VEGETARIANS AND VEGANS
DID YOU KNOW, WITH YOUR MEAT–FREE DIET, YOU ARE STARVING YOUR BONES OF PROTEINS?
“But I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.” - Wm Shakespeare
I have vegetarian and vegans in my family. No question, their diets are environmentally sound and very healthy. I hate to give my relatives and readers bad news about their diet, but I need to let them know that they are starving their bones of protein. This ends up making their bones brittle and easy to break. But then, knowledge is strength, and knowledge enables you to make right decisions about things in life right away.
A British research group collected data (between 1993 and 2001) about the effects of diets on health and behavior of 54,858 people and with an average age of 50. They categorized and grouped people according to their diet as follows:
Meat Eaters: 29,380; Pescatarian (only fish eater): 8,037; Vegetarians: 15,499; Vegans: 1,982 (who consume no meat, fish or dairy products).
They followed these groups for 18 years and recorded the number and the location of bone fractures on their bodies. The study controlled for gender, physical activities, smoking, alcohol consumption and dietary supplements. They found that, compared with meat eaters, vegetarians had 9% and vegans had a 43% increased risk of bone fractures. The location of fractures showed that vegetarian and pescatarians had about 25% more of hip fractures. Shockingly, vegans had 50% more of hip fractures and 81% more leg fractures. With dietary supplements, the associations were weaker.
Proteins are bio-physiological mechanisms that drive the behavior of every cell in the body. Proteins are required for tissue maintenance, repair, replacement and function. Our body is able to synthetize almost all the proteins. The basic building blocks for protein are amino acids (AA). There are 20 types of AA in human body but 7 of them can’t be synthesized, de novo. These are called essential amino acids (EAA). Therefore, these EAAs must be obtained from our diet.
Only proteins obtained from animal sources are considered complete proteins, and they contain all essential AAs. Proteins from vegetables sources are “incomplete” proteins, meaning that they lack of some EAAs. This presents some nutritional implications for vegetarians and especially for vegans who consume no meat or dairy products. Therefore, vegans should carefully combine different vegetable proteins (e.g., beans and rice) and in addition, they should always take dietary supplements, proteins, calcium, vitamin D and exercise daily to prevent bone fractures, especially when they get older.
