Vegetarian diets have been found to contain lower amounts of calcium, vitamin D, protein, potassium, and soy isoflavones, which are essential for maintaining bone mass. A random-effects meta-analysis of the effects of vegetarian and vegan diets on bone mineral density (BMD) on the whole body (WB) revealed that vegans have lower bone health compared to omnivores. However, a majority of studies did not show differences in bone health between vegetarians/vegans and omnivores.
The impact of a “vegetarian” diet on bone health is complex, as it includes components such as calcium, protein, alkali, vitamin K, zinc, phosphorus, vitamin B12, and copper. Vegetarians often have lower consumption of these nutrients, which affect bone homeostasis. There is evidence to suggest that there is some increased risk of osteoporosis and fracture with vegetarian, and particularly vegan, diets.
A vegetarian diet has been found beneficial for bone health due to increased phytoestrogens and calcium intake. However, there is evidence to suggest that there is some increased risk of osteoporosis and fracture with vegetarian, and particularly vegan, diets. In the UK Biobank study, vegetarians had lower lean mass than meat-eaters.
Strength training and weight-bearing exercise, such as running and cycling, may help promote bone loss. However, vegetarian food is related to factors that may not support bone health and may help promote bone loss, such as low body weight, low protein intake, and limited exercise.
In conclusion, the impact of a vegetarian diet on bone health is complex and multifaceted. While some studies suggest that vegetarian diets may have a negative impact on bone health, others suggest that incorporating a balanced diet can be beneficial for overall bone health.
📹 New study: do Vegans have weak bones?
New study on bone health in vegans finds vegans have higher bone fracture risk than vegetarians, omnivores or pescaterians.
How do vegans get strong bones?
Plant-based diets provide essential nutrients for building strong bones without the negative health risks associated with milk and dairy products. Consuming nutrient-packed fruits and vegetables, along with regular exercise, can help maintain and build strong bones. Exercise is an effective method for building bone density and reducing the risk of osteoporosis. Five key nutrients to boost bones’ health and strength include calcium, which helps build and protect bones. Aim for 600 milligrams of calcium per day, which can be easily achieved on a plant-based diet.
How do vegetarians get enough calcium?
High-calcium plant-based foods like tofu, fortified nut milks, beans, kale, tahini, sweet potatoes, watercress, okra, chia seeds, and almonds are high-calcium plant-based options. Calcium-fortified orange juices and cereals are also available at supermarkets. For vegans, Hassing offers some of the best calcium-containing plant foods, with almonds being the most calcium-rich, with 75 milligrams per 30-gram serving (about 20 almonds).
How do vegetarians build mass?
To gain muscle and strength, individuals on a plant-based diet should focus on foods with higher caloric density, such as grains, beans, tofu, tempeh, meat and dairy alternatives, nuts, nut butters, seeds, avocados, dried fruit, and more. They can also include plant-based meats, plant-based protein powders, and plant-based protein/energy bars to achieve the necessary caloric surplus. Ensuring enough protein is crucial as it is the building block of muscle and is essential for building new muscle.
Animal-based diets often contain a significant amount of protein, but they are deficient in other essential nutrients like fiber, vitamin C, folate, and potassium. To supplement their diet, individuals can add a protein shake or two to their diet.
Do meat eaters have stronger bones?
A study found that vegans have higher risks of total, hip, leg, and vertebral fractures compared to meat eaters, while fish eaters and vegetarians have higher risks of hip fractures. This difference is likely due to lower BMI and possibly lower calcium and protein intakes. Further research is needed to examine the generalizability of these findings and explore potential heterogeneity by factors like age, sex, menopausal status, and BMI. Future work could also investigate biological pathways, such as serum vitamin D, vitamin B 12, or IGF-1, or assess the roles of other nutrients in animal-sourced foods.
Can you rebuild bone density?
Diemer emphasizes the importance of maintaining bone density in women, particularly those with low bone density. To prevent rapidly thinning bones, postmenopausal women should consume 1, 200 milligrams of calcium and at least 400 IU to 600 IU of vitamin D daily. Calcium builds strong bones, while vitamin D aids in calcium absorption. Although regaining youth bone density is impossible, these lifestyle steps can help maintain better bone health.
How can vegans get 1000 mg of calcium a day?
Calcium is a vital mineral that can be obtained from a variety of plant-based sources, including leafy green vegetables, broccoli, tofu, tempeh, tahini, almonds, black beans, oranges, seeds, and blackstrap molasses. Additionally, it is present in a number of vegan foods.
Is 7% bone mass good?
Body metrics testing is a method that uses ideal body weight formula data to understand an individual’s entire body composition, including body fat percentage, bone density, water composition, and muscle mass. BMI, or body mass index, is used to calculate body fat metrics, which should be around 18-24% for men and 25-31% for women. Normal bone mass should be 3-5 percent, and body water percentage should be between 45 and 65 percent.
Variations in these numbers can indicate a person’s predisposition towards certain diseases, such as diabetes, kidney disease, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension. Therefore, body metrics testing is crucial for assessing overall health and well-being.
How do vegetarians get thick?
A vegetarian diet can be low in calories, but it can also lead to weight gain if high-calorie foods are consumed, such as sweetened beverages, fried foods, and sweets, or if portion sizes are large. Vegetarian recipes, like soy hot dogs, soy cheese, refried beans, and snack bars, can be high in calories and fat. A balanced diet and regular physical activity are crucial for weight loss. A vegetarian diet can improve heart health, reduce colon cancer risk, prevent Type II diabetes, reduce asthma symptoms, lower blood pressure, and improve bone health.
How can a skinny guy bulk up fast vegetarian?
To bulk on a vegetarian diet, aim for 0. 7 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight or more, using plant-based options like tempeh, tofu, seitan, beans, lentils, chickpeas, and plant-based protein powders. Calculate your fat percentage between 0. 25 to 0. 5 grams per pound of body weight. Fill in the remaining calories with carbohydrates, as protein and carbohydrates provide 4 calories per gram, while fats provide 9 calories per gram.
Are thick bones genetic?
Bone mass is determined by volume and apparent density mass per unit external volume. Genes control about 60 to 75 percent of the variance in peak bone mass/density and a smaller proportion of the variance in rate of loss. Genetic influence on bone mass/density is mediated in large part by body size, bone size, and muscle mass. Most of the fifty-fold increase in bone mass from birth to maturity is due to bone growth, which is linked to muscle growth and bodily growth. Three-D apparent bone density in vertebrae increases about 15 during the pubertal growth spurt.
The genetic potential for bone accumulation can be frustrated by insufficient calcium intake, disruption of the calendar of puberty, and inadequate physical activity. The growing skeleton is more responsive to the osteotrophic effect of exercise, mediated by the detection of deviations from a target value for strain and orchestration of cellular responses that restore the target value, processes collectively termed the mechanostat.
The genetic determination of bone mass is mediated by two classes of genes: the first regulates growth of the body, including muscles and bones, under the control of a master gene or set of genes whose products function as the sizostat, and the second regulates the increase in apparent bone density in response to load bearing, under the control of a master gene or set of genes whose products function as the mechanostat.
📹 New Study: Vegan Bone Density is the Same. What’s Going On?
Whole body bone mineral density and t-score results raise questions about previous research. – Links and Sources – Support Me …
As an almost 60 year old woman, I heard that Dr Greger said that jumping on one leg at a time 50 times a day builds up the bones of the hip, where the majority of very serious fractures happen. Having a BMI between 21 and 22, I am more at risk of low bone density. So I started to jump on one leg and it is fun ! Hopefully it works in the long run ! Thanks Mic !
Bone density is caused by use more so than nutrition. For instance, a vegan who gets barely enough calcium, and uses their body will have a higher bone density than a meat/dairy eater who eats twice as much calcium, but is sedentary. It’s the same as muscle density. You don’t gain muscle density by eating protein. You gain muscle density by performing weight-bearing exercise in conjunction with an adequate diet. If you eat double the calcium required, you will have lower than normal bone density if you are completely sedentary. Likewise, if you eat double the protein required for muscle growth, you will gain exactly zero lean body mass if you don’t also perform weight bearing exercise. This is a conversation I’ve had with my mother in law who fell on her ass on my lawn and broke her hip. She started gobbling calcium, and it made no difference because she refused to do weight bearing exercise.
Our Doctor – not a vegan 🙂 – was concerned about my husband’s bone density, he is 71 and has been vegan for 6 years. We got the results last week and her reaction was “The bone density results were excellent”. Before the scan he was asked “Do you have any dairy? Where do you get your calcium from?” and she seemed a bit sceptical that we could get what we need from our vegan way of eating. We have both had our annual blood tests done and everything is excellent. We are very happy with our WOL. 😍
Six years ago, after being vegan then for 39 years, I was thrown heavily during wrestling training. My left shoulder was damaged but there were no breaks anywhere. My left shoulder often suffers from subluxations due to a long fall during childhood. Also, a couple of times a few years before that my doorway pull-up bar gave way and I fell on my back. No damage. So I think my bones must be on the strong side.
None of these studies seem to take into account medications people have used that can also contribute to osteoporosis. I have been vegan since 2000 yet was recently told I have osteoporosis (based on a Dexa scan), and when I was in my 20s, took medication that I just learned can lead to osteoporosis. Thanks for sharing this study with us.
My bone density got stronger while lifting weights.i haven’t checked it in a couple of year’s. I didn’t realize it could change density overtime. I was vegan for 4 years at that point. Recent times I do have sore hip but I was doing a lot of high intense sport that increases the likelihood of injuries. Both skate parking and rollerdeby.
Woot! Good news for vegan bone health! Thank you, Mic, for always putting in the time and effort to thoroughly research a topic, so we don’t have to. You have mad research skills! I am a 54-year-old woman, vegan for going on 17 years, post menopausal, low BMI, so might I have a lower bone density (taking veganism out of the equation?) Probably, but that’s actually a natural occurrence, I’m no longer of child bearing age when everything is at it’s “thickest”. I just recently experienced the only fracture I’ve ever had in the lower Fibula bone close to my ankle, a Hairline Stress Fracture caused by overuse, repetitive movement, and a slight pronation, which I acquired as a runner. I run 4 miles every single morning and have for almost 5 years. The good news? My bones healed on their own… in 3.5 weeks! I was back to a scaled back run in 3.5 weeks, my podiatrist was surprised that my bones healed as well and as quickly as they did. And, I attribute the cause of the fracture (which is not an uncommon condition in dedicated runners who put in the miles every single week) to having switched completely to “barefoot, minimalist” running shoes two years prior. I was road running with absolutely no cushioning under my foot and heel, and I had recently changed my gait to running more so on the forefront of my feet, my feet didn’t like that and neither did my ankle as it turns out. I have since changed my running footwear to Altra running shoes with pronation correction. So, my bones at 54 healed faster than my podiatrist would have expected, and I was back to running sooner than people younger than myself often do with the same injury.
I’m not a scientist, can someone explain to me if the fact that “Compared to RMEs, vegans were significantly younger, a smaller proportion were retired, and they were following dietary patterns for a shorter duration” (as written on the paper “Bone mineral density and body composition in Australians following plant-based diets vs. regular meat diets” could be the factor responsible for vegans having better bone health than the others?
I think getting vegan Vitamin K2 (with Calcium supplement) help in increasing Bone density who have (Vegan) lower bone density…Any physical activities will help too. I do think Vegans must supplement with K2 just like B12, D, iron and omega 3 algae supplement because these vitamins are missing our regular food or sometimes we don’t get enough iron with greeny leaves which won’t digest properly.
i tried to eat red meat and midnight wake up with pain in my knee. The next day i tried to eat fish and the same thing happend. The third day i tried to eay whole grains with beans and rice with one slice of cheese without vegetbales and yes no more pain. My conclusion is : eat whole grains, some beans or lentiles that suits you, rice, and a little bit of yellow cheese that can smelt in the microave. No green vegetbales, no meat no eggs