Vitamin K1 cuts risk of type 2 diabetes

New research suggests that adding foods or supplements rich in vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) to your diet can help protect against type 2 diabetes .
The study, published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that high intake of the vitamin can slash the risk developing type 2 diabetes in half.
For the analysis, N. Ibarrola-Jurado, of Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Reus, Spain, and colleagues studied data from over 1900 elderly men and women in the Prevention with the Mediterranean Diet Trial at high cardiovascular disease risk, and a further 1069 people who were free of diabetes at baseline.
Participants who increased their dietary intake of vitamin K1 during the 5-year follow-up were found to be 51 per cent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who lowered or did not change their intake.
After adjusting for potential confounders, the researchers found that each additional intake of 100 ìg phylloquinone/d was associated with a 17 per cent reduction in diabetes risk for those with a considerably low dietary vitamin K1 intake.
The researchers concluded that “dietary phylloquinone intake is associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes .”
Vitamin K1 is one type of the nautally occurring Vitamin K, which is found high in green vegetables including raw spinach, raw leaf lettuce, raw kale, raw Swiss chard, raw watercress, raw parsley and cooked broccoli.