The raw food puzzle

Vegetarians who follow a raw-food diet have lower bone density than those who consume a more typical American diet, researchers have found. But those bones might not be weak.

Risk of fracture is linked to bone density and bone turnover -- a measure of how fast a bone breaks down and reforms. According to the new study, raw-food vegans often have a bone density low enough to be diagnosed with the bone disease osteoporosis, but show normal levels of two markers for bone turnover.

“It may be that these people have good bone quality,” says Luigi Fontana, an internist who studies nutrition and aging for the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Fontana’s team studied 18 strict raw-food vegans, ages 33 to 85, who had been consuming a diet of uncooked vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, sprouted grains and legumes for an average of 3.6 years.

The study participants had an average body mass index of 20.5, in the low normal range, while the 18 non-vegan control subjects in the study had an average BMI of 25, which is considered slightly overweight.

Although Fontana does not advocate extreme diets such as the raw-food regimen, he does suggest that people who eat lots of refined foods take a hint from the raw-foodists and eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains.