Does A Raw Vegan Diet Lead To Weak Bones?
From an early age, most of us have been told that we need calcium for strong bones.
We get told that to get that calcium we must drink milk.
Is this correct?
Well, certainly, calcium is a part of our bones but is milk the only place we can get enough of that?
Of course not!
No other animal on the planet drinks milk beyond it’s childhood, and NONE are drinking the milk of another species. Yet they all have strong bones.
We get calcium (and the other components required for healthy bones) in fruits and vegetables, in the same way that a cow gets enough calcium from eating grass.
However, there has been a myth that vegans and in particular raw vegans have weak bones that fracture more easily.
If that was the case, I would really know about it. I’ve been practising martial arts for about 10 years, and 6 as a raw vegan. Having been thrown around and landing on my back, my arms or legs hundreds of times surely if my bones were weak I would have had a fracture by now?
I’ve had conversations with raw vegans who fell off of bikes or were involved in some other accident and couldn’t believe they DIDN’T break a bone.
Recently, raw vegan educator, Don Bennett, shared an article about this. It relates to a study on bone density for raw vegans. The summary says:
“Raw Food Eaters Thin but Healthy
People who follow a raw food vegetarian diet are light in weight but healthy, according to U.S. researchers. It has been suggested that eating only plant-derived foods that have not been cooked or processed might make bones thinner and prone to fractures. But a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that, although bones were lighter on this diet, turnover rates were normal with no osteoporosis.”
Don goes on to say:
“Those on the raw food diet had lower body mass indices and lower bone mass in important skeletal regions such as the hip and lumbar spine, sites where low bone mass often means osteoporosis and fracture risk. But they didn’t have other biological markers that typically accompany osteoporosis and fracture risk.
“For example, it is clear from research that higher rates of bone turnover equate to higher risk of fracture,” Fontana says. “But in these people, although their bone mass is lower than average, their bone turnover rates are normal.”
You can read the whole article here:
It seems to suggest that we don’t need to worry about having lower bone mass as our bones are strong and not prone to fracture or osteoporosis.
As for osteoporosis, isn’t it funny that osteoporosis occurs far more in the countries that drink the most milk?
Think about it.
Stay fruity and keep your bones strong
Ronnie
From an early age, most of us have been told that we need calcium for strong bones. We get told that to get that calcium we must drink milk. Is this correct? Well, certainly, calcium is a part of our bones but is milk the only place we can get enough of that? Of course…