Higher Risk of Bone Fractures Linked to Vegetarians, Vegans, and Pescatarians

Healthy Diets are linked to a more functional and efficient process of one's body. Numerous diet programs are in the limelight that promises weight loss and better body performance such as Ketogenic diets which change one's lifestyle completely and indulging in a very strict program.

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Diets that change the entire lifestyle of an individual like vegan, vegetarians, and pescatarians make you turn the other way of your usual eating habits and exposed you more to healthy foods. According to a collaborative study by the University of Oxford and Bristol, UK researchers discovered that vegans who have a lower intake of calcium and protein, have a 43% higher risk of getting fractured bones in the body, and site-specific fractures of the hips, legs, and vertebrae.

The release furthers that vegetarians who ate fishes but not meat have a higher risk of hip fractures compared to people who eat meat. However, the release notes that Body Mass Index (BMI), dietary calcium, and protein were taken into account, the risk factors were partly reduced.

Methods And Results Of The Study

In the release, Nutritional Epidemiologist from the Nuffield Department of Population Health in the University of Oxford, and lead author of the study, Dr. Tammy Tong said that the study is the first comprehensive research on the risks of both total and site-specific fractures in people from different diet groups.

She also added in the release that they were able to find that vegans have a higher risk of total fractures which brings to 20 more cases for every 1000 people over a 10-year period compared to people who consume meat. She emphasized that the biggest differences are for hip fractures which makes the vegans with 2.3 times higher risks compared to people who eat meat, making them 15 more cases per 1000 people over 10 years.

The release also explains that aside from vegans, vegetarians, and pescatarians that higher risk factors for hip fractures, they also emphasized that vegans have a higher risk of leg fractures and other main site fractures.

The release furthers that the authors were able to observe no significant differences in risks between diet groups for the arm, ankle, and wrist once BMI was taken into consideration. The authors also highlight that differences in risk of total and site-specific fractures were reduced by BMI, dietary calcium, and dietary protein intake when taken into consideration.

Experts Recommendation

According to Dr. Tong in the release, past researches have demonstrated that BMI is associated with a higher risk of hip fractures, and low intakes of calcium and protein have both been linked to inferior bone health. She added that individuals who partake in vegan diets and has a lesser BMI, and lesser calcium and protein intake have higher risks of fractures on different sites of the body.

The researcher added in the release that more studies are needed from different populations such as European populations, and associates with a bigger proportion of men to dive into differences in risk by sex.

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