During Spring Break, I read a book on my Kindle every day at the pool: Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox: How a Little Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life by Kate Rheaume-Bleue. Sounds like a page-turner, right? Well, I actually learned a lot about a vitamin I had never even heard of before.
Vitamin K is usually only known for its blood-clotting properties. But this is just half the picture. Scientists have only recently discovered that there in ANOTHER type of Vitamin K. The blood-clotting version is phylloquinone (K1) and the version discussed in this book is menaquinone (K2) and is a completely different animal. While Vitamin K1 is abundant in leafy green vegetables and deficiencies are very rare, Vitamin K2 deficiencies are common.
And why should we be concerned about a deficiency in a strange vitamin we have never even heard of? MANY reasons! Including most of the common diseases which are killing most Americans today: heart disease, diabetes, stroke, Alzheimer's, and osteoporosis. The link between all of these diseases is Vitamin K2 deficiency.
Vitamin K2 is responsible for delivering the calcium in our bodies to the places where it belongs: in our bones and teeth. When we are deficient in K2, the calcium ends up where it DOES NOT belong: in our arteries, where it creates huge problems, including heart attacks. So you can see the relationship here between osteoporosis and heart disease lies in the relationship between calcium and Vitamin K2. You might have PLENTY of calcium circulating in your blood stream, but if it ends up sticking to the walls of your arteries instead of working to rebuild bone, you are screwed!
Why are SO many Americans deficient in this much needed nutrient? Because Vitamin K2 is not made inside our bodies. Instead, it is manufactured inside the bodies of animals which feed on grass. The way we receive our Vitamin K2 is by eating animals which eat grass. And today, all the animals who SHOULD be eating grass and manufacturing Vitamin K2 have been removed from the pastures. Cattle, pigs, and chickens are all designed to eat grass, and yet today are all kept indoors or in feeding lots where they are all fed GRAIN instead of grass. The lack of green material in their diets means a complete lack of Vitamin K2 in their meat and eggs. The animals are all deficient and now so are we.
This is the reason I am driving many miles out of my way to purchase eggs, meat, milk, cream, and other animal products from farmers who raise their animals on GRASS. Grass-fed means MUCH more than just a pretty picture of happy animals grazing on pasture. Grass-fed means healthier, happier animals (very important!) but it also means healthier HUMANS who eat those animals and their milk and eggs. K2 is present in the egg yolks, milk fat, and meats of animals raised on grass. Yes, it is the animal FAT that is responsible for saving our hearts, arteries, teeth, and bones.
If you are skeptical, I strongly suggest you do your research and read more about Vitamin K2. It might just save your life!
Vitamin K is usually only known for its blood-clotting properties. But this is just half the picture. Scientists have only recently discovered that there in ANOTHER type of Vitamin K. The blood-clotting version is phylloquinone (K1) and the version discussed in this book is menaquinone (K2) and is a completely different animal. While Vitamin K1 is abundant in leafy green vegetables and deficiencies are very rare, Vitamin K2 deficiencies are common.
And why should we be concerned about a deficiency in a strange vitamin we have never even heard of? MANY reasons! Including most of the common diseases which are killing most Americans today: heart disease, diabetes, stroke, Alzheimer's, and osteoporosis. The link between all of these diseases is Vitamin K2 deficiency.
Vitamin K2 is responsible for delivering the calcium in our bodies to the places where it belongs: in our bones and teeth. When we are deficient in K2, the calcium ends up where it DOES NOT belong: in our arteries, where it creates huge problems, including heart attacks. So you can see the relationship here between osteoporosis and heart disease lies in the relationship between calcium and Vitamin K2. You might have PLENTY of calcium circulating in your blood stream, but if it ends up sticking to the walls of your arteries instead of working to rebuild bone, you are screwed!
Why are SO many Americans deficient in this much needed nutrient? Because Vitamin K2 is not made inside our bodies. Instead, it is manufactured inside the bodies of animals which feed on grass. The way we receive our Vitamin K2 is by eating animals which eat grass. And today, all the animals who SHOULD be eating grass and manufacturing Vitamin K2 have been removed from the pastures. Cattle, pigs, and chickens are all designed to eat grass, and yet today are all kept indoors or in feeding lots where they are all fed GRAIN instead of grass. The lack of green material in their diets means a complete lack of Vitamin K2 in their meat and eggs. The animals are all deficient and now so are we.
This is the reason I am driving many miles out of my way to purchase eggs, meat, milk, cream, and other animal products from farmers who raise their animals on GRASS. Grass-fed means MUCH more than just a pretty picture of happy animals grazing on pasture. Grass-fed means healthier, happier animals (very important!) but it also means healthier HUMANS who eat those animals and their milk and eggs. K2 is present in the egg yolks, milk fat, and meats of animals raised on grass. Yes, it is the animal FAT that is responsible for saving our hearts, arteries, teeth, and bones.
If you are skeptical, I strongly suggest you do your research and read more about Vitamin K2. It might just save your life!
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