Posted on 03/30/2005 9:25:56 AM PST by RushCrush
WEDNESDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) -- Vegetarians who eat only raw plant-derived foods have abnormally low bone mass, usually an early sign of bone-thinning diseases like osteoporosis, a new study finds.
But the researchers were surprised to learn that other measures of bone health -- such as bone turnover and vitamin D status -- were normal in the strict vegetarians.
"These people have low bone mass but low bone mass is just one aspect of their risk for fracture," said Dr. Luigi Fontana, lead author of the study, published in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"They had low bone mass, so clinically they are at increased risk for fracture. But some of the other markers, like bone turnover, are normal and it's possible the quality of the bone is preserved," he added.
Still, Fontana, a research instructor at Washington University in St. Louis, emphasized he would never advise people to go on a raw-foods vegetarian diet, in which people eat only plant-derived foods that have not been cooked, processed or otherwise altered.
"It's too extreme," he said.
Fontana's team studied the effects of raw plant-derived eating plans partly because there is a dearth of research on the diets and their impact. He compared the bone density and such measures as vitamin D status in 18 people who ate a raw-foods vegetarian diet for an average of 3.6 years. A control group consisted of another 18 people who ate a typical American diet. The ages of both groups ranged from 33 to 85 and none of the participants was concerned about their bone health, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at allenhospital.org ...
Interesting.
Nonsense. Lanky frame, wide sunken eyes, and boney joints are perfectly healthy.
Make your babies and toddlers grow up vegan, even if they beg for meat!
"Luigi Fontana"? God, what a great name. Any relation to Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders?
You'll never see a veggie in the NFL.
...so, now we know what made Adolph so evil!
Contrast this with the yahoo title 'thin but healthy'
DUmmies are chewey; Freepers are crunchy.
ping.
The vegetarians ate about 1,285 to 2,432 calories a day, with about 9.1 percent of those calories from protein, 43.2 percent from fat and 47.7 percent from carbohydrates. Their intake of calcium and vitamin D was low, 579 milligrams and 16 units, respectively, a day
** spinach and collard greens as much calcium as a glass of milk..with a little carrot to go with it, it's good. Of course their bone mass is low because they're not intaking any calcium. Then again, they're not obese and need to have denser bones.
thanks for the ping...to each his own. PETA has not done the best job of promoting vegan eating as an alternative to meat.
Sounds like a dysfunction...........think Viagra would help?
I would think that vegetarians may be more prone also to a deficiency of complete proteins. To be vegan and to get enough complete proteins, a person would need to consume a lot of nut butter with whole grains, meaning a higher than normal fat diets. Lacto ovo vegetarians have an easier time of consuming lower fat complete proteins, but even then, they lose out on some necessary minerals that can only be absorbed when red meat is consumed.
This is what the science is, not what we want it to be.
An adult man tends to need 62 grams of complete proteins per day.
An adult woman who is fit and under 40 needs about 44 grams of complete proteins per day. As she ages, her protein needs increase also to 62 grams per day.
It's great to have an individualized approach to good health and good nutrition. I agree that diet is not a one size fits all kind of thing. But even if a food contains a nutrient, it doesn't mean that the body uses it.
Vegies are amaciated no energy creeps!
ping after work I'll let you know some of what I do
Who the heck would want to eat a vegan?
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