Vegans and bone health: It’s a controversy that isn’t going to go away any time soon. Studies on the topic have been conflicting and the sample sizes have been small, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions.
So, to get a better idea about the effects of vegetarian and vegan diets on bone health, researchers from Vietnam and Australia combined the results from existing studies into a meta-analysis. (A meta-analysis is kind of like a big statistical study of all the individual studies, and is stronger than a simple review.)
They found that vegans had slightly lower bone density than meat-eaters. How much lower? Well, not enough to matter according the researchers. While news outlets reported that “vegetarian diets weaken bones,” that’s not at all what the researchers said.
What the research really showed
First, all of the studies included in the analysis were observational—the type of study that shows which factors occur together, but doesn’t show cause and effect. In fact, the researchers noted that “no cause-and-effect relation between vegetarian diets and bone mineral density can be drawn from the findings.”
Second, they concluded that the magnitude of the difference was too small to have clinical relevance. That is, vegans were no more likely to experience bone fractures than anyone else. Overall, the press was a whole lot more excited about these findings than the researchers themselves were!
Vegans and calcium
Other studies have found that when bone density among vegans is lower, it is simply due to lower calcium intake. That means that some vegans don’t pay enough attention to good calcium choices. It doesn’t mean that vegans can’t get enough calcium. Boosting calcium intake on a vegan diet is easy. And plant sources of calcium have some additional benefits for bone health.
Based on the available evidence, there is no reason to believe that vegans who eat a well-balanced diet are at greater risk for osteoporosis than anyone else.
To all our Vegans, you can have the best fruit and vegetable sources of calcium such as follows:
Source: Virginia Messina, MPH, RD
So, to get a better idea about the effects of vegetarian and vegan diets on bone health, researchers from Vietnam and Australia combined the results from existing studies into a meta-analysis. (A meta-analysis is kind of like a big statistical study of all the individual studies, and is stronger than a simple review.)
They found that vegans had slightly lower bone density than meat-eaters. How much lower? Well, not enough to matter according the researchers. While news outlets reported that “vegetarian diets weaken bones,” that’s not at all what the researchers said.
What the research really showed
First, all of the studies included in the analysis were observational—the type of study that shows which factors occur together, but doesn’t show cause and effect. In fact, the researchers noted that “no cause-and-effect relation between vegetarian diets and bone mineral density can be drawn from the findings.”
Second, they concluded that the magnitude of the difference was too small to have clinical relevance. That is, vegans were no more likely to experience bone fractures than anyone else. Overall, the press was a whole lot more excited about these findings than the researchers themselves were!
Vegans and calcium
Other studies have found that when bone density among vegans is lower, it is simply due to lower calcium intake. That means that some vegans don’t pay enough attention to good calcium choices. It doesn’t mean that vegans can’t get enough calcium. Boosting calcium intake on a vegan diet is easy. And plant sources of calcium have some additional benefits for bone health.
Based on the available evidence, there is no reason to believe that vegans who eat a well-balanced diet are at greater risk for osteoporosis than anyone else.
To all our Vegans, you can have the best fruit and vegetable sources of calcium such as follows:
- Cooked collards contain 168 mg per 1/2 cup
- Cooked kale contains 103 mg per 1/2 cup
- Cooked spinach contains 84 mg per 1/2 cup
- Cooked broccoli contains 68 mg per 1/2 cup
- 1 medium raw carrot contains 27 mg
- 1 medium orange contains 60 mg
- 1/2 cup of chopped dates contains 26 mg
- 1/2 cup of raisins contains 22 mg
Source: Virginia Messina, MPH, RD
No comments:
Post a Comment