Changes to your diet
It's very important to keep your diet stable while taking warfarin. This means your dose of warfarin is more likely to stay the same.
Any big changes in what you eat or drink can change how your body responds to warfarin.
Speak to your doctor or nurse before changing what you eat – for example, before you go on a diet to lose weight.
Foods that affect warfarin
Foods containing a lot of vitamin K can affect how warfarin works.
These include:
- green leafy vegetables, including broccoli, spinach and lettuce
- chickpeas
- liver
- egg yolks
- mature cheese and blue cheese
- avocado
- olive oil
It's important that you eat foods containing vitamin K, so rather than leaving them out of your diet, make sure you eat similar amounts of them regularly.
This will mean the level of vitamin K in your blood stays fairly constant and makes it more likely that your INR level stays stable.
Do not drink cranberry or grapefruit juice while you're taking warfarin. It can increase the effect of your medicine and put you at higher risk of bleeding.