Probably the number one safety concern I hear from customers is the one where you’re supposed to strictly avoid vitamin K – and especially supplements containing vitamin K – if you’re also taking the drug Warfarin (Coumadin). As with many misunderstandings, there’s a kernel of truth here. But it’s still a misunderstanding! Not only is it okay to get a little vitamin K every day from a multivitamin or other supplement, it actually helps the Warfarin work better.

Let me explain.

Vitamin K, among the many things it does, helps blood to clot.[1] Warfarin, on the other hand, interferes with vitamin K with the intention of keeping blood from clotting. So, at first glance, it certainly looks like a bad idea to combine the two!

Bear with me.

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by Debra Stark

According to nationally reknowned, locally-based Dr. Mark Hyman, family physician and a four-time New York Times bestselling author, we’re battling a “diabesity” epidemic.  Diabesity, he says, is when our bodies move from balanced blood sugar to insulin resistance (the state when our cells become numb to the effects of insulin and need increasing amounts of it), to full blown diabetes and obesity.

Diabesity occurs, Dr. Hyman says because we’ve drugged our cells with too much sugar and starch (yes, this is an oversimplification on my part…).

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Fourteen years ago, I was driving from Seattle out to the Oregon Coast. Actually my girlfriend at the time was driving, when I yelled “Stop!”  That’s probably not a good idea when someone else is driving. That’s how accidents happen.

But I’d just seen a sign out the window, on a quaint but unremarkable wooden home, that said it was Dr. Tori Hudson’s clinic. I knew Dr. Hudson from her Women’s Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, as well as a monthly column she wrote on women’s health for a magazine called the Townsend Letter. I knew she was a professor at the preeminent naturopathic medical school in the world. At least in my mind, she was a celebrity. And there was her clinic, tucked away without any fanfare, and – this has never stopped impressing me – despite her fame and success and credentials, she was selling chopped firewood from the porch on the honor system.

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I had originally planned to close out this epic three-part article by going over the hundred-and-one source of fiber. But I changed my mind. First of all, it would kind of overwhelming. And also, I figure if you already understand the differences between soluble and insoluble fiber, you can probably figure out all you need to know about most fiber-rich foods just by reading the nutrition labels.

So instead of a big long list, here are four especially noteworthy source of fiber.

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