Vegans rattle ideas about bones

WASHINGTON - People who eat nothing but raw vegetarian food can still be healthy, US researchers reported.

Although nutritionists and the food industry have warned that a diet without dairy foods can lead to the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis, the research team at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis found the vegans they studied had many of the signs of strong bones.

"We think it's possible these people don't have increased risk of fracture but that their low bone mass is related to the fact that they are lighter because they take in fewer calories," Dr Luigi Fontana said.

"Because of their low calorie and low protein intake, raw food vegetarians have a low body mass index (BMI) and a low total body fat content. It is well documented that a low BMI and weight loss are strongly associated with low bone mass and increased fracture risk, while obesity protects against osteoporosis," Dr Fontana's team wrote in this week's issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The team studied 18 strict raw food vegans aged from 33 to 85. All ate a diet that included unprepared foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, and sprouted grains.

They had been on this diet for an average of 3.6 years.

The researchers compared them with 18 more "average" Americans. The raw food group had an average BMI of 20.5, while the average group were slightly overweight with a BMI of 25. BMI is a measurement of height to weight, and a BMI of 18.5 to 24 is considered the healthy range.

Dr Fontana, who led the study, expected the vegans to have low vitamin D levels because they avoid dairy products, which are fortified with the vitamin. But in fact their vitamin D levels were "markedly higher" than average.

Vitamin D is made by the skin when the body is exposed to sunlight and is key to keeping strong bones.

"These people are clever enough to expose themselves to sunlight to increase their concentrations of vitamin D," he said.

And the vegans had low levels of C-reactive protein, an inflammatory molecule that is becoming linked with the risk of heart disease, diabetes and other chronic disease. They also had lower levels of IGF-1, a growth factor linked to risk of breast and prostate cancer.

- REUTERS