is the optimal boneNatto
The optimal natural Vitamin K2 supplement is an extract of the Japanese soy food natto. Natto is particularly rich in the highly bio-available form of vitamin k2 as menaquinones-7 to greater bone health and reduction in risk factors. Thus only Mk-7 has been tied to both bone health and cardiovascular health.
Natto has been made in Japan since the Edo Period (1600-1868). Traditionally it was made by packing cooked soybeans in a bed of rice leaves for then to leave them in a warm place. A bacteria in the leaf, Bacillus subtilis natto, feeds off the beans, and turns them into a slimy ill smelling substance held together by sticky spider-webish strands with an odor that some describe as Oriental limburger. Natto is now made in commercial factories using sterile conditions and clean cultures.
The dominating form of menaquinones in Natto food is manaquinone-7, but it has been difficult to extract this until recent years. One hundred grams of Natto contains approximately 800 - 1,000µg of menaquinone-7, while higher menaquinones are in minor quantities.
One groundbreaking study showing the correlation between Natto intake and osteoporosis was written by group of scientists led by Masao Kaneki at the Department of Geriatric Medicine, University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine in 20011. They measured the level of menaquinone-7 (MK-7) in the blood of people in Tokyo, Osaka and London. People in the Kansai area (Osaka) and London had only about half the amount of MK-7 compared to people in the Kanto area (Tokyo). The only parameter which correlated to this was the intake of Natto. When people from the different regions and countries were categorized according to their age and bone health, the lowest MK-7 serum levels were found in post menopausal women with hip or vertebral fractures. Recent epidemiological research has confirmed that people who regularly eat Natto have a large amount of menaquinones-7 in their blood. The result of this research project was also approved systematically. There is therefore scientific evidence that eating Natto helps to prevent osteoporosis.
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1 Kaneki, M. et al 2001: Japanese fermented soybean food as the major determinant of the large geographic differences in circulating levels of vitamin K2: Possible implications for hip-fracture risk. Nutrition. Vol 17. page 315-321