Article: Raw foodists have low bone mass

[Guest guest]

This is a reminder to me, that medical science does not really

understand how the body works (or how it is supposed to work). So

much of their data is based on unhealthy people on poor diets. Their

models to not reflect how the body on a raw food diet actually works

(of course they have a general idea, but things are different.) They

are forced to take a new look at how the body works.

 

Jeff

 

 

28-Mar-2005

Washington University School of Medicine

 

Raw food vegetarians have low bone mass

 

St. Louis, March 28, 2005 -- Vegetarians who don't cook their food

have abnormally low bone mass, usually a sign of osteoporosis and

increased fracture risk. But a research team at Washington University

School of Medicine in St. Louis also found that raw food vegetarians

have other biological markers indicating their bones, although light

in weight, may be healthy.

 

The study, published in the March 28 issue of the Archives of

Internal Medicine, was led by Luigi Fontana, M.D., Ph.D., research

instructor in medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and Nutritional

Science. Fontana and colleagues studied 18 strict raw food vegans

ages of 33 to 85. All ate a diet that not only lacked animal products

but also included only raw foods such as a wide variety of

vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, sprouted grains and legumes, dressed

with olive oil. They had been on this diet for an average of 3.6

years.

 

The researchers compared them to people who ate a more typical

American diet, including refined carbohydrates, animal products and

cooked food. The groups were matched according to age, sex and

socioeconomic status. In both groups, Fontana's team measured body

mass index, bone mass, bone mineral density, markers of bone

turnover, levels of vitamin D and inflammatory markers such as

C-reactive protein and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1).

 

Those on the raw food diet had lower body mass indices and

significantly 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.

 

" 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 low, their bone turnover

rates are normal. "

 

The raw food group also had less inflammation, indicated by low

levels of C-reactive protein, which is made by the liver as a

response to inflammation in the body. They also had lower levels of

IGF-1, one of the most important growth factors regulated by calorie

and protein intake. High levels of IGF-1 have been linked to risk of

breast cancer and prostate cancer.

 

And in spite of the fact that the raw food group didn't drink milk or

eat cheese, they had higher vitamin D levels than people on a

typical, Western diet. Fontana attributes the vitamin D levels to sun

exposure.

 

FULL ARTICLE:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/wuso-rfv032505.php