I've been saying for a long time that getting your antioxidants by eating healthy foods is the easiest, most natural way to fight against free radicals in your body and prevent damage from oxidation. Antioxidants are a necessity to every diet because no matter how healthy a lifestyle you lead you will be exposed to free radicals.

So it's no surprise to me a review of research between 1994 and 2002 by the American Heart Association (AHA) found that antioxidant supplements largely have no effect on preventing or treating cardiovascular disease.

I have never been an advocate of supplements, however, vitamin K is one of the few supplements you should seriously consider. It is absolutely essential to building strong bones and preventing heart disease, but it is often "the forgotten vitamin" that many people do not get nearly enough of on a daily basis through the foods they eat.

Vitamin K's major benefits include:

• Improves bone density, serving as the biological "glue" that helps plug calcium into your bone matrix
• Helps you prevent and fight osteoporosis, a disease that affects more than 25 million Americans, mostly postmenopausal women
• Aids in preventing hardening of the arteries, or arterial calcification
• Helps prevent atherosclerosis (coronary artery disease) and heart failure

Vitamin K does occur naturally in dark green leafy vegetables like collard greens and spinach and in fermented foods like natto, a fermented soy product, so if you eat a diet rich in these foods you can get a healthy amount naturally. However, as I mentioned above, most people do not eat nearly enough of these foods to gain the optimal amount of vitamin K.

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