Vegetarian Diet and Bone Health
This feeding is associated with lower bone mineral density, but no cause for clinical concern.
The association between vegetarian diets and bone mineral density is controversial. The debate centers on the possibility that this type of food results in a lower bone mass, as some studies, compared to other investigations that have found no statistical significance in this relationship. The issue concerned because BMD is the strongest and most consistent predictor of fractures associated with osteoporosis.
In Western countries, a considerable proportion of the population has adopted a vegetarian diet that includes foods not found in traditional diets as the best for the formation and growth of bones.
The quality and quantity of ingested nutrients (calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin D, A, K) and the consumption of other dietary elements that promote or hinder the absorption of minerals that nourish the bone, have a significant imprint on health marrow. These factors add up to each individual’s genetic predisposition to develop bone disorders.
The latest review on the possible association between diet and bone mineral density, a controversial issue, is a meta-analysis conducted by the Bone and Mineral Research Program Garvan Institute of Medical Research, picked up this October in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Differences between vegetarian diets
The density of bone is a complex physiological phenomenon that is influenced by multiple genetic and environmental factors.
One of the criteria of this review was to clarify the different concepts of vegetarian diet, since he could have some interesting differences between the consumption of nutrients that serve the bone depending on the type of food.
A range of studies analyzed bone density from four types of vegetarian diets: semivegetarian, which excludes only the consumption of meat as animal feed, lacto-ovo-vegetarian, which also rules out fish, but includes milk and eggs; lacto-vegetarian, which allows only milk and dairy products such as animal protein source, and the vegan diet, which dispenses with all foods of animal origin.
The analysis took into account nine studies, with a total sample of 869 women and 1880 men. The most relevant results revealed that vegetarians had 4% lower bone mineral density (femoral neck and lumbar spine) than omnivores. This parameter was lower in vegan, with 6% less bone thickness.
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