work for me.

Other people may have problems with other vitamins. Just to reiterate, changing to a healthier, more ecologically sound and more environmentally conscious diet is a great thing, but make sure you are getting all nutrients you need! Some diets don't work for certain people.

 

[newarrior]

I'm not sure what the problem might be managing Vitamin K as a vegan. Only dark green veggies (like spinach, kale, broccoli) have a lot. Regardless, with warfarin, the idea is to be somewhat consistent with foods that contain vitamin K. You can eat as much or as little as you want as long as you are fairly consistent. I don't have much vitamin K intake, which is one reason my warfarin does is so low (1.5mg/day except 3mg on Mon/wed/Fri). I've been perfectly stable for the last 12 months.

The main problem with PURE vegan diets, as I recall, is vitamin B12 deficiency. There have been some serious developmental complications from this in young kids put on pure vegan diets. I would expect vitamin D would be an issue as well.

I've been vegan for a while don't have any issues with vitamin d and vitamin B12 is packed in the most vitamins and nut milks not an issue. And it's a shame about the vitamin K because you should be eating as much of it as possible a pure plant-based diet is the way to go fruits vegetables lentils flax or chia seeds and healthy grains is all the body needs anything else is just damaging your heart further