Nutrition and Osteoporosis

Does diet cause osteoporosis?  Can a good diet clear up osteoporosis or mitigate it?  The answers are not as clear as you might think. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14972062

Medical and scientific opinion about the connection between nutrition and osteoporosis has changed over the years.  No one questions that proper nutrition can contribute to good health and reducing the risk of all sorts of illnesses.   Doctors will tell you to consume plenty of calcium but few serious researchers in this field think calcium in the diet will prevent osteoporosis.  The best they will say is that not consuming enough calcium increases the risk of the disease.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8735357

The Mayo Clinic website lists low calcium intake as a risk factor for
osteoporosis. Low calcium consumption is a risk factor alongside smoking and a sedentary lifestyle.  Eating disorders and high alcohol consumption are also risk factors.

An Ohio State University website claims "people with a lifetime diet that is low in calcium and vitamin D have a higher risk for developing osteoporosis."

The Institute of Medicine establishes guidelines for nutrient targets and widely referenced “recommended daily allowances” of many dietary constituents.  The RDA for adults is 1 gram of calcium per day (1000 mg/day).  For women past age 50 and men past age 70 the RDA rises 20% (1200 mg/day).   Good sources of calcium include milk products (all types of milk, yogurt, cheese) and green vegetables (kale, brocolli, spinach).  Some tofus are made with calcium sulfate and hence have lots of calcium and many food products (orange juice, breakfast cereal) are fortified with calcium. Can you take in too much calcium? Yes, but generally your digestive system will absorb a lower percentage of the available calcium as intake rises, so your body corrects somewhat. Really high supplementation of calcium could lead to kidney damage and "calcium deposition" seen in people who abuse antacid tablets.

Will eating a diet high in calcium and Vitamin D prevent osteoporosis? Not necessarily.  Will eating a diet low in calcium result in osteoporosis?  Not necessarily, either.  Epidemiologists have not been able to establish either of those things.  The best they can say is that calcium and Vitamin D consumption reduce your risk for osteoporosis.  And when it comes to treating osteoporosis, nobody says that diet is enough by itself and that high calcium diets will reverse the condition.

The National Osteoporosis Foundation – in their webpage on myths about osteoporosis – list the idea that taking calcium supplements can prevent osteoporosis as a myth.

Other questions of nutrition – consumption of micronutrients – might be good for you, but there is even less evidence that they influence incidence of osteoporosis.

The Alkaline Diet

Advocates of a so-called alkaline diet claim that you can adjust the pH in your body with your diet.  The body is quite well buffered and there are mechanism to maintain the pH within a narrow range.  More sophisticated alkaline diet boosters say the diet reduces the load on the buffering systems and results in less depletion of valuable minerals.  This would include calcium in the bones, which is said to be depleted by a more acidic diet.  The alkaline diet is claimed by some to prevent osteoporosis.

The Journal of Environmental and Public Health published an article recently looking at the question.  It concluded that alkaline diets can result in a higher urine pH and less calcium in the urine, but that "there is no substantial evidence that this improves bone health or protects from osteoporosis".

Manifestations of the "alkaline diet" are often high in fruits and vegetables, and most Americans could probably stand to eat more fruits and vegetables as it is.  There appears to be little science behinds these claims, but a plant-rich diet is said to increase the ratio of potassium to sodium in the body and this is said to keep muscle tissue and reduce hypertension.  Advocates also claim this diet will induce the body to produce more human growth hormone and increase the availability of magnesium in the body that ends up helping various physiological functions.

Considered pseudo-science, the alkaline diet is not seriously considered viable by most dietitians or doctors.

Other

An Egyptian study in rats suggests that olive oil can help slow down bone loss in patients with osteoporosis.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that people in the Navajo nation tend to have lower rates of  osteoporosis than the general US population despite consuming low quantities of dairy products.  An article on their website talks about speculation that the local water supply on the Navajo reservation has high mineral content.

Last updated: Apr 8, 2012