Foods high in vitamin K, ranked by micrograms

The adequate intake is 120 mcg/day for men and 90 mcg for women, and cooked leafy greens dominate while fermented natto tops the list. The mcg-per-serving ranking, why K1 and K2 count the same, and what people on blood thinners actually need to do.

1. 01

   Natto (fermented soybeans): ~850 mcg per 3 oz, the outlier

   Natto, the sticky Japanese dish of fermented soybeans, is the single richest source of vitamin K at ~850 mcg per 3 oz, and unusually it delivers it almost entirely as MK-7, a long-acting form of K2 produced by the fermenting bacteria (NIH ODS; USDA FoodData Central). One small serving covers several days of the 120 mcg target on its own. Natto is an acquired taste and not a Western staple, but it is worth knowing as the one food that is both extraordinarily high in vitamin K and rich in the K2 form that most other foods barely provide. For anyone who eats it, it is in a class by itself.

2. 02

   Cooked collard and turnip greens: ~426-530 mcg per half cup

   Frozen boiled collard greens supply ~530 mcg of vitamin K per half cup and turnip greens ~426 mcg, the densest of the leafy greens and all in the K1 form (NIH ODS). These are the everyday powerhouses of vitamin K: a single cooked half-cup serving clears the daily target several times over. They stack vitamin K with calcium, folate, and, like other dark greens, the beta-carotene that also puts them high on the foods-high-in-vitamin-A list, so a habit of cooked greens quietly covers several targets at once.

3. 03

   Cooked spinach and kale: ~440-530 mcg per half cup

   Cooked spinach carries ~440 mcg of vitamin K per half cup and cooked kale a similar amount, both K1 (USDA FoodData Central). The key detail is cooking: raw spinach lists a much lower number per cup simply because a cup of raw leaves weighs far less than a cooked half cup, so heat concentrates the vitamin K by shrinking the volume. Eaten with a little fat, since vitamin K is fat-soluble, more of it is absorbed, which is one more reason sauteed greens beat an equal pile of raw salad for this nutrient.

4. 04

   Broccoli and Brussels sprouts: ~110-150 mcg per half cup

   Cooked broccoli supplies ~110 mcg of vitamin K per half cup and Brussels sprouts ~110-150 mcg, so a single serving of either meets or exceeds the daily target (NIH ODS; USDA). They are the accessible middle of the list: not as dense as leafy greens but eaten in larger, more familiar servings, and they bring fiber, vitamin C, and folate along with the vitamin K. For anyone who does not eat cooked leafy greens often, a regular serving of broccoli or sprouts is the simplest reliable source.

5. 05

   Other green vegetables and plant oils: ~10-60 mcg per serving

   Asparagus, cabbage, green beans, okra, and peas add ~20-60 mcg per serving, and soybean and canola oil contribute ~10-25 mcg per tablespoon as K1 (NIH ODS; USDA). None is a standout, but because oils are used in cooking and these vegetables turn up across ordinary meals, they form a steady background contribution. Soybean oil in particular is a meaningful source in Western diets simply because of how widely it is used, the same per-portion-versus-density logic that runs through the rest of this site.

6. 06

   K2 from animal and fermented foods: chicken, egg yolk, cheese

   Outside natto, the K2 menaquinones come from animal and fermented foods in modest amounts: a 3 oz chicken breast supplies ~13 mcg, egg yolk and hard aged cheeses a few micrograms each, and fermented dairy a little more (NIH ODS; USDA). These numbers are small next to leafy greens, but they matter because K2 is the form linked in research to directing calcium into bone and away from arteries, and it is scarce in the plant foods that dominate total vitamin K intake. The gut bacteria also make some K2, though how much the body absorbs from that source is uncertain.

7. 07

   The warfarin caveat: consistency, not avoidance

   The one group for whom vitamin K intake needs active management is people taking the anticoagulant warfarin, which works by blocking vitamin K recycling (NIH ODS). The common mistake is to avoid green vegetables entirely, which is both unnecessary and unhealthy. The actual goal is consistency: a steady day-to-day vitamin K intake lets the drug dose be set correctly, whereas a sudden large plate of greens, or suddenly cutting them out, can swing the drug's effect out of its safe range. Newer anticoagulants do not have this interaction, so the caveat applies specifically to warfarin and should be managed with a clinician, not by guesswork.