Considered unimportant and forgotten for decades, scientists worldwide are now recognizing its extraordinary benefits to your bones and heart health.* This is one vital nutrient you do NOT want to be deficient in…
It’s been over 10 years, since I began educating and helping people understand the importance of vitamin D… specifically, vitamin D3.
Of course, I wasn’t alone in this effort. Many others contributed to helping overcome some of the myths about sunlight and how critical vitamin D3 is to your overall health.
And now I believe another nutrient, appropriately labeled the ’forgotten vitamin,’ is about to explode in popularity as researchers are uncovering more of its spectacular health benefits every day.
Why has it been forgotten and somewhat ignored for over 80 years?
I’m not sure anyone can really answer why this vitamin’s health-enhancing benefits have been so overlooked. But certainly there’s a clue to its importance here because in some areas of the world (like India), government health agencies regulate this vitamin.
If this nutrient did not have any beneficial health advantages, why would it be regulated by government health agencies?
Plus, your potential benefits from this extraordinary nutrient are pretty much off the chart.
For example, this vitamin…
* Helps you build strong bones and keep them healthy*
* Helps boost your vascular (arteries and veins) system*
* Promotes your healthy heart*
* Helps you fight against premature aging*
* Enhances your memory function*
And this is just a start…
Before I get into more details on this vital nutrient, I must warn you up front… there are synthetic forms of this nutrient that may put your health at risk.
So, it’s very important to make sure you fully understand what to look for.
After all, the whole purpose here is to give more exposure to the ‘forgotten vitamin’ so you can reap the benefits… not to spike any health risk.
And that’s exactly what I’m planning to do. Just please pay close attention to the details on the different types of this nutrient to avoid potentially risky synthetics.
Next, let’s discover…
Why You Could be Deficient in this Vital Nutrient
It’s hard to understand why this vitamin has been so overlooked over the years. And estimates range as high as 99% of the population could be deficient in this nutrient.
There are many conditions where you could be putting yourself at risk for a higher likelihood of deficiency.
First of all, this vitamin is fat-soluble.
What does that mean? Well, fat-soluble simply means that dietary fat is necessary for efficient absorption. So, if your diet does not contain adequate amounts of dietary fat, your absorption of this nutrient could be impacted.
There are additional conditions that could increase your risk of deficiency in this essential vitamin…
* Eating a poor or restricted diet
* Having certain conditions like Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, celiac, and others that interfere with nutrient absorption
* Dealing with a liver condition that interferes with vitamin storage
* Taking certain medications such as broad-spectrum antibiotics, cholesterol drugs, and potentially aspirin that may impact or block vitamin absorption
* Eating foods containing the wrong type of this vitamin with poor bioavailability
I’m ready to dive into your best natural source of this ‘forgotten vitamin’… but first, right up front, I want to further raise your awareness of…
Synthetic Pretenders – What to Look For and Avoid
If you haven’t figured out what the ‘forgotten vitamin’ is by now let me tell you that this new wonder kid on the block is vitamin K. You can rest assured that in the next few years you will hear the media rave about its benefits.
But fortunately, since you are reading Mercola.com you can learn about this long before the rest of population discovers its benefits.
Danish scientist, Dr. Henrik Dam, discovered vitamin K in 1929. The ‘K’ is for ‘koagulation’ – essential for blood clotting.* But it only starts there.
Vitamin K is unique because it has multiple effects in your body, but doesn’t demonstrate any known toxicity. With research focused on potential effects on your skeletal system, brain, liver, and pancreas, vitamin K is one of the most promising nutrients of our time.*
But you should know about the different types. And in particular, know which synthetic type to be on the look out for.
There are three main forms of vitamin K…
* K1 – phylloquinone, aka phytonadione
* K2 – menaquinone
* K3 – menadione synthetic variant
Vitamin K3 is a synthetic variant of the vitamin which I don’t recommended for human consumption… this is the one you and your family need to avoid at all costs.
Green leafy vegetables – including lettuce, broccoli, and spinach contain vitamin K1. And it makes up about 90 percent of the vitamin K in the Western-style diet.
The vitamin K which I recommend is vitamin K2 – natural, non-toxic, and made in your body as well.
Vitamin K2 includes several menaquinones (MK-n, with the ‘n’ determined by the number of prenyl side chains), such as MK-4 found in meats, MK-7, MK-8, and MK-9 found in fermented food products like cheese and natto.
What is Your Best Source of the ‘Forgotten Vitamin’?
One of the best natural sources of vitamin K2 comes from an ancient Japanese food called natto.
So, what is natto?
Natto…
* Is a fermented soybean food
* Contains nattokinase, a powerful beneficial enzyme rich in vitamin K2
* Comes loaded with a healthy bacteria called bacillus subtilus that may also serve as a probiotic*
Fermented foods, like natto, typically have the highest concentration of vitamin K in the human diet. Levels of vitamin K found in natto (K2) have been shown to far exceed those amounts found in dark green vegetables (K1).
In fact, vitamin K2 concentration after the consumption of natto has been shown to be about 10 times higher than that of vitamin K1 after eating spinach.
Unfortunately, most people do not eat or enjoy many fermented foods.
And the absorption of vitamin K1 through eating green leafy vegetable is not very efficient… some research shows only about 10-15% gets absorbed even when consumed with dietary fat.
The problem with natto is that most people do not enjoy eating it because they find it very distasteful. It has a slippery texture with a strong flavor and pungent aroma.
Some people do acquire a taste for natto over time. But many never do.
Any wonder why most people may be deficient in vitamin K?... They simply may not be eating the right food to provide what’s needed.
So, what can be done to solve this issue? That’s where I can offer some recommendations to help out.
Before we dive into that, I first want to address the natto issue and the fact that it comes from soy. If you’ve been a visitor to my site, you’re probably already aware that I’m not a big fan of soy. But if you look closely, there is one exception and that’s…
Why This Type of Soy Could be Healthful for You
Like I said, I’m not an advocate of eating unfermented soy.
Why?
Many people still believe unfermented and processed soy products like soy milk, soy cheese, soy burgers, and soy ice cream are actually healthful when nothing could be further from the truth.
Today’s high-tech processing methods leave toxic and carcinogenic residues created by high temperatures, high pressure, alkali and acid baths, and petroleum solvents in unfermented soy.
Natto does not come from unfermented soy… it’s derived from healthful fermented soy and provides an extraordinary rich source of vitamin K2.
more here: http://products.mercola.com/vitamin-k/?source=nl
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