Posted Dec 19, 2009
Vitamin K may curb insulin resistance, at least in men. Insulin moves sugar from the blood into the cells, In people who are insulin resistant, the cells don’t respond well to insulin and it builds up in the blood.
Researchers randomly assigned 355 men and women aged 60 to 80 to take either vitamin K (500 micrograms a day) or a placebo. After three years, the men who got vitamin K had lower insulin levels and less insulin resistance than those who took a placebo.
Vitamin K had no effect on the women, possibly because those who got vitamin K were (by chance) more likely to be overweight than those who got the placebo. The authors speculated that the extra vitamin K might have been stored in the women’s fat tissue, making it unavailable to help insulin do its job.
What to do: Eat more leafy green vegetables (like spinach, kale, collards, and broccoli), which are rich in vitamin K.
Date: Nov 18, 2009